Teacher fired for telling parents of daughter’s ‘transition’

By Bob Unruh

(Photo by Abigail Keenan on Unsplash)
(Photo by Abigail Keenan on Unsplash)

A schoolteacher who shared with parents a statement from their daughter about her purported gender “transition” was fired for the communication, according to a report from Just the News.

That’s even though the parents had told the school district not to have any gender-oriented conversations with their daughter, and officials refused to cooperate.

The report said the case now is the focus of a lawsuit against the district by multiple parents.

It was parents Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri who learned the school in Ludlow, Massachusetts, also was treating their son as a girl in accord with his wishes, according to their complaint against several current and former district and school officials for violating their parental rights.

Interim Superintendent Lisa Nemeth told Just the News the district had no comment.

But the report explained how Baird Middle School teacher Bonnie Manchester started a GiveSendGo fundraiser more than a year ago when she was first put on paid leave for notifying the girl’s parents of her gender transition.

She has not yet filed litigation against the school, but her lawyer said it was being considered.

Just the News explained, “While it’s increasingly common for districts to implement procedures to socially transition students without parental notification, Ludlow’s alleged actions stand out for violating a direct request from parents and making an example of a whistleblower.”

The report explained how “B.F.,” the daughter, was coached by the school, which initially contacted the parents. But when Foote and Silvestri instructed that their daughter was getting professional help and school officials must not have conversations with her on the topic, school officials declined to comply even though they had promised to obtain parental consent moving forward.

Shortly after, “School counselor Marie-Claire Foley told her teachers to hide this information from Foote and Silvestri, and a week later reiterated the directive to staff,” the report said.

But Manchester forwarded an email from the daughter concerning the situation to her parents.

When the parents confronted school officials, Manchester was put on leave for “inappropriate communications” and she was terminated shortly after.

WND reported when the legal action developed it was the Massachusetts Family Institute that brought the case on behalf of two families.

A commentary at PJMedia described the situation as a “groomer school” where officials coached children into transgender ideologies while hiding their actions from parents.

The institute said it is working with the Child & Parental Rights Campaign on the lawsuit on behalf of two Ludlow families against public school officials there.

“The families are suing for violations of their parental rights stemming from a district policy prohibiting school staff from sharing information with parents about a student’s discordant gender identity and efforts to promote that identity in school. In the case of one of the families named in the suit, school officials were actively transitioning their 11-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son without their parents’ knowledge and against their wishes,” the group confirmed.

The organizations said in a statement that school officials were told by the parents not to speak to their children about gender identity, but actively “dismissed” the instructions and “not only continued having such conversations with their daughter, but began addressing her in school by an alternative name and pronouns.”

School staff members used the girl’s real name only in communication with her parents, “intentionally concealing their affirmation of her gender transition at school.”

Commentator Megan Fox at PJMedia explained Vernadette Broyles, general counsel of CPRC, said, “We are seeing this type of concerted effort by school officials across the country. School officials are making decisions about the lives of children that they are not qualified or authorized to make and doing it without telling, and often deceiving, parents.

“This is a clear violation of the parents’ rights to control the education, health, and upbringing of their children.”

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Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.


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