UPDATE: NO MATERIALS HAVE BEEN SENT TO ME BY JESSICA OR ADMINISTRATORS IN SAU21:
Hello Jessica,
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me this week about the upcoming teacher training in SAU21. You mentioned that you had sent the materials that you will be using during the training to the SAU prior to our conversation. If those materials, videos, etc. can be sent to me via an email, I would appreciate it.
I know you said that the training would not be open to the public to view. I do think it would help to make this as transparent as possible. I’ve heard from parents who are assuming that there is going to be material or information presented that would be controversial. By making this all transparent, you might be able to address their concerns. A videotaped session posted on the school district website could also be another option to making all of this transparent.
While I do understand that you want to make sure that teachers are in a “safe place” to discuss the LGBTQ children, let’s not forget that those children belong to the parents, and not the teachers. Everything that involves their children, should be made transparent unless there are extenuating circumstances where they’ve gone through due process.
I also hope in the future, you will consider adding experts to these presentations. As we discussed, including someone to offer legal, medical and mental health advice would support our teachers and students. You brought up how this training session saves lives. When I hear that, I think that something like this calls for a non-biased Phd Child Psychologist to be present. Since you are referring to the serious nature of anxiety, depression or suicide, we really don’t know what would save a child’s life. But a Child Psychologist with the education and clinical training would have the background to offer the best advice.
If this kind of training is truly about helping the LGBTQ kids in the schools, then politics has to be removed and those with the best medical, legal and psychological training need to be the ones to help them.
While I am sure that you believe you are offering the best advice possible, sometimes those without expert credentials, either leave important information out of a discussion, or add something that can cause harm. While that may not be your intention, that is why we have experts in those fields who can draw upon their expertise to make sure that the teachers, or the children, are not being put in harm’s way.
For instance Seacoast Outright includes Planned Parenthood as a resource but as you can see from this video from an upcoming film, the young ladies who went through transitioning to become a boy now have regrets. They talk about their suicidal thoughts, self harm and depression. Planned Parenthood prescribed testosterone but didn’t offer them the psychological help they needed. That’s the danger in policizing this important subject. Will our teachers and students see the whole picture, or just someone’s politicized viewpoint?
Nothing on this page includes any information about the warning from the CDC on puberty blockers, or that a hospital in Sweden stopped prescribing puberty blockers because of the physical harm that they’ve caused to some of their patients.
On one hand you acknowledge the self harm, serious mental health issues and that your training saves lives, while at the same time you are telling me that the training doesn’t include any presentations by non political or biased experts in the field of medicine or mental health.
When scrolling through the website, I noted the list of medical resources but those resources have put some of the girls in the video in harm’s way. They did not step in to make sure that these girls were seen by the best physicians and Child Psychologists available. I’m not sure how one can make the claim that these trainings are saving lives.
I hope we can continue this dialogue because I don’t want to see the teachers put in a vulnerable position with their students. I don’t want to see our children shuffled along a path that leads them to regret or even worse, medical procedures that are irreversible.
Nothing on the website includes any videos or information on detransitions or testimony from those who now regret some of the decisions they’ve made. By withholding this information, I’m not sure how anyone can claim that they are helping LGBTQ children.
Thank you again for your time and your thoughtful consideration.
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Ann Marie Banfield
TRUST REQUIRES TRANSPARENCY
