Last week the Arlington Parent Coalition (APC) contacted Dr. Gregg Robertson, principal at Washington-Liberty High School, after learning from a student there that kids from the school’s Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club have been giving gender and sexuality presentations during health classes, and in at least one case in Spanish during a HILT (High Impact Language Training) class for immigrant students. Following is the unedited chain of communications in the left column, with commentary added in the right column. APC’s letters are in blue; Dr. Robertson’s responses are in yellow; Deborah DeFranco’s are in orange. (Please note that links in the images below are not active. See the end of this post for links to important information.)
(APC's letter is continued below. Links to the Yorktown slides mentioned above are here.)
While we would like to give APS every opportunity to address our concerns, this issue has been in play for two weeks, and we have not received an adequate answer to even one of our questions. Because we do respect all of the parents who send their children to APS, we felt it was important to keep everyone up to date on APS administrators’ response to the unacceptable situation of student-activist club members being given a platform to coerce other students into behaving according to the student-activists’ preferences.
It is inappropriate for GSA clubs to contribute to Family Life Education programs in any way.
Because we have seen APS show no good-faith efforts to consider the perspectives of parents who disagree with APS behaviors or policies, APC strongly suggests that Arlington parents:
Contact your children’s teachers, principals, administrators, and school board to let them know that you expect to be heard, respected, and deferred to with respect to your child’s education.
File Universal Opt-Out Letters for each of your children to let APS know that you do not agree to your children learning about sexuality and gender from APS’s one-sided viewpoint.
Consider alternatives to APS if you are unwilling to take a chance on your child being taught sexual mores and gender ideologies that may differ greatly from your own.
Share with your social networks (Facebook, NextDoor, your neighborhood listservs) the following information about what is happening in APS:
Partnering with you to protect Arlington’s children,
Arlington Parent Coalition