By Tamra Farah for The Gazette
Some have heard the horror stories coming out of Colorado K-12 government schools particularly when it comes to identity. Colorado may be considered one of the most radical states in the nation with its malevolent agenda to remake other people’s children. It makes me want to rename the movie Rocky Horror Picture Show of 1975 to the real-life Rocky Mountain Horror Picture Show of 2023.
The perpetrators and prognosticators of this madness are highly entrenched and well-funded. We’ve got teachers’ unions training teachers with techniques to push transgenderism and so-called gender options under the guise of supporting those who choose it. There are nongovernment organizations, like Bill and Melinda Gates and the Kellogg Foundations and CASEL Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, pumping woke cultural and critical theory-based curricula into the classroom funded by the US Ed Department. Abandoned is a focus on objective truth-based and rigorous academics as classrooms are transformed into training camps for social justice warriors. By the way, objective truth happens to be critical to the scientific reality that there are only two sexes according to the DNA in every cell of our bodies.
Another program seeping into Colorado schools like a cloud of poisonous gas is the Queer Endeavor program. Under the guise of helping kids sort out their “gender dysphoria,” the lessons and exercises themselves, utilizing the power of suggestion, are what confuse kids about “who” and “what” they are. There are numerous incidents in our state and across the nation where this didactic may have led kids to be depressed, suicidal, and in the most tragic incidences, to commit suicide.
We know this was the case for Erin and Jonathan Lee’s daughter in Poudre School District. She was invited by her teacher to attend an art club after school. It turned out to be a Gender Sexuality Club. The kids were told not to tell their parents what they heard at the club.
The leaders asked the young kids what gender they are attracted to (power of suggestion). This was just the beginning of the confusion and stress their daughter experienced. It eventually her to pen a suicide note. Thank God she didn’t follow through. In case it isn’t obvious, discussions around these topics do not belong in front of a chalkboard at school but rather around the kitchen table with families.
In the actual Rocky Horror Picture Show, a newly engaged couple has a breakdown in an isolated area and winds up seeking shelter at the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-n-Furter. In schools, the trend in “transitioning healthcare,” has reached Frankenstein-esque proportions with Colorado taking the lead. Chopping off a young girl’s healthy breasts and more, Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood’s homepage asserts expert care is needed to “avoid problems.” I would wager that the growing number of de-transitioners around the country like Chloe Cole would disagree that avoiding “problems” is possible. Beyond that horror, HB 20 enables psychiatrists to prescribe puberty blockers to kids without parental consent and as of Jan 1, 2023, Colorado is the first in the nation to require insurance companies to cover so-called “gender care” services.
All this focus on turning your kids into something else appears to be destroying its proper focus on academics. According to NAEP, the Nations Report Card, in 2019 37% of Colorado 8th-grade students were at or above proficiency in math and 38% in reading. By 2022, only 28% were at or above proficiency in math and 34% in reading. Can this drop really be blamed on COVID alone? Is the shift in focus in the classroom impacting student performance? We must find these answers.
Parents do not send their kids to school to change their identity, but to help them become all that they were born to can be, and that starts with a solid education. Parents send their kids to school to become proficient in reading, writing, math, and the arts and sciences in the classical liberal arts approach. Parents want their kids to understand accurate history, including key players and events, without slanting the narrative according to false theories. They desire their kids to develop critical thinking skills including logic, debate, and the scientific method. And they also want their kids to become good citizens who embrace the Declaration, Constitution, and real American history. They want them to grow up to live their American Dream in an environment of individual liberty, equal opportunity, and justice for all.
It is about time to get back to this focus and for our civic and elected leaders to stand up for our schools, remove the bad actors and stop production on this real-life horror movie.
Tamra Farah has over a decade of professional experience in policy and politics and recently launched MomForce, the K-12 education initiative at Moms for America, and currently serves as Senior Advisor to ParentsKnowBest.com, the FreedomWorks education reform program. She is on social media @tamrafarah.
