The New Hanover Board of Education is implementing policies and programs that clearly replace you as the parent of your child.  Most notably is a program that promotes and fosters gender self-identification at all levels of our public schools which is not being shared with parents. 

Founder of Education First Alliance Sloan Rachmuth in an article entitled “More North Carolina Schools Plan to Keep ‘Gender’ Changing a Secret from Parents” states “New Hannover County schools are allowing teachers to hide circumstances where children change their gender at school.”

“The district,” she goes on to explain, “which includes Wilmington and Carolina Beach, developed a ‘gender support plan’ back in 2020 which asks teachers to establish a ‘shared understanding’ about how to support a child’s ‘authentic gender’ at school.”

The article provides a copy of the New Hanover County Title IX “Gender Support Plan”.  The Gender Support Plan offers the following guidance to teachers: “The purpose of this document is to create shared understandings about the ways in which the students’ authentic gender will be accounted for and handled at school.”

To provide you some insights and help clarify the statement “shared understandings about the ways in which the students’ authentic gender will be accounted for and handled at school” we offer the following narrative extracted from the “Gender Support Plan”:

1. Student’s Gender Identity ………… Student’s Assigned Sex at Birth
2. Name Student Uses …………. Name on Birth Certificate
3. Who Will be the student’s “go to” adult(s) at school?
4. Are the parent(s) or guardian(s) aware of the student’s gender status? Yes or No
5. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “not at all supportive” and 10 is “highly supportive” rank the parent(s), guardian(s) support level.
6. If support level is low, what considerations must be accounted for in implementing this plan?

The New Hanover Title IX coordinator Jarelle Lewis said that he “borrowed” the plan from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and then adapted and modified the model for K-12 students. Lewis stated that “schools have a duty to balance parents’ rights against students’ requests.”

These “gender support” plans are popping up across the state, likely because students are being groomed into changing their gender in all K-12 schools through social-emotional learning (SEL) requirements. North Carolina’s SEL provider, CASEL defines the program this way:

“SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel, and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”

Social emotional learning uses several tools to promote gender self-identification in our schools.  One tool that is most often used in the lower grades is the “gingerbread person”.  A graphic of the “gingerbread person” can be viewed at the following here.

We reached out to a member of the current New Hanover County Board of Education to verify Sloan Rachmuth’s article.  That member confirmed that gender self-identification IS occurring in New Hanover Schools and in many cases the parents are not notified.  Both Republican and Democrat members of the board are opposed to this policy.  However, members opposed to this agenda are in the minority and the policy is being supported by the Superintendent of Public Schools.

There is so much wrong with this policy:

1. You as a parent have almost no input as to what is being taught to your child
2. Teachers should not be influencing the developing minds of your children in areas of gender identity
3. A lack of transparency by the Board of Education and Teachers has become the norm
4. Numerous psychologists have reported this and similar policies may be actually harm your child’s development
5. There is no public input as to who composes the Title IX committee
6. First parents were misinformed about Critical Race Theory, now they are being misinformed about gender self-identification.
7. Your children are not being afforded a traditional education. Courses like math, science, history and reading are being ignored. 

What Can You Do to End this Policy:

1. The November mid-term election offers an opportunity to replace each of the progressive Democrat incumbents Stephanie Adams, Judy Justice, and Nelson Beaulieu.
2. You must exercise your right to VOTE
3. You can join our team to help us continue the fight
4. Share this article with your family, friends, and neighbors

When our amazing Republican Candidates are elected to the Board of Education in November, they will ensure these gender self-identification come to an abrupt end in New Hanover County.   We will restore the proper and critical role of parents in their child’s education.  We will focus on  traditional education in math, science, reading, and history to prepare our children to take their place in our society.

Source: Ed First NC