- Target:
- Saline School Leadership
- Region:
- United States of America
Thank you for your support!
Dear Parents and Community Members of the Saline School District,
We hope to send this petition to the leaders of our school district to ask that they not show the controversial YouTube clip “I am Jazz” to our elementary school students. The plan is to show it to all elementary students on Friday Dec 7th. This clip celebrates the experience of a transgender child and recounts his experience becoming a girl. The clip can be found here if you have not seen it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GhPXzQd-uFw
Parents were not made explicitly aware of this YouTube clip showing. The announcement of it was buried in routine emails about weekly news, sent from principals at the school. Nor were parents offered an opt out if they prefered their children not see the film.
Although we disagree with the clip being shown, we encourage kindness and compassion for all students, especially those struggling with gender dysphoria. Please join together and sign this letter to tell the District this is not the best way to expose our children to the idea of transgender.
Dear Saline Area School Leadership,
We are very concerned about showing “I am Jazz,” a movie about a child’s transgender experience, to our elementary school children. As parents, we understand that some people in our community suffer with gender dysphoria, and our hearts go out to those children and families who struggle with this. However, as a district we can teach about kindness and anti-bullying and still respect our community’s diverse beliefs about this topic. This is where the movie clip fails.
Throughout elementary school, children are growing and experiencing many physical and mental changes. It is scientifically unfounded to tell children they could have the brain of a different gender, as the movie suggests. Spreading the message that their brains and their bodies may be wrong for each other is likely to cause unfounded confusion and worry, especially to young children.
In addition, religious establishments in our community teach that God creates children with a defined gender, as boys or girls. The school is not a place where we should intentionally thwart the basic principles of our faith communities. The schools claim to be partners in our children’s education, yet this is a clear example of the school violating that partnership in a serious way.
In the past, the district has always carefully considered how it teaches about gender and sexuality to our children, and parents have always been asked for their consent beforehand. We feel surprised that the district would force all elementary students to watch a movie clip that celebrates being transgender, without being more forthright and without offering the choice to opt out.
Clearly, there are large portions of the community that, in good faith, hold strong positions on both sides of this moral debate. In a situation like this, it is wrong for the administrators of the school district to choose a position and impose their views on the teachers and families who believe differently. It is a serious mistake on many levels to introduce this controversial view of transgender on the whole district. It is confusing to children, contradicts our faith community’s beliefs, and oversteps the school’s role. Please re-consider showing this to every young child in our district.
The Transgender Movie “I am Jazz” petition to Saline School Leadership was written by Afifa Corrigan and is in the category Education at GoPetition.