Pennsylvania parents are demanding answers after a “queer witch” was brought into the school to speak to 14-year-olds about dating violence and survey the children on sexual topics.
The controversy began last year when parents at the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District in Chester County found out that Deni Tobin, a “genderqueer” woman who uses male pronouns, spoke to high school students about dating.
Tobin is a “practitioner astrologer and rune reader” with an organization called Prana House, where Tobin regularly hosts meetups for “queer witches.” After she was brought to Unionville High School to give a talk on “safe dating,” the complaints from parents began to flood in.
Parents began reaching out to the school to flag Tobin’s presentation that used materials from pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood, and that her social media accounts are filled with both witch-themed and sexually explicit material — one picture features Tobin topless, showcasing that she had her breasts removed. Tobin’s Instagram bio contains the phrases “BLACK LIVES MATTER,” “heathens against hate,” and “NO TERFS OR SWERFS OR NAZIS IN VALHALLA.”
The district downplayed the presentation and said parents had fallen for “misinformation,” according to emails shared with The Daily Wire. But parents are resurfacing the issue after one parent, Chad Williams, a local lawyer, discovered that Tobin had also administered a sex-themed survey to the students in addition to giving the presentation on dating.
According to summaries of the surveys obtained by The Daily Wire, students, most of whom were 14 years old, had been asked about their gender identity and whether they had ever been “pressured” into a sexual act or whether someone had pressured them to do something sexual.
When asked for comment on the situation, the district indicated that it no longer worked with Chester County Crime Victims Center.
“From 2016-2023, the Chester County Crime Victims Center (CVC) provided lessons on safe dating to students at Unionville High School (UHS),” the school told The Daily Wire. “All presenters from CVC completed required clearances and training to present from a script in schools. The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District’s (UCFSD) policy 235.1 governs the administration of surveys to students. UCFSD is currently investigating whether the Survey policy was followed during these presentations.”
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Williams told The Daily Wire that the survey was administered by the “queer witch” without parental consent. Furthermore, there was no way to know if the organization or the school had followed up with people who had reported pressuring someone or being pressured into sexual activity.
“Several of my children took classes that incorporated the CVC program, yet neither my wife nor I recall consenting to their participation in the required research survey, and we were certainly never told that they would have to respond to personal questions that violate our right to privacy,” Williams wrote in a letter to the school board president, Victoria Baratta, asking for copies of the program’s informed consent documentation.
Williams first flagged the survey when he was going over materials for an educator misconduct complaint he filed last month against District Superintendent John Sanville. The complaint was filed after he said the school district had been stonewalling a public records request on Tobin’s presentation.
Williams believes that the survey itself likely violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Pupil Protection and Privacy Amendment (PPRA).
During the blow-up last year, both Sanville and Baratta stood by Tobin’s presentation, saying it was in line with district policy.
In one email exchange, School Board President Victoria Baratta told one parent that he had been taken in by “misinformation” that was “entirely unfounded.”
“As the administration spent valuable time yesterday and today looking into this accusation, and yours was not the only email, I would greatly appreciate it if you would be willing to go back and correct the misinformation at the source,” she wrote.
Sanville told one parent who reached out at the time that he appreciated “the fact that you have concerns about Deni Tobin,” but that the school determined “after extensive research” that Tobin “stuck to the script” and did not discuss her sexuality or beliefs, according to emails obtained by The Daily Wire.
But now the pair says there is more that needs to be learned.
Baratta responded to one parent on Sunday asking about the surveys by saying that the district was currently “information gathering” and looking into the matter, saying that answers to specific questions couldn’t yet be answered.
Sanville revealed in another email to parents that the survey had been given to students over a seven-year period, meaning that potentially thousands of students have taken it.
Sanville also asserted to another concerned parent that no resources from Planned Parenthood were used in the presentation.
However, videos from CVC’s Facebook page show Tobin and another CVC staff member presenting Planned Parenthood’s FRIES (Freely Given, Reversible, Informed, Enthusiastic, and Specific) sexual consent acronym. This video was allegedly on the same topic for the presentation at Unionville.
Another video shows Tobin going over a wheel of intersectionality that assigns privilege to people if they are white, speak English, or are male.
Tobin did not respond to questions from The Daily Wire. After requesting a phone number, neither Tobin nor any representative from the Crime Victims Center of Chester County have gotten in contact.