A California mother whose sixth-grade daughter was allegedly recruited by teachers and encouraged to change her name to a boy’s name while being told not to tell her mother is taking legal action against the school district.
Jessica Konen filed a legal claim against Spreckels Union School District, claiming Buena Vista Middle School teachers Lori Caldeira and Kelly Baraki “planted the seed” to convince Konen’s daughter to believe she was bisexual, then urged the girl to believe she was a transgender boy.
The Center for American Liberty, which is representing Jessica Konen, stated, “Teachers encouraged Jessica Konen’s daughter to change her name to a boy’s name as an expression of her new identity and specifically instructed her not to tell her mother about her new identity because her mother couldn’t be ‘trusted.’ Then, they gave her articles—and required her to read them—on how to hide her transgenderism from her mother. Still without Jessica’s knowledge, teachers and administrators created a ‘Gender Support Plan instructing faculty to refer to her daughter by a new name, male pronouns, and to let her use the unisex teachers’ restroom.”
A statement of facts and claims from the Center for American Liberty notes:
Ms. Caldiera and Ms. Baraki operated the Buena Vista Equality Club, a club for students comprised primarily of students that they had identified as potential LGBT+ students. … Ms. Caldiera and Ms. Baraki took measures to keep students’ participation in the Equality Club and new LGBT+ identities—including new gender identities and expression— secret from students’ parents. Specifically, Ms. Caldiera and Ms. Baraki: (1) instructed students that they should not tell their parents about their new LGBT+ identities and expression; (2) failed to keep Equality Club rosters or records so that parents could not discover their children’s participation in the club or new LGBT+ identities through a review of school records; and (3) held Equality Club meetings during lunch—as opposed to after school—so that students, who were too young to drive, could better hide their participation in the club and their new LGBT+ identities and expression from their parents.
Katelyn Pagaran was the Principal of Buena Vista. … Ms. Pagaran was aware of the Equality Club and Ms. Caldiera’s and Ms. Baraki’s tactics as set forth above and approved of them. In fact, Ms. Pagaran often attended Equality Club meetings.
Referring to Konen’s daughter as “A.G.” the statement continued:
For the 2020-2021 school year, A.G.’s eighth grade year, Buena Vista continued remote operations, and if students chose, they could stay remote for the duration of that school year. A.G. chose to be remote for the entire school year. Although distance learning was difficult on A.G. (like many students), there was a silver lining—because A.G. was at home throughout the school day, she was no longer in the clutches of Ms. Caldiera and Ms. Baraki. Freed from their influence, A.G. began to return to her old self. A.G. started high school in the fall of 2021 in a new school district. At her new school, she goes by A.G. and she uses female pronouns.
Jessica Konen, who said that the two teachers gave information to her daughter on how to bind her breasts to keep them from developing, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, “You wouldn’t expect a teacher to be predatorial toward a child. They’re supposed to be trusted. … Their tactics are disgusting.”
In a shocking report, Abigail Shrier, the author of the best-selling book “Irreversible Damage,” revealed that at a late October meeting at a conference of California’s largest teacher’s union, California Teachers Association (CTA), Caldeira reportedly stated:
I’m the teacher who runs our morning announcements….That’s another type of strategy I can give you. I’m the one who controls the messaging. Everybody says, “Oh, Ms. Caldeira, you’re so sweet, you volunteered to do that.” Of course I’m so sweet that I volunteered to do that. Because then I control the information that goes home.
Baraki allegedly informed the teachers how she hoped to “mitigate” parents’ objections, saying, “Next year, we’re going to do just a little mind-trick on our sixth graders. They were last to go through this presentation and the gender stuff was the last thing we talked about. So next year, they’ll be going first with this presentation and the gender stuff will be the first thing they are about. Hopefully to mitigate, you know, these kind of responses, right?” Baraki could be heard on tape telling the teacher audience, “Parents who oppose this material being taught to their sixth graders will find that their objections arrive too late.”