Public shaming is being used in training sessions to coerce teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns

School staff training never grabbed headlines before. But when staff members compare training sessions to a cult experience, it’s bound to raise a few eyebrows.

A staff member at one of the nation’s largest school districts, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), said he participated in a “cult-retreat-like experience” during a teacher training session on using students’ preferred gender pronouns, according to a report from Parents Defending Education.

“Trainers called for us [educators] to raise our hands if we could commit to using preferred pronouns and stand up if we commit to using trans students’ preferred names,” the staffer said, adding that if they didn’t stand up “it was an obvious sign that you’re problematic and bigoted and in the wrong.”

“Pressuring LAUSD employees to adopt language with which they may disagree – and encouraging others to bully, intimidate and silence dissenting views – is appalling,” Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, said in a statement to the Daily Caller.

Critics say school district staff members’ time would be better spent learning more effective teaching strategies for the essentials of reading, writing and arithmetic rather than using mandated training time to discuss preferred pronouns and which bathroom students should use.

“By prioritizing topics like this over students’ mastery of core subject areas, district administrators have shown that they prioritize social issues over learning,” Neily explained.

For this particular training, the Los Angeles Unified School District used materials from the California Conference for Equality and Justice (CCEJ), a nonprofit group aiming to “eliminate bias, bigotry and racism through providing anti-bias education.”

These documents include statements such as: 

• “All students have the right to be referred to by their chosen name/pronouns, regardless of their legal or school records.” 
• “A legal name change is NOT required for unofficial name changes.” 
• “No parent/guardian permission or notification is required for student-initiated name changes.”

Parents who are used to being notified when their child receives a failing grade or has a discipline issue at school may have an issue with not being informed when their child, who is still legally a minor under their guardianship, is able to change their name at school without the parents even being notified.

The CCEJ training materials define gender identity as “our innermost feelings of who we are as a woman, man, both, and/or neither,” which can be demonstrated by “the ways we act,” “our clothing,” “hairstyles,” “makeup use,” “our voice,” “the ways we move our bodies,” and “other forms of presentation.” 

At this particular training, staff members also were given a checklist to use for “transgender” and “non-binary students,” to remind them to ask what names and pronouns the student will use, and to remind them that some students use multiple pronouns or no pronouns at all.

On top of everything else teachers are already supposed to do, they are now expected to remember what name a student has decided to adopt that day, which bathroom a student should use, and which pronouns to use for each student they interact with.

Critics say these requirements may just add more burdens to teachers in a profession already suffering due to employee burnout.