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.”
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
Harbingers Daily previously reported on parents in Florida and Wisconsin filing lawsuits against school officials for pushing their children toward identifying as the opposite sex without their knowledge or consent.
In Tallahassee, parents were shocked to learn that the school had a secret meeting with their daughter (13 years old) about her “gender transition.” The young girl filled out a form, provided by the school, which asked if her parents were aware of her transition, and if not, asked her to describe what privacy “considerations must be accounted for in implementing” the “plan” to keep her parents in the dark.
The form then further asked whether the young girl would be more comfortable rooming with males on overnight trips, what pronouns she would prefer, and what bathroom she would like to be using.
“They are really pinning the child against the parent and that’s what was so profound to me,” said January Littlejohn, the 13-year-old girl’s mother. “There was not just one person in the meeting with my daughter but three school officials had her in a room, by herself, completing this guide with her and this is being done, not only in our state but all over America. This is a really significant issue happening that parents are in the dark about. Parents need to find a voice and stand up for parental rights before they’re completely gone.”
“This is a national agenda to drive a wedge between parents and their children because somehow public school officials have taken the position and have somehow come to believe that they know better than parents and that children are nothing more than the mere creatures of the state,” Vernadette Broyles, president and general counsel at Child & Parental Rights Campaign Inc. added. “This case is to establish that children belong to families and that parents are the rightful adults to be making these decisions about what’s in their child’s best interest.
Ken Ham recently explained that parents must understand the reality that “LGBT activists are out to capture your kids.”
They want homosexuality and transgenderism to appear “totally normal to help ensure the next generation doesn’t bat an eyelash” at immorality, Ham underscored. “It’s part of desensitizing children to sin—and encouraging them to engage in [these] sins themselves.”
“Sin isn’t loving, it isn’t romantic, and accepting,” he insisted. “It only leads to more pain and brokenness. It’s all a part of the devil’s attack on the family and an undermining of God’s Word and the Christian faith.”
“Children (and adults) need to be directed, not towards their sin and those who will come alongside and celebrate their sin with them, but towards Christ. Christ is the one who paid the penalty for our sin and it is the Holy Spirit who gives us a new power to say ‘no’ to sin and live in holiness. And He promises that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5b).”
Furthermore, through the Bible, we know that the fight for parental rights is incredibly significant. God gave parents the critical responsibility of raising and guiding their children. By working to strip parents of their right to properly do so, school boards, legislation, and governments are removing the structure God designed for the family.
Like many other issues, it is important to understand that this battle for parental rights is spiritual in nature. Satan is the author of confusion and deception (1 Corin. 14:33, 1 Peter 5:8, John 8:44) and he is patently aware that children are the most susceptible, especially once separated from the protection of parents.
The impressionable and venerable nature of children is precisely why Jesus harshly warned those who attempt to cause them to sin:
Matthew 18:6 KJV – “But whoso shall offend [cause to sin/stumble] one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”
The fourth commandment God provided to Moses, instructs children to “honor” their “father and mother” (Exodus 20:12, Eph. 6:1-3). By encouraging children to intentionally deceive their parents, school officials are placing a stumbling block in front of children to violate this God-given commandment.
In 2 Timothy chapter three, the apostle Paul provides a list of characteristics that would describe what mankind would be like in the time prior to Jesus Return. Included in this list is an increasing “disobedience to parents.”
2 Timothy 3:1-2 KJV – “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents…”
Who would have thought this “last days” disobedience would be embedded in children primarily by those hired to educate them.
