TX Elementary School Celebrates Pride Week With”Confidential” Discussions, Parade

Doss Elementary and all of Austin ISD are celebrating their own Pride Week. As part of this celebration, Doss Elementary is holding “community circles” for PreK through 5th graders. Interestingly, there are rules which have to be agreed to, one of which states,

“Respect privacy. ‘What we say in this room stays in this room.'”

“Please remember that we agreed to keep what happened in this Circle confidential.”

Doss Elementary, TX is holding a “community circles” activity for kindergarten-5th grade for Pride Week. One of the rules is students can’t repeat anything.

What would a teacher be discussing during pride week that she’s worried the kids will tell their parents? 🧐 pic.twitter.com/68uxTkOdTw

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) March 21, 2022

Translation, “Don’t tell your parents.”

They also held a school-wide pride parade, a video of which was posted by the Assistant Principle and subsequently deleted. But the internet is forever.

I knew she would delete it so I saved it. The assistant principal posted this video of a pride parade in school to her Twitter account. pic.twitter.com/GrUdr9V4MS

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) March 21, 2022

After significant backlash, Doss Elementary updated their “community circles” rules so they aren’t encouraging the children to hide things from their parents, in direct violation of their own district rules.

Hi @PrincipalSteen, @hannah_wankel, and superintendent @AustinISDsupt– you might want to take a look at this. pic.twitter.com/Amit726r5Y

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) March 21, 2022

Doss Elementary updated their pride week activity instructions after parent and social media backlash. It now states that students can share information with their parents. pic.twitter.com/JUc3n2BsNl

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) March 22, 2022

None of this is surprising considering their assistant principle and various other school officials seem to identify more as ideological activists and less as educators.

This is the assistant principal… of course… 🤦🏻‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/pHjPwHEy9n

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) March 21, 2022

It’s #PrideWeek & I’m so proud to call Doss Elementary my school! @DossOwls took the #NoPlaceforHatePledge today ♥ If you are finding yourself opposed to our welcoming & kind community, maybe you should read this pledge for yourself & understand what this week is truly about. pic.twitter.com/Fk7BHwgxwK

— Nicole Matheny (@HeyMrsMatheny) March 21, 2022

Happy first day of @AustinISD Pride Week! #AISDPride @PrincipalSteen @CleverCounselor Thank you to our art teachers for helping our students create this awesome mural! pic.twitter.com/tLMcxHgeHr

— Hannah Wankel (@hannah_wankel) March 21, 2022

My son once had a 2nd grade teacher in whose classroom a sexually inappropriate incident occurred. Rather than appropriately informing the parents of the nature of the incident (entirely possible to do so without divulging personal details) so it could be addressed at home by the parents of the children who witnessed it, the teacher decided to just keep the whole thing quiet. Luckily, my son told me what happened and we were able to discuss it. I then wrote an email to the teacher (the only allowed form of communication with the teacher) asking for improved communication between us in the future. She never responded to my email. But my son came home from school the next day to tell me that she had encouraged the class not to tell their parents about bad things that happen at school, and to only tell parents the good things from school. They had been told that if they tell parents the bad things that happen at school, then parents will think school is bad, and the teacher wanted parents to think that school is great.

I disenrolled him the very next morning.

Not only is ideological indoctrination disguised as education dangerous, but so are educators who encourage your children to keep secrets from their parents or guardians. That is a HUGE red flag to every parent, everywhere. Parents teach their children that if someone tells them not to tell their mom or dad about something, they should immediately tell them every detail of whatever was supposed to be kept secret.

Every parent should assume that similar things are occurring in your child’s school, and act accordingly.