Parents at the Nova Classical Academy in St. Paul, Minnesota got an inkling that something was up when they were told that the school was taking steps to “support a student who is gender nonconforming.”  In an email from the principal of the competitive charter school parents were told that kindergarten students “will listen to various books that celebrate differences and will be teaching children about the beauty of being themselves.”  One of the books would be My Princess Boy, a story about a boy who likes to wear dresses, among other things.

Parents eventually learned that this was being done because there was a gender nonconforming boy in the kindergarten class, a boy who came to school dressed like a girl.

So what would you do?  For me, there would be two areas of concern.  One would be for the well-being of that little boy, whose parents were seeking, no doubt out of love, to do the right thing for him.  I hope God would give me the grace to approach the situation with love foremost in my heart and to pray for him and his family.  I know I would be concerned for his welfare, and that I wouldn’t believe encouraging him to dress like a girl was the answer to his situation.

But I would also be upset and concerned for my own child’s well-being.  I wouldn’t want my child to believe that the body God gave him (and his classmate) might not be “right” for him.  I would not want him introduced to the concepts of transgenderism and gender fluidity.

Many parents at Nova Classical Academy felt the same way.  So far ten students have transferred out of the school, and applications for next year are down significantly for the first time in the school’s history.  One mother explained why she withdrew her daughter from the school:

Our daughter – because she is a normal kindergartner who was raised in a family where we had some social norms regarding biological gender and sex – now she’s asking questions like, ‘How does a boy become a girl when they’re born with a penis?’  She has two brothers, so she’s wondering, how is this possible, as the boy is wearing a jumper and has ribbons and ponytails in his hair.

Another child told her mother, “I think you can choose if you want to be a boy or a girl.”

Four months since the initial email, the situation is ongoing.  According to one parent the school has issued what it calls an “emergency” policy for transgender and gender nonconforming students:

• Boys and girl may wear whichever uniform they want.
• Students requesting access to a bathroom conforming to his or her gender identity will be granted or denied permission on a case-by-case basis.
• Preferred gender pronouns also will be required on a case-by-case basis.

One mother summed up parents’ concerns this way: “If physiologists and medical doctors don’t quite understand gender fluidity, then why do we try to impose this on people who are just trying to figure out how to tie their shoe?  It’s not fair.  It’s not just.”

No, it’s not.