Parents are outraged at teacher for being transgendered

[Kanastrous]

And I believe that's questionable policy.

That's all.

[General Zod]

In this specific and singular case, legalities aside, I'm not convinced that's as it should be. I know that shouldn't be difficult to comprehend. I don't agree that the only interests here, are the teacher's interests.

Then justify why it is objectively different or concede the point.

[Vendetta]

Your beliefs on the matter are irrelevant.

And as for how knowledge of a recent gender change could assist with identity fraud, if someone cold calls the school and requests other information from their file which can then be used to, for instance, obtain loans or credit in their name, they could use the knowledge of a recent gender change to help with the social engineering involved in convincing the school to release the information (pretending to be someone like the tax office and implying that it is causing some kind of tax code change, for instance).

If the school had released the information about the gender change unprompted, their liability for the data protection breach would be far higher.

[Mayabird]

This nitpicking about policy is missing the point.

The point, as mentioned at the very beginning, is that these kids have bigoted parents. Kids (especially little kids, elementary school age) don't have issues with these things, because whatever they grow up with, they think is normal. They could be born to herders in Kenya or farmers in Mexico or Charles Darwin, and they will think that herding cows or planting corn or spending long hours dissecting barnacles is perfectly normal and won't be puzzled at all by the facts of their situation (this is a BAD thing for kids born into abusive households, but that's an issue for another thread).

As was mentioned earlier, if you just tell the kids a few simple facts about transgender people, it won't bother them a bit. They're too young to really recognize a difference between their lives and an "outside" that's different (and usually considered bad, or at least weird). It'll just be added to the long list of other things that are perfectly normal, like dinosaurs, space travel, and whatever foods they eat. Everyone knows where I grew up, and even then it took me until middle school to realize that other people would think my favorite aunt's lesbian relationship was some sort of evil, twisted thing. Some women like other women romantically, and some men like other men romantically. Okay. Time to transplant daylilies, which is also totally normal.

I'm not sure what age it changes (though I have little data, I blame puberty) but at some point, people's thinking gets less flexible and less able to accept other things as normal. It takes work and training (and maybe some luck) to stay somewhat malleable, assuming that people aren't actively taught to be inflexible in their thinking. And that's what we're dealing with here. The adults, people who were taught to be inflexible (by not accepting this transgender music teacher) and are trying to teach their kids to be inflexible. Any claims about the kids being confused are about the parents being upset and confusing their kids by telling them that this new fact is bad/wrong/different when they normally think everything is normal/good.

It's not about the kids, at any point. It's about the parents. They have issues with this teacher (because they are bigots). That's what it boils down to: the adults (who just so happen to be parents) don't want to think about something new and different. Everything else is just excuses. You think they'd feel differently if this music teacher was instead the manager of the grocery store? They'd still be freaking out, but they'd have different excuses. There've been stories of at least two people who lost their political positions because of their transition. The only reason they don't directly out and say it is that they've grown up with the "normal" thought that it's not polite to directly state your bigotries (like saying you hate non-white immigrants) but okay if you couch it in more diplomatic language (you don't like...people who don't have Traditional American Values, yeah! That's the ticket!).

And in the course of it, they'll stunt their kids' thinking, just as they have been stunted and now refuse to grow.

[Vendetta]

This nitpicking about policy is missing the point.

The parents' public complaint was that they weren't told. It's not nitpicking to point out the laws which mean that they could not be told, and without doing so it makes their position seem reasonable, even when it really isn't.

Yes, the cause of the problem is bigotry, but that's difficult to expose and deal with, especially when it can pretend to be someting else. Cutting their weaselly little attacks dead in their tracks gives them less to disguise it with.

[Mayabird]

This nitpicking about policy is missing the point.

The parents' public complaint was that they weren't told. It's not nitpicking to point out the laws which mean that they could not be told, and without doing so it makes their position seem reasonable, even when it really isn't.

Yes, the cause of the problem is bigotry, but that's difficult to expose and deal with, especially when it can pretend to be someting else. Cutting their weaselly little attacks dead in their tracks gives them less to disguise it with.

I was aiming that comment more at the people who are trying to claim that the parents had a valid complaint with the, "Oooh, no one told us!" line. "Nitpicking" wasn't exactly the best word there. Defense, maybe?

[CaptainChewbacca]

And I believe that's questionable policy.

That's all.

Your beliefs are irrelevant to the facts of this matter.