Parents in Granby, Connecticut, are furious after elementary school students were shown a video discussing gender identity and sent home with puberty kits.
Parents at the Wells Road Intermediate school say their 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders were shown the video, in which children discuss identifying outside the gender binary and wave pride flags around.
‘Pride means you should be able to be free. All my life I never really felt like a boy and I don’t really feel like a girl. So I’d rather be both,’ says one child in the video called Simon who identifies as he/they.
Many parents believe their children are too young to be learning about these topics and claim they were not warned about the Pride month programming in advance.
One parent shared that their child were given puberty kit, and also claimed her son had been sent home with pantiliners and maxi pads.
Another parent, Kyle Reyes, who has four kids under the age of nine, has decided to pull them out of the Granby School District.
‘These are conversations that if anyone is going to have with their kids it should be the parents having with their kids,’ he told Eyewitness News 3.
‘When I saw the video I was extremely disturbed,’ he said, adding that ‘parents are starting to come out of the woodwork and it’s time to start fighting back.’
The outlet showed the video to a mother at the school pickup line on Monday afternoon, who reacted with some trepidation in terms of the subject matter.
‘They needed to get parents’ permission to show their children that,’ she said. ‘We should’ve been told so we can have a conversation at home and not be thrown off guard this way.’
Stephen Davis, who was picking up his eight-year-old granddaughter said: ‘There was nothing warning us. They don’t have to worry about being an adult when they’re eight-years-old.’
The school superintendent’s office is now handling concerned calls from parents.
The office, headed by Dr. Jordan Grossman, claims the video is designed for two-to-twelve-year-olds.
In a letter sent home to parents, the Wells Road principal wrote that the intention of showing the video was not to ‘alienate or disturb any child.’
‘In context, we were trying to remind students that it is okay to be who you are and still be treated with respect and dignity and kindness.’
The letter did not address the concern that parents were not forewarned that their children were going to be shown a video about featuring such content.
Both the Wells Road principal and superintendent have been contacted for comment.