Pakistan State Minister For Exemplary Punishment For Child Sexual Abusers
Faizan Hashmi Urdu Point
State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan Wednesday said elements involved in the child sexual abuse should be given exemplary punishment
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News) State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan Wednesday said elements involved in the child sexual abuse should be given exemplary punishment.
Responding various queries raised by lawmakers, he said Prime Minister Imran Khan was also in favor of a stern action against the elements involved in sexually abuse of child.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan had also desired for the development of those areas of FATA had merged into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said enough funds had been allocated for the development of the area.
Five Eyes closes on tech child sex deal
Aussie Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: AAP
SIMON BENSONNATIONAL AFFAIRS EDITOR
The Australian
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will meet security ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence alliance in Washington on Thursday, in a bid to finalise a global agreement that would force Facebook and Google to help shut down live streaming and sharing of child sex abuse.
The top-level forum to be hosted at the White House will coincide with the introduction of a bill today to the Australian parliament that would enact mirror laws with the US CLOUD Act.
This would allow reciprocal rights for both US and Australian security agencies to issue warrants for data held offshore by cloud providers in hunting down terrorists and child sex networks.
Mr Dutton has led a campaign with US Attorney-General William Barr and Britain’s Home Affairs secretary Priti Patel to force the tech companies and online platforms to co-operate with security agencies in stopping the viewing and live streaming of child sex material.
At the meeting it is hoped that a set of landmark “voluntary principles” will be agreed on that will establish systems for online companies to deal with criminal use of their platforms. They will include the threat of forcing the industry to act through legislation if required.
Mr Dutton told The Australian before leaving for Washington that the agreement, if reached, would reflect the government’s expectations of the tech industry.
“Nothing represents the darkest corners of the internet like child sexual abuse,” the Home Affairs Minister said.
“It is here the most unspeakable crimes — the torture of toddlers, the rape of children and the sexualisation of minors — occur. But speak about them we must, because giving a voice to the profound and enduring harm experienced by the victims and survivors of these crimes is critical to stopping them from happening to just one more child.
“When it comes to tackling child abuse committed on online platforms and services, the digital industry has a vital role to play.
“The voluntary principles will help industry optimise these efforts. They reflect governments’ expectations of digital industry, and are scalable and practical to implement across various platforms — from search engines to gaming services to social media networking sites.”
The Five Eyes alliance is a security and intelligence-sharing coalition between Australia, the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand. It is regarded as the most expansive global security agreement.
Mr Dutton has been vocal in his condemnation of the tech giants — Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Roblox, Snap and Twitter — for dragging the chain and rolling out ever more sophisticated encryption that would keep terrorists and child-traffickers hidden from law-enforcement agencies.
At a meeting of the Five Eyes Ministerial Council in Britain in July last year, tech companies were issued a veiled threat that the governments of the alliance were prepared to use legislative means to “compel” the companies.
It was then agreed that a set of voluntary principles be established that would involve a framework and systems allowing tech companies to help shut down the sharing of child abuse material and live streaming of terrorist attacks — such as the Christchurch massacre — on their platforms.
The White House roundtable forum will hear from victims and survivors of online child sex abuse.
Industry representatives will also attend.
Ontario announces $307M investment to take on
human trafficking
'We're going to keep up the fight to protect out kids,' said Premier Doug Ford
Dan Taekema · CBC News
The strategy includes a $307-million in funding, said to be the largest anti-human trafficking investment in the country. (Premier of Ontario/YouTube)
Ontario's government is investing $202 million in new funding to take on human trafficking, and Premier Doug Ford says he's sending a message to criminals — "We're coming for you."
That money will be bundled with $105 million from an existing fund, adding up to a total of $307 million to support survivors and bolster law enforcement over the next five years.
At an announcement in St. Catharines Friday morning, Ford described human trafficking as a "disgusting" industry that profits off the backs of the province's most vulnerable.
"No child should ever live in fear of violence or exploitation," said the premier. "We're going to keep up the fight to protect our kids."
The "vast majority" of that money will go toward survivor support, Solicitor General Slyvia Jones explained, while $70 million will be funding for the justice sector.
As part of the strategy the province plans to do the following:
Create a public awareness campaign aimed at educating children, parents and the public to recognize the signs of human trafficking.
Providing law enforcement with "more specialized Crown prosecution support" for human trafficking, coordination across police services and intelligence gathering in the correctional system.
Investment in "intervention teams" made up of police and child protection services and including human trafficking awareness in the education curriculum as well as creating licensed residences for victims.
Supporting survivors with new funding for community-based supports and Indigenous-led initiatives to provide more services and support through the court process.
This is great that Ford is doing something about child sex trafficking; he deserves cudos for it. The money is badly needed in those sectors and will help in many ways. Unfortunately, I see no preventative measures here. Perhaps they will be part of the new school sex education plan, but it would have been nice to hear about something preventative being addressed here.
It's the largest investment in anti-human trafficking in the country, according to Jill Dunlop, Associate Minister of Children and Women's Issues.
She added that as Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately targeted by trafficking, up to $4 million in funding will be used to support specific resources embedded across the strategy to meet their needs.
Those include Indigenous-led supports for survivors such as counselling, cultural teachings, healing ceremonies and victims services.
The average age of recruitment into human trafficking is 13, according to the government's statistics. And about two-thirds of human trafficking incidents that are reported to police happen in Ontario.
"It could be your daughter, cousin, sister or friend," said Dunlop. "Our government will not tolerate human trafficking."
The premier also promised to take a "hard look" at the legislative tools in place around trafficking and said he has a message he plans to share with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
"Let's get tough on crime. Once and for all. Let's ... put these nasty people in jail and throw away the key."
Nice thought, Premier Ford, but it will not get a second of consideration from Trudeau.
Centre praises 'comprehensive' strategy
In a statement emailed to CBC, Julia Drydyk, manager of research and policy at The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, said the organization is pleased to see investment and looking forward to learning more about the details of the strategy.
The announcement follows round table discussions involving survivors, Indigenous communities and law enforcement over the summer.
One of those consultations included staff from the London, ON, Abused Women's Centre, where executive Director Megan Walker says staff currently work with about 125 trafficked women and girls.
She described the government's strategy as "groundbreaking," adding it speaks to the seriousness of the issue and the province's willingness to tackle it.
The centre focuses on four key pillars when it comes to trafficking:
ensuring survivors have immediate access to services,
advocating for legislation to battle it,
providing a place for women and girls to go and
making sure the public is aware of the issue.
Again, there are no preventative measures mentioned here. I realize it is not the job of the Women's Centre, but the gov't has to see the lack of preventative measures as a significant problem.
Walker said the new strategy is "unique" because it addresses all four of those areas. "I can honestly say in my 23 year-career of working with trafficked and prostituted women and girls ... this is the most comprehensive plan I have ever seen."
The "ginormous" boost in funding also means survivors can be helped right away, something Walker said is crucial.
"What it says to me is that the voices of survivors, those women and girls who have had to live through this, their voices were heard," she added. "That is a really powerful thing to have happened for those women who really risked so much to come forward and share their experiences."
Florida House backs eliminating time limit
in sexual abuse cases
The News Service of FloridaTALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Florida House late Monday voted to eliminate a time limit for child sex-abuse victims to file criminal complaints against their abusers.
On a unanimous vote, the House approved the bill (HB 199), which would remove a statute of limitations for sexual battery cases when the victims are younger than 18 at the time the crimes occurred. The proposed law, however, would only apply to offenses committed on or after July 1.
“Child rape is one of the most heinous crimes that can be committed. We need to allow child victims the time they need in able to come forward,” said Rep. Scott Plakon, a Longwood Republican who is sponsoring the bill. Current law offers victims a patchwork of deadlines in which charges can be filed, depending on the age of the child, when the crime was committed, the severity of the assault and the victim’s age when the alleged assault was reported to authorities.
The push to lift the statute of limitations in Florida came after 23 states approved new laws last year that eased or eliminated the time limit for child sex-abuse claims against alleged abusers or institutions --- such as schools or churches --- with which they were affiliated, according to the advocacy group Child USA. Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, is carrying an identical bill (SB 170), which is ready for consideration by the full Senate.
Match Group first tech company to back
anti-online child abuse bill
AxiosDan Primack, Margaret Harding McGill
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Why it matters: Match, the parent company of major dating platforms such as Tinder, is breaking with the internet industry's leading trade group, which worries the bill could open a wedge for law enforcement to crack into encrypted systems, threatening user privacy.
Context: EARN IT would require tech platforms to comply with government-developed best practices to prevent online child sexual exploitation. If they don't, they would lose some of the liability protections they have under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decent Act.
Axios obtained an internal memo from Match Group CEO Shar Dubey, which explains the decision. It reads, in part:
"As the mom of a teenager, I am constantly thinking about my own daughter’s safety. And as the chief executive of a company that includes some of the world’s leading dating brands — Match, Tinder, OkCupid, and Hinge — I find myself often awake at night thinking about my daughter’s future, her digital footprint and the safety and privacy issues that come with this territory...
That is why Match Group has voluntarily chosen to make all of our platforms 18+. Beyond the age requirement, we vigilantly deploy a network of industry-leading automated and manual moderation and review tools, systems and processes designed to find and remove people from our app who should not be there. This includes both underage users and the bad actors that could prey on them...
We don’t casually lend our support to this legislation. We do it recognizing there is no cure-all to keeping the Internet safe, just as there is none for keeping the world safe. But, even still, we have to do every bit we can. These are complicated problems with many considerations. We must act together in a way that doesn’t hurt start-ups or stifle innovation and new technologies. We must balance concerns around privacy with concerns around safety -— which sometimes can be in conflict. But sensible and innovative solutions can go a long way."
(Update: Match has now posted the full memo on its website)
Yes, but: Groups including the Internet Association are worried the best practices developed pursuant to the bill, should it become law, could include limiting the use of end-to-end encryption.
What's next: Match chief legal officer Jared Sine is the only tech company executive scheduled to testify tomorrow during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on EARN IT.
Also testifying will be IA's deputy general counsel, a law professor from The Catholic University of America, and a vice president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
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NGOs hail Maldives top court ruling on standard of evidence for child sex abuse cases
Local NGOs Advocating the Rights of Children (ARC) and Family Legal Clinic (FLC) on Wednesday welcomed the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court to accept different statements given in a child sexual abuse case, as multiple forms of evidence.
The apex court issued the ruling on Monday when it overturned the High Court's decision to free a man who was convicted of molesting his stepchild. The man was sentenced to 15 years by a Magistrate Court of a southern island in 2016, which pronounced him guilty of molesting his 11-year-old stepchild in 2013. The High Court had annulled the lower court's ruling and acquitted the man last year.
ARC✔
@ARC_maldives
· Mar 11, 2020
Replying to @ARC_maldives
The Supreme Court has now established that different statements used to verify a child’s testimony will be considered as multiple forms of evidence.
ARC✔
@ARC_maldives
ARC hopes that this decision will increase conviction rates, help ensure justice for child victims of sexual abuse and further strengthen the child protection system.
In overturning the High Court verdict, the Supreme Court also reinstated parts of Article 47 of the Special Provisions Act to Deal with Child Sexual Abuse Offenders (12/2009), to lower the standard of evidence required for cases of sexual abuse against children. The court noted that testimonies of minors could be used as evidence if the child statements are credible beyond a reasonable doubt.
Previously, the High Court had raised these standards, stating that corroborating statements by different parties could not be considered as separate pieces of evidence.
Convictions can only be reached when five out of the 12 defined types of evidence in the Act are presented.
During the Judicial Symposium 2020, ARC and FLC delivered a presentation addressing the challenges posed by the High Court decision, and its overall impact on the prevention of sexual abuse of children in the country. Both NGOs called to fully reinstate Article 47 during the symposium.
Shedding light on the situation of Maldives, FLC highlighted that one in three Maldivian women between the ages of 15 and 49, out of the total population of nearly 400,000, have reported physical or sexual violence. Noting that most Maldivians, especially women, low-income workers, disabled persons and the elderly, cannot afford legal representatives, FLC further stated that two-thirds of the population do not have access to legal help as 99 percent of lawyers reside in capital Male'.
Lawyers Gathering in Athens to Aid
Child Sex Abuse Survivors
“None of our clients say we’re just doing this for money,” said Emma M. Hetherington, law professor and director of the University of Georgia School of Law’s Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic. “They're doing this because they want public access to a court of justice.”
By Katheryn Tucker, Law.com
Emma M. Hetherington, assistant clinical professor and the director of the Wilbanks Child
Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic with University of Georgia School of Law.
Survivors of sexual abuse have found some comfort in recent high profile cases that have drawn strength from the testimony of multiple victims: Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein has been sent to prison for sexual assault; Tavis Smiley was ordered to pay PBS $1.5 million for violating his contract’s morals clause; compensation funds are being set up in bankruptcy proceedings against scouting organizations and churches facing litigation.
But none of that is likely to boost recovery prospects for survivors in Georgia and other states that have a tight statute of limitations for civil litigation, according to Emma M. Hetherington, law professor and director of the University of Georgia School of Law’s Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic, known as the CEASE Clinic, “Unless the crimes took place after July 1, 2015, or the victims are currently under 23.”
That makes the clinic’s holistic approach particularly important, she said.
Litigators, prosecutors and social workers will be gathering in Athens next month to talk about what will help survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The CEASE Clinic will hold a conference April 9 and 10 in the Larry Walker Room on the fourth floor of the Dean Rusk International Law Center.
The clinic is the first of its kind in the nation, representing survivors of child sexual abuse in civil lawsuits and juvenile court dependency proceedings and serving as a teaching center. Through a partnership with the University of Georgia School of Social Work, CEASE also provides trauma-informed case management, referral, and advocacy services to clients.
“None of our clients say we’re just doing this for money,” Hetherington said. “They’re doing this because they want public access to a court of justice.”
Sometimes clients will say they know the perpetrator is still volunteering with children for an organization whose leaders don’t know the danger. They want to “make sure other people know,” she said.
Georgia temporarily suspended its statute of limitations for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file civil litigation, but that window has now closed. Efforts have been made and failed in the Legislature to follow some other states in lengthening or abolishing the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse often don’t disclose the crimes until midlife, often when they have children of their own, Hetherington said.
In addition, Georgia law protects institutions—scouting organizations, churches, schools, all of which have been accused of protecting sexual predators and have successfully lobbied the Legislature to shield them from liability. So only individuals can be sued, and most don’t have assets to pay damages, restitution and the cost of therapeutic services it takes to allow many victims to grow strong enough to stand up to abusers, Hetherington said.
Hetherington will speak during a dependency trial discussion during the conference, along with Jennifer Elkins and Sara Skinner from the School of Social Work and DeKalb County Juvenile Court Judge Diana Rugh Johnson.
Plaintiffs lawyers Natalie Woodward of Shamp Jordan Woodward and Darren Penn and Alexandra “Sachi” Cole of Penn Law will talk about child sex abuse and public nuisance claims.
Speakers on the conference agenda include: Patrick McDonough and Jonathan Tonge of Anderson Tate & Carr, attorney Annie McAdams, GBI Director Vic Reynolds, Assistant Attorney General and Human Trafficking Section Chief Hannah Palmquist and Georgia Street Grace Executive Director Camila Zolfaghari.
The registration link is on the CEASE clinic website.
Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
recommends death penalty for child sex abusers
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly’s 13-member special parliamentary committee on Wednesday approved the ‘Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare (Amendment) Act 2020’.
The proposed amendments included capital punishment in the Child Protection and Welfare Act 2010. It also includes enhancing the punishment for sexual harassment from 7 to 14 years in jail along with a fine of Rs. 5 million.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ghani chaired the meeting while members of the opposition and treasury benches from the provincial assembly, along with the K-P Law Department officials, Social Welfare Department and police officials attended the meeting.
Participants of the meeting further proposed that recordings of child abuse convicts being hanged should be shared on the media so that no one can dare commit such dreadful crimes.
The bill will soon be tabled before the provincial cabinet, after which its law will be tabled in the provincial assembly for debate and voting.
Other amendments include:
Life imprisonment for the convict
Anyone found guilty of pedophilic acts should be barred from travelling in public transport and should also be permanently banned from getting government jobs while their names should be included in a specific list.
All teachers at the primary level should be women.
Model police stations and courts will also be set up where child abuse cases can be reported and heard respectively.
The committee will also decide to file a review petition against the ban on public hanging and that public hangings will be requested as part of the sentence for the rape and murder of minors.
Ghani said that the government, through the Social Welfare Department, will advertise awareness messages apart from arranging training programmes for teachers and students on the subject.
Moreover, the assembly speaker said that Pakistan Television’s (PTV) managing director will be requested to broadcast awareness programmes on the subject.
Ghani added topics on child abuse and sexual harassment will be made a part of the curriculum. He added that daycare centres at the offices for working women will also be established so that they can bring their children with them.
These are great steps in the war against child sexual abuse and murder. They are desperately needed, especially in Pakistan. Let's pray that they pass through cabinet and assembly without dilution, and they be a model for the other provinces in Pakistan.
Another difficult choice! Is this story Positive or Negative; only time will tell.
British pianist James Rhodes
drives child abuse reform in Spain
By James BadcockMadrid
James Rhodes: "There is toxic shame that does not finish"
Mr Rhodes, who has written about being repeatedly raped by a teacher as a London schoolboy, is proud that his contacts with the left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and other parties appear to be on the verge of culminating in a law he says will become a "global benchmark" for child protection.
But he is also counting the personal cost of becoming an actor on Spain's turbulent political stage, where not even a law on child abuse is immune from virulent battles between left and right.
'Every week there was another story of child rape, child abuse'
Mr Rhodes, 44, moved to Spain in 2017, and says he immediately fell in love with the country's beauty, culture and language.
"But there was this one thing I could not reconcile, and it was that every week there was another story of child rape, child abuse, not just in the Church, but in schools and families," he told the BBC in his Madrid apartment.
James Rhodes: Life is messy and imperfect
What upset him most was that victims in Spain are let down by a legal system he describes as "centuries out of date", and which requires children to give testimony on multiple occasions in courtrooms and even in the presence of their abuser.
Mr Rhodes contacted Prime Minister Sánchez in 2018, and the Socialist Party leader promised to take action. But amid tension over Catalonia's bid for independence and political instability leading to short-lived parliaments, no progress was made.
Mr Rhodes used social media and Spanish press and television to press his case until Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias, of the Podemos party, announced earlier this month that the Rhodes Law would be one of the new left-wing coalition government's first reforms.
"This law must not only protect boys and girls in our country, but also become a global reference for child protection," Mr Iglesias said.
Pablo Iglesias announced the government's support for the Rhodes Law in February
As well as making it easier for children to report abuse and only having to testify once before a specialised judge, the law will focus on prevention and education.
It will also change the statute of limitations so that these crimes will not expire until 15 years after the victim is 30 years old, instead of counting from the age of 18.
While this is a significant improvement, it is inadequate as many CSA survivors are in their 50s before they are ready to talk openly about their abuse. But if it is necessary to get this law passed, then go for it, and raise, or eliminate the SoL later.
The so-called Rhodes Law is just one of a number of social reforms promised by the Sánchez government, including consent-based legislation on rape and the legalisation of euthanasia.
Euthanasia has nothing to do with child sexual abuse and should not be included in this bill.
But far from uniting Spaniards, these legal changes are coming to fruition in a poisonous political environment.
Conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) and far-right Vox have accused the government of hypocrisy and a cover-up after its left-wing allies in the Balearic Islands refused to back an investigation in the regional parliament into reports of minors in care being prostituted.
What possible reason could there be to resist such an investigation? Other than direct involvement!
PP politician Margarita Prohens said in Congress on Tuesday that ministers like Mr Iglesias were "fighting among themselves to put a name to the child protection reform" while "protecting members of the administration in charge of those girls because they are from the left".
Sexual violence is a major issue in Spain
Mr Rhodes is saddened to admit that the child protection law has "become a political football". But he accuses those seeking to score points of forgetting the victims they claim to care so deeply about.
"If there is any issue all political parties could agree on, it's this one. And if that had been the case, it would have been passed months ago. Had anyone in Congress gone through what I went through, this would have been passed months ago."
While he regrets that the irony in some of his comments on social media has not been appreciated, such as when he described wanting to hit Vox leader Santiago Abascal with a chair, Mr Rhodes says changes that will help millions of children make the exposure more than worthwhile.
"I'm not a poster boy for child abuse. I'm a pianist. But I cannot say I want to be a citizen of this country, which I do, and look the other way when things are so barbaric."
Pianist James Rhodes says we need to talk more as a society about mental illness
Abuse cases 'tip of the iceberg'
According to Save the Children's latest report on Spain, 453 adults were convicted of sexually abusing or raping children below the age of 16 in 2018, an increase of 40% on the previous year.
But Save the Children's director general in Spain, Andrés Conde, said these figures were merely the tip of an iceberg whose dimensions no one can calculate with any certainty.
"It is becoming clearer every day that Spain has an enormous problem with violence against children, and specifically with sexual abuse against boys, girls and adolescents. Politicians cannot continue to look the other way," said Mr Conde.
Meanwhile, Spain's Catholic Church authorities have failed to respond to Pope Francis's call for the church to deal with paedophiles amongst its ranks. Spain's Episcopal Conference announced it was upgrading its protocols on dealing with instances of abuse two years ago, but no progress has been reported.
According to a 2018 report by the newspaper El PaÃs covering the past three decades, Spanish criminal courts have found priests guilty of sexual assaults on 33 occasions involving 80 minors. El PaÃs also found that only three of Spain's 70 bishoprics had passed on information on cases of abuse to the country's criminal justice system.
Surely, there is no hope for the Catholic Church, none!
Parents sue public school district for enabling kids to change ‘gender’ without parental notice, consent
'Madison schools have adopted policies that violate constitutionally recognized parental rights. A public school district should not, and cannot, make decisions reserved for parents.'
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
MADISON, Wisconsin, (LifeSiteNews) – Parents are suing the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin for enabling children to socially transition to a member of the opposite sex at school without parental notice or consent. Teachers are directed to deceive parents by using the child’s birth name and biological sex whenever parents are involved.
The lawsuit claims that the school district is violating parental rights “by adopting a policy designed to circumvent parental involvement in a pivotal decision affecting their children’s health and future.”
“The policy enables children, of any age, to socially transition to a different gender identity at school without parental notice or consent, requires all teachers to enable this transition, and then prohibits teachers from communicating with parents about this potentially life-altering choice without the child’s consent,” the lawsuit adds.
The school district also “directs its teachers and staff to deceive parents by reverting to the child’s birth name and corresponding pronouns whenever the child’s parents are nearby.” This, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday, February 18, is a violation of “parents’ fundamental and constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children.”
Rick Esenberg, President and General Counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), said in a statement: “Madison schools have adopted policies that violate constitutionally recognized parental rights. A public school district should not, and cannot, make decisions reserved for parents.”
The school district in the state’s capital had adopted its “Guidance and Policies to Support Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender-Expansive Students” in April 2018. According to the document, all staff “will refer to students by their affirmed names and pronouns.”
“Refusal to respect a student’s name and pronouns” is considered a violation of the school district’s non-discrimination policy. The guidelines claim that having “one’s gender identity recognized and validated is important,” ensuring confidentiality and privacy in the process.
“School staff shall not disclose any information that may reveal a student’s gender identity to others, including parents or guardians and other school staff, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure,” the guidelines state.
The parents, who remain anonymous, say that if their children ever begin to experience gender dysphoria, they “would not immediately ‘affirm’ their children’s beliefs about their gender identity and allow them to transition to a different gender role, but would instead pursue a treatment approach to help them identify and address the underlying causes of the dysphoria and learn to embrace their biological sex.”
The lawsuit illustrates the school districts’ policy regarding transgender students by pointing to training materials for teachers and resources for students used in Madison’s public schools.
One training program for all staff members took place between August and November at almost all schools of the district, “including most elementary schools,” the lawsuit states.
“The training walks teachers through a hypothetical scenario in which a student named ‘Jadyn’ informs a teacher that he or she would like to change gender identity at school,” it continues. “After the training participants discuss this scenario, the training video informs teachers that ‘Jadyn has the right to use their affirmed name and pronouns in school, even without changes in Infinite Campus [the official records] or family permission.’”
Teachers are also told to find out from Jadyn “if family is supportive of their [Jadyn’s] gender identity.” Only if that is the case, parents are supposed to be involved “in the gender support planning process.”
Otherwise, “the training emphasizes that teachers must ‘[m]ake sure not to disclose information about Jadyn’s gender identity without their [Jadyn’s] permission,’” the lawsuit says.
The Madison Metropolitan School District dedicates an official website to its “Welcoming Schools” approach, which claims to support “the academic and social emotional growth of our students.”
“We are committed to creating an anti-racist, non-discriminatory environment where all identities are seen, valued and respected,” the school district boasts.
Many resources push the homosexual and transgender agenda. Among other things, the school district links to “New LGBTQ-Inclusive Books for the Very Youngest Children” and “18 Multicultural Children's Books featuring LGBTQIA Characters.”
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty had already reached out to the school district in December 2019. In a “Demand Letter,” WILL had stated that the “Guidance and Policies to Support Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender-Expansive Students” contains “certain policies that violate our clients’ constitutional rights as parents.”
At the time, WILL had expressed hope that the school district “will remove these problematic policies and commit to retraining its teachers and staff accordingly.”
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