After identifying as transgender, a science teacher showed a personal “coming-out video” to children as young as 5 without their parents’ permission. However, once the community found out about the unannounced presentation, they decided to fight back.
Wisconsin parents were outraged to discover that a Madison elementary school allowed a science teacher to put on a presentation about transgenderism without even letting them know. Frank Allis Elementary School allowed Vica Steel, formerly known as Mark “Vince” Busenbark, to show kindergarten through fifth-grade students a personal “coming out” video, FOX News reports.
In the video presentation, the teacher introduces the new persona and attempts to clear up the confusion that may ensue regarding their changing appearance and name. Steel then explained that they would be taking the last name of their wife, Stella Steel, and encouraged students to refer to them neither by male nor female pronouns but “them, they, and their.”
“Hello. Let me introduce myself. You know me as Mr. Busenbark or Mr. B. You know me as the person in the science room, as the person with the plants and the animals, as the person who builds and helps you build,” Steel begins. “Most of what you know is true. Most of what you know won’t change but there is one truth that I’ve hidden from you, until about a month ago from my fellow teachers, from friends, from family — I am transgender.”
Steel then assumes that some of their young audience have “only heard those words through the filter of those who hate, who fear.” The teacher then dives into a pro-LGBT children’s book called “They Call Me Mix” in order to better explain the situation to the impressionable students.
“Are you a boy or a girl? How can you be both?” Steel reads. “Some days I am both. Some days I am neither. Most days, I am everything in between.”
The book displays stereotypical icons of feminity along with a female child rejecting them. The book suggests that this is because the little girl isn’t of the female gender. It goes on to state that gender is something to be decided by the individual, introducing children to the term “non-binary” and the gender pronoun “they.” Finally, it teaches that those who support transgender people will use their preferred pronouns. The book ends with the titular character in adulthood transforming into a male teacher.
Steel then indicates that if the students “love and respect” their teacher, they will accept the transgender lifestyle and use the preferred pronouns. Steel advises students that they have changed their name to Vica Steel and wishes to be called “Mx. Steel,” a non-binary title.
Parents were shocked and appalled that the school would commission such a presentation. One parent reportedly complained to the school but said that their concerns were ignored. Another parent of a first-grader in Steel’s class said that they are “pissed off” and were given “no warning, no heads up” about the video.
“I’ve had to sit down with my kids and explain that what they heard is flat-out wrong and incorrect,” the parent wrote. “We will be kind to others, but we WILL NOT be involved in adult games of make-believe. Shame on those that support this!”
Parents weren’t about to let the perceived slight against their children go without consequences. Thanks to parental support, religious freedom law firm Liberty Counsel sent a records request to the school and claimed that the presentation violates the district’s policies on refraining from teaching the students any kind of “orthodoxy.”
“It is outrageous that school administrators would allow a male science teacher to expose children to propaganda that promotes confusion about basic biology, and to instruct students to address him by a false name, title and pronouns,” Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said in a statement. “These impressionable students do not exist to validate Busenbark’s sexual identity. Parents send their children to school trusting that they will be taught academic curriculum, not become participants in a teacher’s play acting,” said Staver.
The complaint alleges that Steel’s coming out video could also infringe on the students’ rights to “age-appropriate, medically accurate, non-stigmatizing, and inclusive” instruction, as outlined by the district’s policies on wellness.
There are some lessons that only a parent should teach. Some would say that this is one of them. The culture war over transgender recognition and rights has gotten particularly fierce where children have been involved.
On one hand, parents on both sides of the issue have vociferously objected to how schools are accommodating students who identify as transgender. On the other, authorities have sometimes intervened to protect children from parents who are thought to be either too supportive or not supportive enough of their transgender kids.
