Tallahassee Reports has learned that officials at a Leon County middle school interviewed a student and developed a gender transition plan without notifying the student’s parents.
The plan also included a strategy to hide the situation from the parents during school related communications.
The parents of the student have asked not to be named in TR’s report.
When questioned, school officials told the parents they were not required to be notified of the intervention based on state law and Leon County School (LCS) guidance.
Superintendent Rocky Hanna, after meeting with the parents, has directed school officials to contact parents in similar situations unless a student is in danger.
However, there has been no official change to the original LCS guidance and the parents are concerned that Hanna’s direction is not being followed by school officials.
The Intervention
The parents of the student reached out to Tallahassee Reports to voice their frustration over the situation and to highlight what they view as an ongoing problem in Leon County schools.
In August 2020 the parents informed the school about gender identity issues with their daughter. The parents believed the issues started during the COVID quarantine and was the direct result of her friend group.
The parents informed school officials that their daughter was in private counseling related to the gender identity issue.
In September 2020 the mother was told by her daughter she had a meeting with several school officials and she thought it was funny that they asked her what bathroom she preferred to use as a result of changing her name.
This LCS meeting with the student resulted in an interview that was memorialized in a six page document titled, “Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Student Support Plan.”
On page 2 of the document (shown below), the interviewer noted that the parents were not aware of their child’s gender transition. The interviewer noted that the issue should be kept from the parents.
The mother immediately emailed school officials to express concerns about not being notified or present at the meeting.
The mother was told by a school official that they could not tell them anything about the meeting because her daughter, by law, has to be the one to request the parents attendance.
The school official added that her daughter was protected under a non-discrimination law that does not include parental notification or input.
Parents Inquire About LCS Guidance
In October 2020 the parents contacted the LCS district office and asked about the specific law or policy that allowed the school to meet with their daughter without parental notification.
In November 2020 the parents were told that Florida statutes and LCS guidance allowed the school to meet with her daughter without their participation.
Specifically, officials indicated that Florida law requires LCS staff to keep a student’s LGBTQ+ status confidential and letting the student control confidential information regarding their identity.
School officials cited The Florida Educational Equity Act, F.S. 1000.05 and Rule 6A-19.001(4)(a)11, Florida Administrative Code as support for their actions.
In addition, the parents were told that LCS guidance states that parents should not be notified if a student has exhibited behavior in school leading administrators or teachers to believe the student is LGBTQ+.
The guidance indicated that some “students are not able to be out at home because their parents are unaccepting of LGBTQ+ people out.”
In December 2020 the family met with Superintendent Rocky Hanna and let him know from start to finish what had transpired with their daughter.
They told Hanna that “parents are being cut out of this very important meeting that can have life-long consequences with the child choosing to social transition with no due process.”
Hanna agreed and apologized for the manner in which the situation was handled.
Guidance Remains Unchanged, Parental Involvement “Encouraged”
In a follow-up meeting in January 2021, Hanna informed the parents that the guidance would be amended. Hanna said the new language would require parental notification when gender issues were identified, unless their is evidence the child is in physical danger.
However, it appears the guidance has yet to be officially changed.
In March 2021 LCS officials told the parents that they addressed the guidance with principals, assistant principals for administration and deans that unless there is some imminent danger to the student’s wellbeing (physical harm, abuse, etc.) they are encouraged to inform parents and convene a meeting.
However, during this time period the LCS website still provided guidance that directed the exclusion of parents when dealing with gender identity issues.
At a meeting with the parents in July 2021 LCS pulled the guidance language from the district website and told the parents they were working on revised guidance. The parents were also told that any new policy created would have to go to the school board for a vote with a forum for public comment.
The parents told TR this week that beyond comments made by Hanna at a principal’s meeting no official change to the guidance – which allowed parents to be excluded from meetings – is currently in place.
Hanna told TR that language for official guidance related to this issue is currently being developed.
Leon School Officials Develop Gender Transition Plan Without Parent Approval added by Steve Stewart on
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OMG- teachers who take their students for serious. What a scandal.
Wish I had that help when I was 7 yo.
Btw to good parents kids are open about their problems- no need to get it told from teachers.
What middle school is this? We deserve to know as parents!
Unless you’ve spend your daily life around a transgender person, you have no room to talk. You do realize that shouting NO in reaction to a individual’s freedom of identity, is exactly why a place that takes protecting children seriously would think maybe parents aren’t by default safe when a kid might be LGB or T. In non lgbt situations if the school gets wind a kid is being abused at home you want the school to first notify the child’s abuser then too? Sure if the poor parents have been misunderstood horror of horrors they have to deal with misunderstandings… which if they are legit good people will resolve in time. But what if the parents ARE abusive? You know what ACTUALLY happens to a child that wants to transition? As teens up through adulthood 20s 30s? They do their damndest to be the straightest born male or born female you ever saw. They date and eventually marry the opposite gender and eventually when they start to have the uncomfortable sensation that they’re living a lie – that they hate themselves & their body & that they don’t feel right trying to be the gender everyone has always insisted they are they get suicidal. If we’re lucky they seek therapy. They talk to medical doctors or if they think they have anyone, that one other person they trust most. They are terrified to tell their spouse, family, coworkers. Your child you were so insistent on protecting from being influenced grows into a person that has learned to hate themselves if they don’t preform the correct gender correctly. Because they were influenced by that kind of closed mindedness instead. A terrified person doesn’t attack women in the bathroom or even feel safe going into public places. A traumatized person doesn’t have the confidence. And if they one day pull together the courage to tell their spouse and family and friends this thing about themselves that as a child they were encouraged to hate, and are rejected in adulthood too – they become suicidal and may kill themselves. Because they’ve been sent this consistent message “we’d rather you were dead than be trans.” Suicidal not because they have something wrong with them due to “wrong” gender but because mistreating them, insisting everyone outside them knows who they are more than they do traumatizes and inevitability pushes a person into becoming suicidal. No amount of parenting homeschooling or good Christian values will change how a person dealing with that internal hell all alone feels about themselves. Is that the future you want for your kid? Would you really rather they were dead than trans? If so, you’re the problem not the solution. And if that once unsure kid gets lucky enough to dodge the bullet – their spouse loves their soul not what they are on the outside. The handful of people who see them not for who they thought they were but for who they are, stay. And your once definitely straight no way trans gender kid STILL suffers loosing respect, career opportunities, many of their friends or family. The people assumed ride or die become fair weather friends. If there are places that want to try to let kids have the space to feel it out themselves without parent intervention, you should consider the good they are trying to do for all of us.
~Sincerely the formerly straight wife of a pastor’s former son.
(And there’s a lot I can say about how I didn’t sign up for this life or how I didn’t want everyone I knew to assume I am a lesbian when I’ve always been straight & devoted to my (once husband) spouse – but my sincere love for this person and the vows I gave in marriage, my own integrity mattered more than if the world doesn’t understand. But please reconsider your strong reactions because they are ultimately cruel).
Fire these tyrannical crazy awful people!!!!!!
When things of this nature were discussed in the past I did not believe it. I didn’t believe in fake news. People who said things like that seemed crazed to me. I think differently now. A similar thing has happened to one of my children at a public high school in Leon County. My kid dealt directly with the school and is traveling under a different name. Nothing was ever said to me. I don’t support this in my house and my kid is aware of that. We nevertheless have a positive relationship but its my house my rules like it should be. I love the child and am likewise engaged in addressing the issue as a family with mental health professionals because this is a mental health issue and a private family matter. This does not belong in the schools with untrained school personnel involved in making decisions with long lasting and possibly irreversible consequences. Mark my words, it won’t be long until they are passing out transition hormones in school for free without parental permission and hiding behind the same vague reasoning. Do you know that a lot of universities already do that? Students can get them for free at any ivy league school and many others. Researched it. You should too but I digress. I feel and have felt for a long time that the schools do not take parent’s into account but rather seek to take over roles that belong to parents. For that reason no child of mine will ever attend a public school ever again. It is too late for the oldest but my youngest child has been removed never to return. I will not lose a second child to this indoctrination machine and that is exactly what is going on. It would be great to vote them all out but what’s the reality of that actually happening? It didn’t happen last cycle. Once these people get in office they aren’t leaving and people do not vote them out so the only choice is to let your kid be unduly influenced by the schools or remove them and figure out how to pay for it or homeschool. Homeschooling is not an option for my family. So we pay our property taxes to fund these terrible schools and also pay for a private school that is aligned with our values as to what should be taught. This is not the first time I have learned of the school erasing the role of the parent, its just the latest. There was a news article recently about a parent who went viral for reading what amounted to soft porn and sexually explicit material out of a book her kid was reading in school that her area’s district had approved. I’m here to tell you the same thing happens here. Totally disgusting and shocking things my kid did not need to learn about in school in English class. I only regret that when I learned about it I didn’t go viral for doing the same thing that parent did. I give up because I am just one person and feel as if there is nothing I can do except to remove my child from it instead of waiting for something to change because it won’t change. Public K-12 schools have gone far afield of the role of what they were intended to be. But they have that authority now. They won’t ever give it back. I wouldn’t advocate for anyone anywhere to enroll their child in a public school. Sadly it’s the only option for a lot of families. I don’t have answers just solutions and mine was removal. I’m grateful to have the ability to make that decision.
GET THEM ALL OUT OF OFFICE ESPECIALLY ROCKY HANNAH
Moron County Schools strikes again..
I am a liberal / democrat and all for people’s rights to do what they please. However, this is ridiculous and wrong. Social justice warriors are adding fuel to the fire by acting this way. If a student was gay or lesbian and having problems then I could see providing support from bullying. But the decision for anyone to transition genders has no relevance to public school, especially middle school. And absolutely as a parent I would be livid. I may parent differently from the next person, but I would never think to tell someone they can’t be involved in parenting their own child because they have a different opinion or religious belief from me.
How on earth does the school (and lefty Hana) actually think that gender identity transitioning OF A PUBESCENT MINOR is something that could be kept from the parents? More importantly WHY? I’m sick and tired of the nanny state telling parents they have no rights over their minor children when it comes to mental/health issues like this and vaccinations. But, by God, they are responsible for them financially and every other way. How do the school administrators not see this?
@ Edward – yes!!!!!! Well said!
Sorry Timmy… you blew it in your first paragraph. God, nature, and science already absolutely determined the identity of this student upon birth. Your statement confirms your obvious lack of a rational thought process, extremely mental malleability, is completed ignorance of reality.
One cannot wash away morally reprehensible unwanted interference and intentional ideological indoctrination by simply claiming that it’s a policy issue and the Stupidintendant will take care of it.
NONE OF THIS belongs anywhere near public schools. Their job is to teach Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. They are NOT paid to teach Radicalism, Activism, Racial Hatred, and options for dealing with the mental disorder known as Gender Dysphoria.
I interact with college students everyday, and a disturbing number of them (mostly boys) can’t even write, do basic math, or sign their own name. I say again; the damage these reprobates are doing to our children is reprehensible. Parents need to wake the hell up and do what is necessary to protect their children from these maniacs.
DEFUND THE PUBLIC INDOCTRINATION SYSTEM
@Mike L
I think you misread or misunderstood me. My point is exactly that this matter is none of our business, that other students (and possibly adults) will absolutely determine the identity of this student and his/her parents, and that the student may suffer as a result.
Furthermore there wasn’t anything in this article to suggest that faculty were influencing this student, as opposed to supporting them or making reasonable accommodations. It DOES, however, sound like LCS needs to develop a clear policy and train its employees on its implementation. When you break this matter down in to what it actually is, it’s a policy issue – one that the school district definitely needs to address.
I’ll respectfully reiterate what I implied earlier: that this article exploits the student’s LGBTQ status to ham-fistedly state that there is a systemic accountability issue in the Leon County School system with regard to parental notification, when in fact nothing presented here is evidence of a bigger problem beyond the matter that the superintendent has already stated he would address.
If there’s evidence of a bigger problem, make with it and I’ll listen.
Wackos in the comment section can never stay on topic. This has nothing to do with CRT. Trump lost, the governor and commissioner care zero percent about anyone below a certain tax bracket. Get off FOX News and try to find a brain cell.
Now that thats out of the way. The school is trying to act as the parent. Unless the kid is being physically harmed, the parents have a right to know. Kid doesn’t get privacy until they move out or start paying rent.
Ridiculous
… make that @ Kat…
@ Kay… there’s no such thing as “trans” kid. Those are more accurately described as a “troubled” kid. A troubled and impressionable young mind in need of proper guidance, not a surreptitious indoctrination into an unhealthy and unnatural lifestyle choice with a very high suicide rate.
#ProtectKidsFromWarpedMindsAndSocialMedia
Just one example of why I will be homeschooling. Yes, the teachers/administrators who participated in this event absolutely do believe in removal of parental rights if parents don’t agree with them. Completely hypocritical system where I am notified and can be punished if my child skips school but if they want to “transition” parents are excluded because the “child” wanted it that way. If the child didn’t want parents notified for truancy or behavior they certainly wouldn’t take the child’s wishes into account. Absurd.
I hope TR will report on the mayor refusing to let Commissioner Jack Porter speak at the end of the last city commission meeting. Each commissioner is allowed to give their closing remarks and Mayor Daliey refused to let her speak.
This is blatant bullying at the least and covering up corruption at the most…
How many PR contracts has the mayor’s campaign manager secured through the city via the mayor, with the county, using the mayor in ads that aren’t reported on his campaign report…?
There clearly needs to be a conversation regarding the mayor’s ethics or lack thereof and co-mingling city contracts to his campaign manager.
@ Tim; You know why those things weren’t discussed? Because they are none of our business!
And if you think the kids in that middle school don’t know who we are talking about you don’t know anything about 7th graders. Surreptitiously working behind the parents back to influence their child is what is “problematic”. If you think that is ok, there is something wrong with you.
Trans kids have a right to privacy and right to socially transition if they like.
#ProtectTransKids
The stated goal of socialism/marxism is to destabilize the nuclear family and to destroy religion. They desire to make government the one and only power. Government not God.
Seems like Todd, Tim, and Cristen all have some challenging – if not deep phycological – issues in need of some focused attention. So much hatred and division by those who profess love and equality. It’s not suppose to be Reading, Whiting, and Reassignment.
There is no such thing as a “Transgendered” boy, girl, man, or woman. The term “Transgender” is a made up term designed to ease the heavy self-guilt of those who suffer from the “scientifically” diagnosed mental disorder known as Gender Dysphoria… and to attempt to normalize an otherwise abnormal, unhealthy, and unnatural lifestyle choice.
I’ll state it again; The damage these reprobates are doing to our children is reprehensible. Parents need to wake the hell up and do what is necessary to protect their children from these maniacs.
DEFUND THE PUBLIC INDOCTRINATION SYSTEM
@ Todd,
If I was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz I would ask the Wizard to give you a heart, a brain, and courage.
In the real world I will ask the Heavenly Father to give you those things, Amen.
Please pray for Todd.
Maybe if u talk to ur kids and not demand ur chuch ways… U mite learn something.
I guess so…they are scared to talk to u bigots…
U people are sick… Wow
Seems to me that if SD personnel believe a student is being abused or neglected, they have the individual obligation to report that to DCF. And if they have no evidence of that, then they have no reason to exclude parents (or for that matter to start talking to the student about gender identity in the first place).
It also seems to me that every district should start planning to have non gendered single bathrooms in every building (ones that self-clean after use would be most appropriate) — there are a lot of reasons other than gender identity or lbgqt+ reasons that students might want to not be sent to the common restroom. And students should be allowed to use those restrooms for no reason or any reason at all.
I’m not going to argue the parental notification issue. I don’t know enough about the relevant law to have a position on the matter. I’m more concerned with how the subject matter of the article was framed, and why Tallahassee Reports chose to publish it at all.
What isn’t discussed at all is the safety and confidentiality of the student. We don’t know what kind of environment he or she is facing at school regarding bullying, peer support, etc. We don’t know anything about what the home environment is like other than 1) the student requested “privacy” regarding parental communication and 2) apparently the parents thought the best course of action is to go to Tallahassee Reports to air their complaints about how how the situation was handled by the school district.
This is problematic, because undoubtedly the student’s identity will quickly be determined by anyone in the school with basic social detective skills (remember being in school?). We know that he or she desires privacy, and this article as the result of its publication denies his or her privacy.
LGBTQ teenagers are at a higher risk of suicide than their peers. Regardless of how one feels about transitioning prior to adulthood, the primary concern should ALWAYS be the care and safety of the child. I feel like this publication ignored that concern and is instead, maybe unintentionally, shining a public light on a topic that the student would rather have kept amongst his or her parents, trusted school officials, and perhaps friend group. Again, the student clearly indicated that there were privacy concerns. That’s important.
All you have to do is read the comments to realize that the article was intended to fan the flames of the culture war rather than pick a bone with LCS. Both the parents and Tallahassee Reports have been irresponsible with how this is being presented to the public.
First, the parents engaged with LCS for almost a year before discussing the issue with Tallahassee Reports. To imply that the parents chose going to TR over working with LCS is wrong. Second, the reason why TR was contacted is because the parents feel the school system is enabling and facilitating an environment that excludes parents on an important issue. And finally, we chose to publish the article after reviewing emails, documents and talking with Superintendent Hanna. There will be more on this subject because there is a problem with how issues like this are handled by the district. If you have any other questions please feel free to give me a call at 850-766-6208. Thanks, Steve Stewart
Will anyone be held accountable?
They all need to be removed from their current positions. Who in the hell do these elected people think they are?
This proves Liberal Democrat local officials are doing Satan’s work.
What other dirty little secrets are they keeping with children and hiding from their parents under the ruse of telling children that their parents might be physically dangerous and therefore, not to be trusted? This is predatory behavior. Is there anyone who is sane and has authority who will protect these vulnerable children and their parents who are trapped in the public school system.
I second Edward’s motion: Let us, first and foremost, defund the public school system.
@ Mindy = It seems like the Mother reached out to the School to inform them about her Daughter and that she has it under control in that her Daughter is seeing a Professional about it.
“In August 2020 the parents informed the school about gender identity issues with their daughter. The parents believed the issues started during the COVID quarantine and was the direct result of her friend group.
The parents informed school officials that their daughter was in private counseling related to the gender identity issue.”
The School never should have contacted the Daughter but instead contacted the Mother about any possible issues they may have.
“It’s a shame that there is NO ONE on the School Board to stand up for these KIDS.” My first line is supposed to say KIDS.
@ Christen – why don’t you tell us what the headline should read?
That’s what I thought…
Id be interested in knowing how this discussion was initiated. Did the student express the desire in communicating their alleged wishes or did the school come up with this plan, pick out the most androgynous student, and go to work? Either way, this might be the scariest article I’ve read in a long time. Its now as if parents need to come up with our own handbook and have the school sign it at the beginning of the year of what they are and are not allowed to discuss with our children. We are not a “sue happy” family, but you could bet your sweet backside, we most definitely would be if some asshat attempted this with our child.
It’s a shame that there is NO ONE on the School Board to stand up for these ids. IF it has to be a School Staff Member talking to the Kids about Gender Issues, it is the School Counselor and ONLY if the Student goes to them. The Counselor should NEVER talk about it to other School Officials or Staff. NONE of them had the Right to approach the Student, NONE OF THEM.
WOW
Can’t wait to the midterms as the fiasco of the day is there is no inventory of cars if you want a new car, you want your Christmas presents to arrive on time you better mail them by tomorrow, and it gets worse by the day, by the hour…
The 12,000 illegal Haitians they just released into the interior will be facilitated by the local legal aid attorneys who have received taxpayer funds to facilitate them by making them illegal voter ID cards.
How long will it take before they realize the election was stolen and illegal and to put the rightful winner back in office and the perpetrators arrested and detained at Gitmo. That is our only hope…
This is so wildly unacceptable it’s dame near unbelievable. This entire Board of Bozos, the Stupidintendant, and the whole of the systems administration needs to be cleaned out. The damage these reprobates are doing to our children is reprehensible. Parents need to wake the hell up and do what is necessary to protect their children from these maniacs.
DEFUND THE PUBLIC INDOCTRINATION SYSTEM
Shame on you, Steve, for the incredibly misleading headline. This is yellow journalism and it’s manipulative. But I guess you can’t help yourself from playing to the base; you know your readers.
How is this headline misleading?
This crap is enabled and encouraged by CRT. CRT is a cancer metastazing in our education system. It needs to be eradicated along with all covert supporters. Otherwise, parents will continue to be ignorant of what’s being taught to their children. Thank goodness I do not have children in the Leon County school district.
And, in this whole article there is no statute cited allowing school officisls/teachers to tslk with children on such serious matters.
And if you don’t think it could get worse listen to this one… It appears Biden is unable to function mentally, Kamala Harris appears to be very ill that nobody is talking about and who does that leave next in line…Nancy Pelosi…
If you have never prayed in your life it is time to start praying…PRAY for our country, schools, and a miracle!
I voted for Rocky Hanna the first time. But I will never vote for him again. We need to get him out of there.
Governor and Education Commissioner please help us. Our elected officials are totally out of control.
And just because Rocky says he knew nothing about it…seriously citizens who in their right mind believes Rocky when he says stupid lame @ss stuff like that? Rocky knew and furthermore everyone knows Rocky knew.
I feel like the good people of Rockridge sending a telegram to the Governor in Blazing Saddles begging for a new Sheriff.
Governor please help us!!!!
The inmates are now in charge of the asylum.
I wouldn’t be going to Tallahassee Reports if I was the parents, I’d be finding out who was conspiring to keep me from knowing what was going on with my child, and then I would find out where they lived… Tallahassee Reports would be the least of their worries.
Who the… do these people think they are?
Where can we find out the steps required to run for School Board?