A 12-year-old Florida girl recently attempted suicide twice at school, while her parents were not notified about meetings discussing her gender identity.
Wendell Perez appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” and explained that he took legal action after the elementary school counselor told him his daughter attempted suicide over gender identity issues.
Perez said he was not told about his daughter’s situation because of his “Catholic beliefs”. “The counselor had secret meetings with our daughter about gender. She was groomed to something that she’s not, and she was encouraged,” he explained.
He noted that the counselor created a space for bullying by calling his daughter a different name and pronouns in front of other students. Perez said the school has accused him of lying and has an “arrogant attitude” in correspondence with him.
Perez’s lawyer, Vernadette Broyles, argues that the case is about “understanding” and “upholding” parents’ rights to raise their children in accordance with their faith. “It’s about understanding that children are not the mere creatures of the state,” she said.
A statement from Clay County District Schools says “The district has performed a thorough and complete investigation into this matter as it was presented to us and has determined that the allegations made by this out-of-state organization are completely false, fabricated, and appear to be intended solely for the purpose of inciting the public”.
Republican lawmakers Rep. Virginia Foxx and Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina have sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona regarding the issue.
“According to the girl’s father, the school had been in conversations with the girl about a gender transition, had begun calling her a boy, and had assigned her a new name,” they said. “They did all of this without notifying the parents”.
“Parents have every right to access vital information regarding their children – an indisputable fact that the Department of Education doesn’t seem to respect,” Foxx told Fox News Digital. “The disturbing trend of school districts withholding information from parents continues to grow at an alarming pace, and there’s little to no accountability coming from this administration”.
“How many more children will be put in harm’s way if school districts are not being held to account?” she asked.
Foxx and Burr called on Cardona to “clarify the requirements” of Title IX and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act “with respect” to school policies and “proliferating efforts to conceal vital information from parents about minor children”.
They also asked him to answer multiple questions, including if “the Department’s interpretation of Title IX require school districts to conceal from a minor child’s parents information about that child’s interest in a gender transition” or if the Department of Education agreed with the school district’s approach to the situation.