By Guy Page
A parent of a Burlington High School student said parents were not notified when virtually every student participated in a “walk out” of the school, with administrators’ blessing and supervision, to attend a downtown March 11 gay pride rally organized by the Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA). In a string of emails with the concerned parent, the school principal refused to explain why parents were not notified of the event either before, or afterwards.
BHS Principal Lauren McBride wrote in an email to students on March 11:
“I would like to publicly thank and acknowledge the amazing work of our GSA for organizing the walkout. It was powerful to see almost 900 BHS and EMS (Edmunds Middle School) students gather on the steps of City Hall.”
In a later, separate letter to the concerned parent – who declined to be identified – McBride showed full support for the walkout and would not explain why she didn’t notify parents afterwards, despite repeated requests.
In a note to Vermont Daily Chronicle, the parent expressed strong concern about ‘political indoctrination’ and lack of parental notification.
“I objected to the use of school resources such as the intercom system to corral students. I objected to the school administration taking sides on a political issue. I also objected to the lack of notification to parents of any kind. To this date the administration has not notified parents about this political indoctrination exercise with students.
“My child did not join this protest. All but one other student in the class left the building, and according to my child, most for the hope that they could roam Burlington unsupervised. I had to learn about the protest from my student and from the news. The school administration is actively hiding mention of the protest and their involvement from parents.”
McBride denied the event was political: “While I am driven by district policies, it is important to note that within BSD, we believe LGBTQIA+ rights are equity issues, not political issues.
In this instance, due to the nature of the walkout I was supporting our students through an equity lens and also focused on student safety. Since we received information that the walkout may happen, we needed to ensure that our community would be supported and safe. Part of our support was giving them access to the intercom because that allowed us to control what otherwise could have resulted in chaos. Additionally, we attended the walkout with them. I had alerted our District Office and we were joined by the Superintendent and his staff as well – all focused on ensuring student safety.”
In the last of a back-and-forth string of emails shared with Vermont Daily Chronicle, the parent asked McBride (again): “what is stopping you from notifying parents after the fact? Please take this simple step of communications with parents.”
In her response email, McBride did not answer or even address the question. Instead she replied, “I have not intentionally evaded your question….” then shared more information that had nothing to do with notifying parents.
The student-operated BHS Register online news outlet published photos and a news story about the rally on March 11. However the BHS Facebook Page – managed by the school officials – did not.
Categories: Education
Showing full approval, support and expressing coercion to attend, BHS Principal Lauren McBride has directly participated in this act of mass truancy. Not sure if this amounts to any kind of criminal or civil offense, but it most certainly justifies her termination. If any of the students had been physically injured while participating, just who would be responsible here? This kind of woke indoctrination is inexcusable.
Our children are not her constituency….They are not her children. She IS avoiding the question
she was asked…….which may or may not be permissible in this setting. Ask the question formally…in ANOTHER setting? Remove our children from these schools or remove these teachers and administrators from our schools. Vermont’s AGE OF CONSENT is releent here,
yes?
Are the KIDNAPPING statutes relevent?
Meanwhile, when I attended a French high school for one year, it was; History, Geography, Art, Gym, Latin, German, Math, Science, Analyse du Texte ( French Literature)….. No field trips unfortunately. No snow days because of the area’s climate. No politics.
Anyone else notice the masksed kids in the picture? One has a chin strap, another under their nose. Are they wearing masks for the protection of themselves or others or as a consequence of our government’s public health indoctrination policies that have led to countless, tragic suicides and increases in depression amounst our youth. These people are phoneys. And the “equity lens” spoke of in the article is the same garbage the vermont school board association is preaching and legislating into our public schools. It IS critical race theory. Did they ask YOU for your input as a tax payer? Equity is equality in outcomes. Im all for equality in opportunities but tipping the scales so everyone is guaranteed the same outcomes regardless of personal responsibility and accountability is marxist socialism, wrong and completely un-American.
Ms. Mcbride……..How are the Burlington High School student’s doing on the annual Math, English and Science proficiency assessments?……. Are the kids you’re responsible for educating meeting or exceeding grade proficiency levels?
Watch out. Totalitarianism is on the march. Academics are their own special interest group that trumps the common citizen, including parents. No reply is needed to their questions. It seems like they think that if they need to explain it to us, we wouldn’t understand it anyway. Probably they are right. The only way I can understand it is that they are pushing an agenda that has nothing to do with academics. But that’s the old understanding of what schools are supposed to be.
I wonder if the school administrators would let all of the kids assemble and rally against Amendment 22 which is up for a vote this fall. It is not a political issue but in defense of human life.
Uttterly negligent and inexcusable. Should be terminated. Whether for a gay event or a field trip or whatever, parents / guardians must be notofied when students leave school campus for activities. The nature of the event is secondary to the FUNDAMENTAL need to let parents know if/when their children are leaving school for an event. Let’s ask the superintendent and principal: what if, Lord forbid, a student had gone missing or some students were injured during this activity?
And what IS THE POLICY? IN WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES ARE PARENTS TO BE/ NOT TO BE NOTIFIED IF THEIR CHILDREN ARE OFF CAMPUS at the APPROVAL and DIRECTION of the school district?
Just when you think the Burlington school system can’t sink any lower, why would any parent tolerate this form of abuse of their children? Is it apathy? are they fearful of Burlington Schools? Is there no recourse for parents? Frankly, this warrants a significant intervention by the State and parents to “fix” this outrage. What are they waiting for?
Define child abuse. The State is allowing child abuse, endangerment, and molestation. People – stop allowing this disgusting, demonic behavior to continue. Protect the children from these monsters.
Time parents pull their children out of schools and find an alternative way for them to learn. and stop paying school taxes. These schools are not interested in teaching subjects like math, science, English, etc. They are focused on indoctrinating your children. We are paying these people to push their “woke” agenda on your children; our most precious commodity, and it is time that it is STOPPED. Stop the nightmare these impressionable children are having to live in. I know I am old, but I cannot understand what is the purpose of convincing boys to be girls and girls to be boys? Why is it not ok to just be themselves?
Because then they wont have morals,ethics and values that come from the democrat, government run schools that are hell bent on a marxist, socialist society….
Same reason government is eliminating student loan debt. That way students can afford to continue their indoctrination education and vote the way the party (established politicians, academia, big tech, big pharma and the media) want them to vote in order to enhance their power. Thomas Sowell said so too…