By Guy Page

A mother of two special-needs students told the Green Mountain Union High School Board on Sept. 17 that school staff supported her disabled son’s social gender transition without her knowledge or consent, while failing to keep her informed about what she described as a serious decline in his mental and physical health.

Rebecca Duprey said her two sons were harmed by school policies and practices during the 2025-26 school year. She said she repeatedly raised concerns with school officials, including Superintendent Layne Millington, but believed those concerns were dismissed. She alleged the result was a “severe, documented mental, physical, and academic decline.”

Duprey said school records were changed to use a name other than her son’s legal name, including on forms she had completed and signed. She said she repeatedly asked the school to restore his legal name and information.

She also told the board that her son has physical and cognitive disabilities and other health and developmental issues. According to Duprey, school staff continued to use her son’s chosen gender identity while his mental health was worsening.

Duprey said a staff member knew her son had become suicidal but did not tell her, preventing her from immediately seeking medical and mental-health care. She argued that by affirming his female identity, the school encouraged him toward a possible medical transition despite what she described as serious risks posed by his existing medical problems.

“I needed to be and had the right to be aware of what was happening with my son while he was in the school building and I was not,” Duprey said in a speech prepared for the night’s meeting, and only partially delivered due to public comment time constraints. .

Duprey also alleged failures involving her son’s Individualized Education Program, saying required classroom accommodations and specialized support services were not consistently provided.

Much of her presentation challenged school policies involving transgender students. Duprey argued that social transition — including the use of a different name and gender identity — should not occur at school without parental knowledge in the case of a minor. She described gender-affirming practices as harmful to her son and said she never gave permission for the school to socially transition him.

Duprey said she has records, letters, emails and images that she believes support her account and has contacted federal officials and agencies about the matter. She said the situation became serious enough that she ultimately removed one of her children from the school.

“I was left with no other choice but to pull one of my children from school in order to save his life,” Duprey said.

During and following her comments, there was no board or official response, other than to remind her of time constraints. 

FULL STATEMENT BY REBECCA DUPREY

My name is Rebecca and I have 2 special needs sons that have been harmed by existing policies and practices this district has adopted and allowed. I am aware of movements by the federal level, some people in the state legislatures and at the school board level to silence or censor educational components that they find objectionable or “political.”

I reject these movements and hope you will too.

As a parent of children attending this school, it is my responsibility to share the experiences that have occurred within the walls of Green Mountain Union High School resulting in harm to my children.

Due to the severity of multiple failures and the ongoing safety risks to my children, I am communicating to you and notifying the public of these critical concerns regarding the safety, safety protocols, and well-being of my two special needs children during the 2025–2026 school year.

Despite my repeated attempts to address these issues, my concerns were continuously dismissed, most recently by Superintendent Layne Millington. This failure to safeguard my children has resulted in severe, documented mental, physical, and academic decline.

Specifically, I am bringing the following serious matters to your attention:

• Falsification of Records & Overriding Parental Rights: Legal documentation was altered to reflect an imaginary name that doesn’t exist in our world, including forms I personally completed and signed.

I had asked multiple times that all documents and records be restored and that my son be referred to by his legal information, knowing his situation and the harm so-called “affirming” causes. I’ll get back to this.

I made sure the school was aware of what my children’s needs were and provided documentation when needed as evidence, and I was treated as if I couldn’t possibly know my children better than the school. The end result showed the school was wrong and my children paid the price of the school and systemic failures.

I was frequently left out of what was happening with my children while they were at school.

• Failed Judgement and Outcome: My child was the victim of a serious offense while under the school’s care, which was not appropriately managed leading to an unsatisfactory outcome in order to protect the bullies, and the school. My son was left to carry the burden and actions that were not his responsibility. The incident could have been avoided and his recovery is ongoing.
• Failure to Safeguard Student Health: A staff member was aware that my child had become suicidal and failed to notify me, preventing me from seeking immediate medical and mental health care to ensure his safety. His physical and functional disabilities which affected his ability to receive a free public education was not adequately addressed, leaving him vulnerable, further behind, and his immediate and ongoing needs unmet while in the school environment. Dismissal of his needs led to a physical decline which contributed to the end result of life saving intervention. As GMU staff continued to enable my son’s false gender belief, his mental health took a dangerous decline. By GMU and peers being allowed to or forced into enabling my son, he was led to believe he was a girl and wanted to medically transition despite knowing the life-threatening risks on his already frail body. GMU could have chosen to support healthy choices and made the choice not to enable him in his unstable state of overall well-being, and fight back against the current policies in order to protect a vulnerable child. I needed to be and had the right to be aware of what was happening with my son while he was in the school building and I was not.
• Lack of IEP Implementation: There was a significant failure to adhere to the Individualized Education Program (IEP) as legally required, which directly impacted my son’s ability to access the curriculum and achieve established academic goals.
• Failure to Provide Mandated Accommodations: The specific classroom accommodations and modifications outlined in his IEP are not being consistently applied in several subjects, hindering the effectiveness of the specialized instruction intended for my son.
• Inconsistent Delivery of Related Services: The delivery of specialized support services was subpar and did not meet the frequency or duration specified in my son’s IEP. This lack of regular support posed risks to my child’s educational development and his overall success.
• “Gender Affirming Care”: All “Gender Affirming Care” is experimental and there is NO adequate data to support the claims that it is “life saving or beneficial”. “Gender Affirming Care” is NOT evidence based. In fact the data shows that it is dangerous, this includes social transition. My son, who is a victim of abuse, is medically unstable and complex, is cognitively delayed, has suspected ASD, who was groomed by media platforms and peers, and misguided by some providers was highly enabled by every staff member in the building even as his mental health tanked. My son used gender ideology to escape a painful reality and you failed him by allowing it. I did not ever give permission to experiment on my child, my parental rights were again violated.

A few key points and research findings regarding gender identity policies and their impact on youth, I am also including an informational handout including sources, and I encourage you all to research further and recognise the dangers and lifelong consequences that you are putting on every single young person that attends a school within this district. Also keep in mind that the human brain is not even fully developed until the mid 20s and closer to 30 for some, and that every child has the right to grow up naturally and safeguarded.

• Social Media Influence: Studies indicate that social media platforms like YouTube, Discord and Tumblr can exert a strong influence on young people. Research involving parents of transgender-identified youth found an increase in social media usage immediately prior to the announcement of their transgender status.
• Social Contagion: There has been a massive and sudden uptick in transidentified youth. Peer influence and social contagion may play a role in transgender identification among youth, a demographic particularly susceptible to group dynamics. Studies have shown that when a teen announces a transgender identity to their peer group, the number of friends who also became transgender-identified was 3.5 per group.
• Mental Health Considerations: A study examining 1,347 transgender and gender-nonconforming youth between 2006 and 2014 found that these individuals experienced mental health conditions at rates 3 to 13 times higher than their peers.

Identifying as transgenger or nonbinary has strong links to autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, trauma, mental health and same sex attraction and are far more likely to want to be the opposite sex than the general population.

• Policy Impacts: Gender inclusion policies affect the entire student body by altering single-sex spaces—such as restrooms and locker rooms—into mixed-sex facilities, and by changing athletic categories to allow participation based on gender identity rather than biological sex.

Up to 98% of children who struggle with their sex as a boy or a girl come to accept their sex by adulthood when properly supported and not “affirmed” or enabled.

Everyone is affected by gender identity policies which negate sex-based protections by prioritizing feelings over biology. For example, when a school passes a gender inclusion policy, every single locker room and restroom changes from a single-sex facility into a mixed-sex facility. Similarly, sports teams that were previously separated by sex will now force girls to compete against much faster and stronger boys. Gender inclusion policies affect 100% of the student body.

Despite repeated claims to the contrary, schools are not prohibited from informing the parents of a student who asserts a transgender identity or requests a name or pronoun change. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) requires schools to provide parents with an opportunity to “inspect and review” his or her child’s education records (if the student is under the age of 18). The law does not require—or prohibit—a school from proactively disclosing information to a parent.

Title IX specifically states that schools can maintain separate living facilities for the different sexes, and the implementing regulations of Title IX state that schools may “provide separate toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex” without committing sex discrimination. Schools often allow students to use opposite sex restrooms and locker rooms without notifying parents by claiming that to do so would violate the privacy of transgender-identified students. But the result of mixed-sex use of restrooms and locker rooms are privacy violations of every single student. Parents should request facility use policies and practices directly from their school administrators.

While I have evidence via a FOIA request, various documents, letters, emails, and images, my concerns and experiences were treated as if my children and myself didn’t matter and that these things could not have possibly happened and they are unsupported. I have called on the president of the USA, the DOJ, and the US Department of Education.

I was left with no other choice but to pull one of my children from school in order to save his life.

Parents know their children best and schools need to NOT overstep or override parental rights by going against the knowledge or beliefs of the parents. School staff can not lie to or keep parents in the dark, nor can they force students to do the same during peer to peer interaction. Schools need to stay in their lane, teach academics and basic social skills. Schools have no business destroying families or changing the students themselves.

I believe that addressing this matter is crucial for the overall well-being and success of the students, families, and the school as a whole. I understand the demands of your time and appreciate your attention to this matter. I believe that by working together, we can create a positive and nurturing environment for our students.

A federal announcement has been made, putting every school across the United States on notice, that schools will be subject to child abuse if they transition or affirm gender idiology of a student. Federal funding may be withheld.

And to the public of gender confused parents, I encourage you to start asking questions.