by Marie Tiemann

In September, SPEAKVT for Parents in Education,Inc. had a booth at a festival in an average Vermont town.  Numerous people stopped by throughout the day, and 95 % of them (and ALL of the teens) expressed the view that males should NOT be in girls’ restrooms or locker rooms, or on girls’ sports teams.  

I want to take this opportunity to publicly express SPEAKVT’s gratitude to the Mid-Vermont Christian School (MVCS) for fighting through to the U.S. Appeals Court to reverse the Vermont Principals Association banning it from state competitions for forfeiting a basketball game against a team with a transgender athlete.  SPEAKVT calls on the Vermont Principals Association to apologize to these girls and MVCS.  Would you agree that the VPA should apologize? 

Back to our booth… Many parents expressed alarm to learn that State law…

• allows schools to withhold information from parents about their own children.
• gives children as young as 12 broad autonomy without parental knowledge.

Parents still have the right to opt out of instruction that violates their family’s religious beliefs. But parents can’t exercise that right if schools never inform them about what is being taught or how their child is being treated.

Across the state, we continue to hear a consistent message: Vermonters are alarmed by the drop in academic proficiency in spite of the excessive and increasing costs of our public school system.

SPEAKVT will keep pressing on until (1) all girls are protected and (2) both high academic performance and high return-on-investment are the overriding goals of our public schools.  These actions will commence when the Vermont administrators agree to policy changes.     

Author is President, SPEAKVT for Parents in Education, Inc..