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By Aaron Warner
It has recently been brought to my attention that two of the Hartford Middle School teachers at the Hartford Middle School are making a trans-positive identity book mandatory reading for sixth graders. Jennifer Boeri-Boyce, who teaches Social Studies and Erin Topolewski, the English Language Arts teacher are requiring students to read “The Other Boy” by M.G. Hennessey.
Here is the book’s description as found on the School Library Journal website:
“Gr 5–7—For the past three years, Shane, now in sixth grade, has been living with his mom in L.A., where he has good friends and a crush, is a star on the baseball team, and spends his free time working on his sci-fi graphic novel. However, Shane is dealing with issues in his private life that his schoolmates know nothing about: Shane was assigned female at birth, and his dad still acts like Shane is just going through a phase, and refuses to accept Shane’s gender identity.
“When a classmate outs Shane to the entire school, he has a lot more to worry about than baseball regionals. Shane’s voice rings true, and the writing is straightforward and accessible. School bullies, issues with parents, first crushes, and sports drama make this title relatable to a broad range of readers. Additionally, it’s refreshing to read a story with a young trans character already living life as his true gender and never questioning his identity. While some of the conflict and characterization lack depth and the ending is a little too pat, the book still has wide appeal. The selected pages of Shane’s graphic novel, interspersed between chapters, are a fun addition, and readers will enjoy the parallels to Shane’s real-life drama.”
The novel includes passages suggesting to children that hating one’s body to the point of wanting to mutilate it might be normal for some of them.
““My body felt like a traitor. I hated everything about it. I suddenly understood why some of the kids in the support group hurt themselves; they were trying to carve off the pieces that didn’t belong.”
Of course the setting is Los Angeles where transitioning your child is like winning an Oscar. Hollywood celebrities are now more likely to have a trans child than not by the latest release of photographs on the cover of magazines at the grocery store. The narcissism inherent in Hollywood doesn’t stop at personal fame and the desperate clinging to one’s youth and beauty it must include the right (re: left) political perspective including publicly declaring allegiance to the cult of sex-positivity. For those still unclear on the sex-positivity movement it’s yet another euphemism for the LGBTQ line of thinking where one’s sexual identity is the very core of their being, and this journey to understanding one’s “true gender” as the book claims, starts in early childhood. No joke, there are parents who believe their toddler is telling them they are not their God-given sex.
In order for this cult to sustain itself, as with any cult, it must find ways to legitimize its claims. In the case of trans-identity it’s been the mad rush to re-designate it from a severe mental illness, as it was recognized in the first four volumes of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, to the mollified status of “dysphoria”. Adding to the practice of legitimizing are the publication of periodicals, books, graphic novels, podcasts – all forms of media – that will push out the new narrative along with validation from celebrities who are the designees for leading culture. This process is otherwise known as propagandizing.
You’ll also notice the book makes Shane the hero on the baseball team, which means this isn’t just a fiction book, but fantasy. It’s a seductive lie because sixth graders are still naïve enough to believe that a girl transitioning to a boy might somehow be able to compete with them. Reality reveals otherwise. The trophy cases for men transitioning to women is overflowing with hardware, however the cases are empty when the transition is reversed, at least beyond middle school.
Also employed by the author is the ever-present trope that the liberal minded mom is empowering the child while the implicitly bigoted and ignorant dad is the unloving parent who refuses to accept his own child.
“I always look more feminine when I’m at Dad’s.”
This is a biological girl lamenting her femininity while at her father’s house as if it’s somehow his fault. This type of blame-shifting thinking is transferred to the child in this book when the reality is adults are the ones who have fostered transgenderism beginning with “sexologists” like Magnus Herschfeld and John Money.
The ultimate irony is the mom and social engineers are the ones refusing to accept the child as she was born and are now manipulating and forcing an irrevocable change onto an impressionable youth who, like so many real life stories, is likely to regret the decision and be unable to undo it. None of the adults who facilitate this façade will suffer the consequences. They will all get their dopamine hit for virtue signaling, cult grooming and making tens of thousands off the child who will no doubt live a life wracked with added mental dysphoria. How do we know this? Thousands of “de-transitioners” are lining up to file lawsuits against school districts and hospitals for recompense over the manipulation and abuse at the hands of the “care” providers.
Chloe Cole is perhaps the most famous of these. Young Miss Cole toured the U.S. telling her story even visiting Dartmouth back in 2022. Her story his gut wrenching but it begins with the subtle story-telling one finds in these books.
As if it’s some vague notion of personal discomfort with one’s physical appearance can only be cured by surgically removing one’s functional sex organs and replacing them with crude reconstructions that require a lifetime of maintenance. Folded into (no pun intended) this lifelong commitment is the cumulative value to all those participating in this sanctioned mutilation stand to make an estimated $1,000,000 per transitioner. So if you think this is about “healthcare” and not money there is another designation in the DSM you might want to review called “delusional thinking”.
One such dissatisfied soul reached out to the late Charlie Kirk at an event. She knew she was dissatisfied with the steady push by others to turn her into a male and asked for his advice. The answers he gave her were thoughtful, tender, and genuinely empowering to get help from those who will support her in loving herself and loving her body as it is and not waging war on it because of clearly disordered thinking.
However these teachers at Hartford likely are not considering or perhaps even aware the de-transition movement is now greater than the trans craze of the last few years. During COVID lockdown is when the intense push to transition kids via the internet took place. Highly coordinated online silos filled with groomers craftily took advantage of children disenchanted by the darkness of the pandemic. Now that society has returned to mostly normal and open, where youth can see the painful backlash of their peers who are regretting their life altering decision, the trans and non-binary movement is in a statistical free fall.
This proves the movement was based on emotional manipulation and social pressure and was never about children discovering “their true self”. The surreptitious attempt by activist teachers in Hartford to continue this life-altering movement says more about their true agenda which is not to educate your children but further indoctrinate them into the cult of sexual identity.
Conversely the number of trans school shooters has gone up dramatically over that same time. The Western Journal reports nearly 40% of assailants since 2020 identified or suspected to have identified as trans or trans allied in their motivation. This is further proof the cult ideology is a dangerous game for students and teachers.
The author is a VDC columnist and Upper Valley regional reporter. He lives in Hartford, VT where he owns two award-winning small businesses. He is a graduate of Leadership Upper Valley class of 2010.
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Categories: Commentary
Get rid of these corrupt individuals before they endanger their students. They are obviously being paid by someone or group to indoctrinate the youth, and perhaps without parental knowledge In comparison, this is worse than a criminal killing someone which is a single act. What these anti-human individual creatures are killing the minds of multiple individuals. Why are these individuals promoting this? Why is the town not in control? Where is the school Board, is this their agenda also? Why don’t parents know of this and at Town Meetings condemn this. The head of the snake needs severing. This is mindbogglingly.crazy. Taxes are being confiscated to pay for this?
Parents should be outraged, but many probably won’t be. Too many have woke ideas not realizing the damage to young minds. This is evident by the chosen school board.
Humans are the most troubled animal on the planet it’s to be expected . One of our great flaws is that we can be convinced of anything.
There are a lot of books on our school book shelves that merit public scrutiny. Capitol Resources Institute has done the yeoman’s job of highlighting them. Their Take Back the Classroom website analyzes the content of public school bookshelves across the entire country. In Vermont they question just under 6K books. Like the italicized passages above, they provide this for each of the 6K books. They identify the schools where they are found, too. They make it easy for concerned citizens to request removal of these books and provide a tracking tool to know when and what was requested and what the school’s response was.
The American Library Association and the Vermont Library Association have taken stances of free speech should apply to what is said in books, too. These standards are being promoted by Vermont Principals and school boards across the state are being encouraged to accept them. (However – they are not really aware of what the ALA and VLA standards entail.) They see no need for pornographic barriers for our children.
If you think children should not be exposed to sexually explicit printed materials, then check out https://takebacktheclassroom.com/districts?stateId=VT&stateStatus=1 Be a voice about the books in your school district – even if you homeschool or have your kids in private schools. The children of the future of your communities will influence the community you live in.
This is child abuse. Taxpayer funded public school child abuse.
This is absolutely horrifying but not surprising. Getting this crap shoved down our kids’ throats is irrepressible. Then people wonder why the kids are in so much trouble. This also is a high abusive of power on the teachers. They have no business requiring a student to read this stuff. There are plenty of books in the library, use one of those and stop shoving this crap down people’s throats.
Parents in Hartford can lawfully opt out of such mandates, as decided by the US Supreme Court in Mahmoud v. Taylor in 2025. To obtain an opt out form contact speakvermont@gmail.com
Yes, please contact Speakvt.org.
Exert from a previous SpeakVT newsletter:
Do you have any doubts about the content of the “banned books”? I ask that you first open and view the content in the books. The sexual books on display are so disturbing that I had to close them. I found it hard to comprehend that they are recommended for children and youth.
A warning sign should be placed on the library shelf and on the books:
WARNING: Contents in this material are harmful to children’s minds.
Images can permanently damage young minds.
Pictures and images make lasting impressions on the human mind. Once you see an image, you cannot “unsee” it. We need a protective shield for images that cause damage to the mind. While the public is now more concerned about what the children are viewing on social media, they should also be vigilant about what they are viewing in books.
How images can harm young lives:
Exposure to graphic sexual images & content is especially harmful to young developing minds that creates a permanent effect on their brains. Graphic sexual images release an overload of dopamine in the brain which results in addictions, depression, and often inappropriate behavior. Children and young adults who view age-inappropriate graphic sexual images before their minds are ready to adequately process the material will develop a distorted perception of sexuality. This will have lifelong effects on their future relationships. A distorted perception of sexuality will also cause a child to lower their defenses if a sexual predator is trying to gain their confidence.
We rightfully protect minors from many hazards
We have laws requiring seat belts and bike helmets for protecting kids’ bodies. We should be just as concerned about protecting their minds. There are laws preventing those under 18 years of age from entering the brick-and-mortar strip clubs. Would you let your young child or even a teenager freely roam the “red-light” district in town? Would you allow them to watch X-rated films? I think not! Many of the library books containing graphic sexual images are in our school’s classrooms. So why are these sexually explicit books allowed to take up valuable space on the classroom shelves? How are these books that describe explicit vulgar sexual acts, and display sexually graphic actions going to help educate our children? I personally know parents who lament the damage done by pornography to their child’s ability to concentrate, think and learn.
What needs to be done?
School staff have a responsibility to protect the children when they walk through the schoolhouse doors. But, does the law prevent them from doing that? If you read carefully you will notice that the law protects only books that promote “sexual health”. However, it has been objectively shown that pornographic materials are damaging. In addition, the law requires school library staff to ensure that “such materials are tailored to the cognitive and emotional levels of the children served by the school”. Therefore, we have the grounds to insist that materials which contain age-inappropriate sexual content be removed from our school library shelves.
Final responsibility
Parents, you have the freedom to choose what you do in your own home and what content you put before your children. But these books have no place in the public school where young minds are in danger of being subjected to exposure of inappropriate material. Parents, not the state, are the ones who are responsible for deciding how and when to introduce their children to sensitive issues about gender and sexuality.
(1) Act 150 legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2024/Docs/ACTS/ACT150/ACT150%20As%20Enacted.pdf
Please contact us at speakvermont@gmail.com if you are interested in joining our efforts or have any comments or concerns.
Parents, not the educational system, have final say in what is taught their children.
The education system appears to be all in and an installed operative for all things Jeffrey Epstien and Ghislaine Maxwell. Being Gizzy’s daddy was a partner in McGraw-Hill (text book publisher), the predatory nature of educators and administrators…it all makes sense now. The reason why they are peddling the twisted ideology of the most notorious and wealthiest perverts among us – the schools are now the enablers, benefactors, partakers, and compensated operatives of global traffickers and psychopaths.
Your opinion shows how uneducated you actually are on the subject of trans youth. Your graphs only show that in recent years the public bigotry against the LGBTQ community has forced youth back into the closet. I am a parent of a trans adult and am incredibly offended that you portray me as a scheming, manipulative and misguided influencer in my child’s upbringing. Growing up, my child was never comfortable in their body. And once puberty hit, things got so much worse. School was a nightmare as being trans 15 years ago in middle school made you a freak and a target for bullying. Our child was so scared of rejection that they had a bag packed in case we kicked them out of the house once they revealed they were trans ( at the age of 17). Imagine living in that state of fear and uncertainty. It’s heartbreaking as a parent to look back and realize that you failed them in so many ways because you ignored the signs, just chalking up your child’s sadness to being a typical moody teen.
Educating teens to accept others just as they are is valuable and can save lives. Trans people just want to live their authentic lives and shouldn’t have to worry about whether that makes you uncomfortable.
And it’s also important for the public to understand, it is extremely difficult to receive supportive care as a trans youth. It’s not like you can just march into a doctor’s office and order up a sex change! There is counseling, visits with endocrinologists, countless fees and paperwork to change records, interviews with plastic surgeons, etc. It takes years to jump through all the hoops. But once there, the transition is so much more than physical ( and that doesn’t mean they had to have surgery , many people do not). The person finally feels at home with themselves and living authentically brings a joy they were denied all through childhood.
And none of this affects or endangers the people around them. It’s only your own fear and bigotry that is harming your child and keeping society in a constant state of denial. Learning the difference between gender and sexuality is vital. Teaching about the gender spectrum is simply an exercise in promoting acceptance of all humans. And this world definitely needs more acceptance and less hate.
I don’t doubt the personal struggles of individuals feeling out of place or out of synch with the world or with society – many feel that way and felt that way from whatever they witnessed or were told by elders, authority figures, or their peers.
The overall problem is authority figures forcing ideology onto others who are not inclined to capitulate to demoralizing or reverse bully tactics. There are some that simply don’t care about race, genders, economic status, or number of followers. What they do care about is being decent, kind, respectful and considerate without having to bend the knee or concede to mob rules or mind viruses.
What people do behind closed doors or their personal conduct is their free will and and their’s alone. When the government mandates you will conduct yourself in this manner toward this class or else – that is not cool, and it is an assault on personal soverignty and personal integrity.
The paradox shift being rammed down our throats is somehow the world society owes a fractured, rebelling herd special accolades, special treatment, and special accomodations. The shift of focus is what makes one different rather than what we have in common as human beings. It is divide and conquer and is intended to destroy civil society by a narrative of how uncivil we all are….it’s all a lie. Unfortunately, too many bought into it, and for that, we are becoming less tolerant and more defensive. Culture is not our friend – never was – all by design.