Hartland Teacher Discredits Student's School Board Speech
OpEd: A. Yarber
My wife and I were very proud of our 14-year old daughter for speaking during the Call to the Public at the Hartland School Board meeting on Monday, November 13th. It takes courage to speak in a public venue at such an age when the topic is as personal as boys using the girls bathroom while you are in it. This has happened to her twice this year and she has only been a freshman at Hartland High School for three months.
Given that our daughter spoke courageously for the safety of all students, we were absolutely shocked to learn that a teacher at the high school took the opportunity to apparently promote a social agenda by criticizing our daughter’s speech in front of a class of her peers while she was home sick that day! This was discovered when our daughter’s friend texted her saying, “she’s acting like you’re stupid, but she doesn't have any real argument.”
A conversation with the classmate and her mother confirmed the text messages, adding other stunning detail about this teacher’s lesson that day. This teacher asked if anyone had seen the girl talking about the bathrooms and lamented that whenever Hartland makes the news it’s not good, presumably referring to our daughter’s speech topic being aired on a CBS Detroit newscast.
Another student asked, “Was it Anne Marie Yarber?” The teacher confirmed, “Yes,” then complained that Hartland does not have any gay teachers and began to survey individual students, putting them on the spot, asking, “Do you feel uncomfortable in the bathrooms?” This is definitely not the lesson that tax payers or parents expect students to experience in an elective English class.
Based on our information and belief that our daughter’s rights have been violated, we have contacted the Hartland school administration and requested an immediate investigation. We have specifically asked if there has been a violation of FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), but other questions remain, including whether or not this teacher’s conduct reflects harassment of our daughter or a violation of her First Amendment rights. We are demanding answers and will not stop until we receive justice.
The issue of students using the opposite bathroom of their biological sex is not a new one for our family. Our son graduated in June, and he experienced a girl being in the men’s room twice during his last year. He knew this student to be a girl since he attended Round Elementary with her. When we questioned him at the time, Hartland Schools superintendent Chuck Hughes indicated that situations like this are handled on a case-by-case basis. Seriously? How long has this been the practice, and why are parents just now finding out?
Hartland Consolidated Schools is flirting with disaster. In Loudon County, Virginia, a Stone Bridge High School boy wearing a skirt was found guilty of forcible sodomy on a female classmate in the girls bathroom. This boy was reassigned to another school where he did the same thing again to another girl. The victim’s father had been found guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest at a school board meeting following an altercation with a woman who said she did not believe that his daughter was raped.
Laughably, radicals in our community of Hartland are alleging that my daughter comes from an anti-trans family and is making up a false incident in order to promote our extremist ideology. In fact, we want a safe environment for all students, and all students should be respected and made to feel welcome, but not at the expense of others. Unfortunately, this experience shows that teachers are, in fact, trying to indoctrinate our students, and that is the extremism that no parent should tolerate.
Signed, Alex Yarber
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