Desert Sands School District Trained Elementary Principals to Groom Young Students into Trans Cult

Public records recently released by the Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD) show that the district was training principals, especially at the elementary school level, on how to groom students into the transgender cult.  The released records show that the DSUSD used lesson plans and books, mostly aimed at the Kinder to 2nd grade levels, provided by the far-left Marxist organizations Gender Spectrum, the Human Rights Campaign, and the National Education Association in the mandatory principals training.

The records were the result of an original California Public Records Act (CPRA) submitted to the DSUSD on April 3, 2023, that asked for information pertaining to gender ideology, including gender support plans (GSPs), and the usage of words such as “gender support” and “name change,” from Ronald Reagan Elementary School in the district. The district refused to respond to the gender support plans portion of the request maintaining that they had previously responded (with completely redacted copies of GSPs of all DSUSD schools) the year before. 

 It took the DSUSD over seven months, finally responding on November 14, 2023, several missed deadlines, and several reminders from the requester to provide four (4) responsive documents (emails) to the requester. Those documents included an Association of California School Administrators (ACSA.org) “Gender Inclusion Training,” that was provided by Gender Spectrum and the ACSA on December 2, 2021. 

Two other documents pertained to a mandatory, principal level Structured Academic Support Time (SAST) that took place on January 3, 2022. Of those two documents, the first was an email containing a Zoom link to dozens of DSUSD emails, assumed to be school site administrators, informing them that DSUSD employee Tori St. Johns would be “reviewing gender support plans” in that SAST meeting. 

The fourth document was an email addressed to all staff of Shadow Hills High School, that seems to be forwarded from the Zoom link email, which included the principal at Ronald Reagan Elementary School. The email included an invitation to view a google doc folder titled “Gender Support Resources.”

The original CPRA requester submitted another request for the contents of the Gender Support Resources folder on November 16, 2023, which the DSUSD responded to on January 15, 2024.

The DSUSD describes the SAST in their 2023 Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) as being “professional development that the LEA provides via the instructional leader of each school site on time per month…. In addition, directors and administrators in Educational Services coordinate professional development within weekly and monthly principal meetings.”  Thus, district principals are expected to pass information obtained from their SAST meetings on to their teachers. Which at least one did, as evidenced by the SHHS email sent by the then assistant principal, Leslie Wells.

Gender Support Resource Folder

The resource folder contained materials developed by the far-left gender activist group known as Gender Spectrum, provided by welcomingschools.org, which is maintained by the far-left organizations The Human Rights Campaign, and endorsed by the National Educators Association (NEA).  Additionally, Welcoming Schools roots, or founding, was with the input from other far-leftist organizations PFLAG Boston and GLSEN.

The books and/or lessons focus on the far-left’s obsession with grooming children, at a very young age, into the transgender cult and in age-inappropriate sexuality. The gender resource folder, which elementary school principals were expected to pass on to their site teachers, contained 17 lessons and/or books from welcomingschools.org.  Fifteen of those lessons and/or books were geared towards grades K-5, six of which were directed at the K-2 level, and two books were directed to grades 6-8. 

Most of the books, in a clear grooming style written by adults, depict young children, even younger than six, struggling with their “gender identity.” Books and lessons directed at the Kindergarten age include (see the HRC link for a full list):

• Be Who You Are by Todd Parr, which can be viewed on YouTube as read by Parr.
• Using Children’s Books To Look At Gender Stereotyping, which equates Race to gender dysphoria.
• Introducing Teddy, which teaches that a Doctor assigns you a “pronoun at birth.”
• I am Jazz, which is about a Kinder (or younger) boy that wants to be a girl and can also be viewed on YouTube.

• Julian is a Mermaid, which according to this California Globe article, “depicts a young Hispanic boy exploring the “intersectionality of race and gender.”
• Call Me Tree, which according to the HRC, “gives students a chance to learn about gender via a character in a book who does not use pronouns. The lesson first offers a video of a 4-year-old’s take on toys in the marketplace, and then urges children to write to toy companies for non-binary toys.
• Jacob’s New Dress: Understanding Gender Expression about a boy that wants to be a girl.
• The lesson titled Gender Terminology, developed by GLSEN, gives students the opportunity to check off their sex assigned at birth: Male, female, or intersex.

• The lesson The Genderbread Person v2.0, developed by itspronouncedmetrosexual.com provides a graphic for young children with the nether regions highlighted for “sex” and the heart for “attraction.” The reproducible handout includes a QR code that links to the its pronounced metrosexual website.
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• The lesson The Gender Unicorn, which links to www.transstudent.org/gender “to learn more” is also a graphic that highlights the nether regions of a unicorn while the thought bubble depicts a rainbow.

A search of the DSUSD website produced no results for any of the books or lessons mentioned in the CPRA release.  Likewise, a search of the district’s board agendas, minutes, and policies produced absolutely zero results.  Which would seem to suggest, especially considering their abusive CPRA response time, that the district wants to keep this information from the public purview. Parents with children at Ronald Regan Elementary School would be well within their rights to show up at the next board meeting and demand full disclosure about the grooming practices the district proselytizes. Additionally, one school board member, Kailee Watson (elected in 2022) was made aware of the CPRA via cc’d emails that went unanswered. Thus, it is logical to conclude that the secretive grooming books and lessons have the full blessing of the DSUSD school board.