Chris Lange, FISM News
A North Carolina school used transgender-themed flashcards to teach preschoolers about colors, one of which depicts a pregnant man, Fox News first reported.
The “Progress Pride Flag Rainbow Families Flash Cards” are part of the approved preschool curriculum for Ballantine Elementary School in Wake County. Republican State Rep. Erin Paré said she notified the school’s principal about the cards after a “concerned constituent” alerted her to an incident in which the cards were used.
“Schools should only be using age-appropriate materials, and these flashcards clearly do not meet that standard for a pre-school classroom,” Paré told Fox News in a statement, adding that the principal was taking “swift action” to investigate the constituent’s claims.
The flash cards shown to the preschoolers “celebrate LGBT2SQ+ Families of diverse races, ages, sexualities, genders, and abilities,” according to the seller’s website.
According to the report, the principal, whose name was not provided, located the cards in the preschool classroom and confirmed with the teacher that they had been used in lesson plans. The unnamed principal, who said she had been unaware of the cards until she was contacted by Paré, confiscated them and subsequently alerted the district superintendent and human resources to the incident.
Paré said other schools should use the response of Ballentine Elementary as an example of how to respond to parents’ concerns.
“I hope schools across Wake County and the State of North Carolina will follow the example of Ballentine and respond swiftly when a parent expresses concern and ensure that materials like this are not being used to teach young students,” Paré said.
The North Carolina Republican-led General Assembly is currently working to pass a measure that would give parents more control over what their children are taught in school, including the authority to opt out of what they consider to be “age-inappropriate classroom materials.” The move follows the passage of Florida’s controversial Parental Rights in Education law in March.
The rights of parents in their children’s education took a prominent place in recent sociopolitical discourse in the U.S. following COVID-19-enforced remote learning that exposed parents to the extent to which progressive ideology is being taught to their children. A recent study found that an overwhelming majority of Americans object to transgenderism being taught in the classroom.