San Francisco Schools Let Students Change Name, Pronouns Minus Parents’ Knowledge or Consent
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell /
The San Francisco public schools allow students to change their preferred name and pronouns at school without the knowledge or consent of their parents.
San Francisco United School District’s LGBTQ Student Services department offers guidance on “Changing Your Name and/or Gender” in the district’s systems. The document offers a note “for students to think about,” recommending they wait to change their in the school records if they are not ready for their parents to find out their gender identity.
“Remember that your caregivers have the right to check out some of your school files, Google Classroom, or may end up on a Zoom call or meeting with you and staff at your school, and may see/hear that you are using a different name or pronoun,” the note reads. “If you are concerned about your caregiver’s response, you may not be ready to complete any of the above processes.”
It’s unclear why the district refers to parents as “caregivers.”
The San Francisco district says students have the right for peers and staff to use their preferred name and pronouns at school “without having to sign any forms or get your caregivers permission.”
Policies like San Francisco’s could be mandated statewide in California, as a bill that would prohibit school districts from telling parents about a child’s gender expression without the child’s permission is moving forward in the state Legislature.
Students in San Francisco also are entitled to ask school staff to use their preferred name and pronouns only in certain places or around certain people, including or excluding their “caregivers.”
That falls under the “right to be safe and respected at school,” the school district maintains.
San Francisco grants students the “right” to come out and transition at their own pace and in their own way, as well to file a report if someone purposely refers to them by pronouns they don’t prefer.
The district encourages students to tell school staff if they want to hide their gender identity from their parents so that a staff member doesn’t accidentally reveal it.
“We cannot guarantee that people will always remember which name and pronoun to use for you or when,” the document says. “There is always a risk that someone might slip up.”
“If you are not planning to change the name or pronouns you go by at home, make sure to let your teacher and school administrator know so that they can support you,” the district advises.
The San Francisco United School District did not respond to The Daily Signal’s question about whether its policy violates parental rights.
A nonbinary-identifying biology teacher named River Suh has his own method of determining whether his students’ parents support their gender identity.
Suh passes out a form for his eyes only determining the student’s name in the school record, what the student wants to be called in class, and what name and pronouns he should use when contacting the student’s parents.
The teacher posted the confidential “Name and Pronoun Onboarding Form” on his blog so other teachers can use it.
“Sometimes our students use different names and pronouns at home, in our classroom, and at school,” Suh wrote in 2020. “Welcome a student with this form and make them feel safe about their self-expression.”
Suh teaches at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco and is a writer for “Gender-Inclusive Biology,” a website with biology lesson plans that aim to “embed” so-called gender inclusion as a “recurring part of the curriculum, not a one-time lesson, an extension, or a reaction to an interaction.”
Suh did not respond to a request for comment.
The San Francisco United School District has a history of pushing gender ideology on children. The public school system posted a guide on how to teach elementary school students about “LGBTQ Family and Gender Diversity.”
It offers a “Gender Inclusive Language” guidance form instructing teachers to avoid words like “mom and dad” and “boys and girls” in favor of “guardian,” “adults,” and “grown-ups,” and “y’all,” “learners,” and “they/their.”
The San Francisco LGBTQ Student Services office refers students to a number of local “gender-affirming care” clinics, including abortion giant Planned Parenthood and the University of California at San Francisco’s gender clinic, which accepts children starting at age 3.
Recommended clinics provide sterilizing hormone-replacement therapy treatments as well as referrals for irreversible transgender surgery.
San Francisco’s LGBTQ policies are misaligned from what children actually need, Michele Exner, senior adviser for Parents Defending Education, told The Daily Signal.
“This anti-parent policy is continuing to grow the erosion and gap that exists between parents and school districts,” she said. “That’s not where we should be. Parents should have good relationships with teachers and schools. This is teachers, staff, and administrators with an agenda trying to push it on children.”
Exner said San Francisco should be focusing on science, math, and reading, rather than transitioning kids. The district’s reading proficiency declined from 57% to 55% and math proficiency dropped from 51% to 46% between 2019 and 2022, according to the San Francisco Parent Coalition.
“This is wrong,” she said, “and I hope parents are speaking out.”