HOUSTON – The Texas governor has directed the Texas Educational Institution (TEA) to investigate after the district allows students to make a “social transition” against state law.
On Thursday, Governor Abbott’s office issued a statement saying that tea will be investigated after students at Berard High School are allowed to “make a social transition.”
Currently, state laws outline that state employees, including educators, are prohibited from supporting students through social transitions, with a selected name, pronoun, or other means, at risk of termination or loss of state funds.
Texas House Bill HB 3616 defines “Social transitioning” as “a person’s transition from the gender identity associated with the person’s biological sex assigned at birth to an alternative gender identity through the adoption of a different name, different pronouns, or other expressions of gender, including clothing and hairstyles, that are: (A) typically associated with the biologic sex opposite of the person’s biological sex assigned at birth; and (B) intended to communicate The alternative identity of the person.”
Officials allege that Beller High School educators violate state law as they inappropriately “socially transitioned” students against their parents’ wishes.
The scope of social transition has not been clarified by state agencies. The state’s definition of “social transition” does not correspond to referrals to medical procedures or mental health care.
“When a child enters the classroom, parents are not stripped of their rights,” reads the letter. “Schools should certainly not promote distorted concepts of human biology or push children further into gender discomfort. To that end, I have directed Tea to investigate allegations that Beller High School employees tried to socially transition students,” Gov. Abbott said in a statement.
In Abbott’s national speech, the governor announced that Texas respects only two genders, male and female, and that educators discussing gender transitions with students of all forms should be fired.
This, alongside the federal initiative from President Donald Trump, explains the supposed efforts to “secretly transition children” as child abuse.
