By John Klar

Annie Wilson was a Vermont public school teacher for 34 years, but retired two years ago after the woke writing was thickly coated on the schoolhouse walls. In recent testimony in the legislature against an outrageous bill that creates special shields for teachers who assist minor children to obtain gender hormones without parental knowledge, Ms. Wilson related her personal experiences with children who resisted the official party dogma:

Over the last few years I saw a great shift in education. The focus was leaning away from subject matter, the intellect and learning of knowledge, and more toward the emotional and social aspects of the child… The message was pretty clear, students were not allowed the freedom of free thinking unless it fit into the narrative of what the teachers felt was allowed…

Wilson relates stories of children being targeted and shamed for resisting School Pride celebrations; denied the liberty to display insignia of their support for then-president Donald Trump; and preferential favoritism for transgender students.  She related the experience of conservative students who demurred to the NEA’s official narrative on the January 6th “insurrection”:

The NEA (National Education Association) sent out suggestions on how the teachers could talk to the students about the attack on the capitol. The “conservative” students, the 7th graders, came to me and told me they were intimidated to speak up and say how they really felt about it for fear of being sent to the Resource Room, where students are sent for misbehavior.

During their CRT lessons, a social studies teacher wrote two categories on the white board, one of them being the word “Racist.” This social studies teacher placed “Trump” under the racist category on the white board.

This disgraceful politicization of the classroom is not confined to Vermont. The NEA ought to rename itself the DIA: Democrat Indoctrination Association.  Its website affirms Annie Wilson’s account:

Explain that the attack on the Capitol today was led by Trump supporters seeking to overthrow a legitimate presidential election and the will of the American people, but they will not be successful. Our country is much stronger than they are and their efforts to divide us will only make our unity more powerful.

This political marshaling of children for future militancy incorporates Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and Social-Emotional Learning. A recent survey of third-grade students in the same Vermont school where Annie Wilson taught asked them “Do you identify as LGBTQIA+?” and “Do you have a teacher or other adult from school who you can count on to help you, no matter what?”  Clearly students there who are from conservative Christian families do not have many supportive teachers.  Extremist woke teachers are grooming children to confide in them for gender hormone therapies, private discussions about sex, or other confidences “no matter what.”

Children with views that diverge from this one-party domination will be stigmatized and disciplined.  Cases have proliferated of children being rebuked for slogans such as “Let’s Go Brandon” and “There are only two genders”; a school fundraiser was canceled for selling Chick-fil-A products; an eight-year-old was forced to apologize for misgendering a girl who identified as a boy; girls (and their families) who objected to being forced to strip in their locker room before a gawking biological male were targeted as bigots.

A brave Vermont mother stood up for her young children against gender indoctrination in this same school district. A Vermont statute provides that children with religious objections against teaching about diseases must be dismissed from health education classes, but the parent was denied an exemption for her kids.

Annie Wilson pointed out that those grooming young children for these radical, life-altering decisions would once have been regarded as reportable predators, but are now being shielded while children are being exploited:

We know that students look up to, admire and idolize their teachers. What happens when a teacher or counselor, “(ii) is a person providing, assisting another person in obtaining, or obtaining for themselves reproductive health care services or gender-affirming health care services in this State”, manipulates and influences minors? H.89 protects them, but who protects the student?

Vermonters need teachers and parents who will stand up for children, not manipulate them like pawns for their own agendas.

John Klar is an attorney and farmer residing in Brookfield. This commentary originally appeared at American Thinker.