Students perform in drag for teachers during secret event at New Jersey high school

The event took place on Oct 27 at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, NJ, and was put on by the school’s PULSE (People Understanding Love Serves Everyone) club. The local community only learned about the students performing in secret for their teachers after an email was leaked to The New Jersey Project, a local parental rights organization.

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“The PULSE students are putting on an invite only (psst - this is your invite) Drag Show in the Little Theater block 5 today,” read the email from faculty advisor Heather Baldwin. "If you would like to come and support the students in their efforts to create fun drag looks, please feel free to drop by and join us."

According to Libs of TikTok, only a select few faculty were invited to the event which involved a professional drag performer called Phoebe Manntrappe, but no parents or students received an invitation. One witness said, "a teacher stood watch outside the door to the theatre while the show was going on to ensure those not invited would not enter."

Parents and faculty voiced their anger about the secret event at a board of education meeting held Monday.

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"Instead of our students being engaged in academic time, they were applying makeup and changing into their drag costumes. This was a loss of over 30 minutes of instructional time for these students," said one teacher before going on to say that the decision had "created significant confusion, division and resentment between students."

A parent took to the podium to blast the board for what he called the "evil" taking place "behind closed doors."

"It looks like we've put a whole new meaning to the word adult entertainment here, haven't we board?" he said. "Adult entertainment used to mean adults going to strip clubs watching other adults engaged in sexual behavior. Well, now thanks to this board, we see adult entertainment as a bunch of high school staff watching young children for their entertainment."

"I believe that the reason for the educational deterioration in America is a preoccupation with ideology and sexuality at the expense of academia," said another father to applause from those assembled. "You take this drag queen performance as an example. Not only were students taken out of the class to prepare for the performance, but they would have been unable to focus on their studies in any class during the day while their minds were preoccupied imagining about this performance."

"The question is, is this an academic institution or is this an ideological institution?" he asked, which earned more approval from those in attendance. "If I were to identify as an elephant, or wanted to change into an elephant, that would be okay if I was a toddler, but as an adult, a real academic institution would teach me that it was scientifically and biologically impossible. That would, in fact, be a mental disorder and I shouldn't be referred for psychiatric help."

But a school psychologist defended the clandestine event, arguing that he sees "tremendous value in the support offered by the PULSE club and events such as the drag show."