Ontario school calls child protective services after parents object to secret gender transition of daughter

Julie (at 10 years old) first began to question her gender identity during the Covid pandemic, when she was isolated from other students, doing classes online and spending a lot of time on social media, especially TikTok, where she “discovered the LGBTQ+ community.”

“At first, it was only my sexuality: pansexual, lesbian, maybe bi?” the girl later revealed in a personal essay. She became more engrossed in the online material and agreed that she was feeling “anxious and uncomfortable” about her body and it prompted her to question her gender.

“Transgender activists were actively posting videos about ‘safe’ breast binding and how euphoric testosterone makes you feel and how it makes all your problems suddenly disappear. The more I was brainwashed by these videos, the more I started to resonate with them,” she wrote.

Julie started to privately identify as non-binary in 2021, as she began grade 5. She announced her decision to her class early in 2022.

A teacher at the York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) assisted in her “transition” and ensured that her parents were never informed about her choice of “they/them” pronouns and a different, male name that she answered to in the classroom. When the parents demanded to be at least included in the discussion, the school called the Children’s Aid Society (CAS), which immediately began harassing the parents.

In December 2023, Julie detransitioned after the revelation that she had been subsumed by the gender ideology hype and was discouraged from examining her anxiety from the perspective of mental health. But her parents have been warning other families that schools assume they have the right to overrule and ignore parents and then call in the authorities to punish them when they demand the rights of parents.

“It was a horrible time for me as a parent because so much was happening behind my back. I didn’t know for a long while about many things that were happening. I suspected that something was really wrong,” Julie’s mother, Christina, told the National Post.

The National Post did not name the school or use the actual names of the girl or her mother.

Christina told the Post that she was initially unaware of the powers that schools have to exclude parents from the gender ideology and pronoun debate in the classroom. Ontario’s education minister would not comment on this case when queried by the Post, but a spokesperson suggested a school policy that prevents parents from knowing about their child’s gender decisions is wrong.

“We have been made aware that Children’s Aid Society has been involved in this case, and it would be inappropriate to comment on this individual situation,” Isha Chaudhuri, a spokesperson for the education ministry, told the Post in a statement. “However, I can reaffirm the government’s clear expectation that parents be fully involved and engaged by school boards in the life of their children. We expect transparency between all parties to ensure the safety and success of every child.”

The Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies refused to discuss its role in Julia’s case. Some provincial governments are pushing back against the gender ideology agenda. Last February, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced that teenagers under 17 would no longer be able to access sex change operations and those under 15 would be banned from being prescribed puberty blockers. This was protested by activists as "anti-trans."