Arlington Public Schools Steals the Rainbow
Calling out "No Name-Calling Week" for what it is: more propaganda.
Earlier this week, on their Twitter/X account, the Arlington Public Schools (APS) triumphantly announced that children at two Arlington elementary schools, Dallin and Brackett, had celebrated “No Name Calling Week” in January.
Normally, something called “No Name Calling Week” (or, more correctly, “No Name-Calling Week” - right, APS English teachers?) wouldn’t set off any alarm bells. I mean, kids should always be told not to call each other names, right? But when we saw this tweet, we couldn’t help but notice all of the rainbows on the signs, and the trans flag drawn, apparently by a child, on a yellow paper heart. Hmm. What’s this about?
Fortunately, the APS provided a link to this article, which contains valuable context:
The article also includes a link to THIS VIDEO, which was “Brought to you by… Brackett Elementary Rainbow Alliance.”
In the video, a group of elementary students read from a script where they talk about why you shouldn’t call someone “gay.” Gay is the only term they seem to be concerned about in this video, which seems odd given the fact that the whole week is allegedly supposed to be against name-calling in general.
So, who is actually behind this video? Common sense indicates that it’s probably not just a group of elementary students. And why would the video only focus on shaming kids into never uttering one specific three-letter word that has historically had, and continues to have, multiple legitimate definitions? Because even though this week pretends to be about telling kids to be nice in general, it’s really about celebrating the world of LGBTQ+ diverse sexualities. This is especially true at Brackett where, unlike Dallin, the event was run by the “Rainbow Alliance.” (More about that later.)
It’s important that we talk about what happened at Brackett, for a few reasons.
First, because we weren’t able to find any evidence that Brackett parents were warned about this observance in advance.
It wasn’t mentioned in the Brackett Family Newsletter for the week of 1/11/24
and it wasn’t mentioned in any of the APS or Brackett social media accounts until after it was already over.
If the APS or Brackett admin didn’t tell parents about “No Name-Calling Week” in advance - why not? Wouldn’t they want to know about this wonderful week when their children are reminded about the importance of being kind and not name-calling? And wouldn’t the school want to be open with parents and let them know about this major week-long initiative, so that parents could be supportive and reinforce the message at home?
(If any Brackett parents want to update us and tell us that the school did indeed communicate this event in advance to families, we’ll gladly update this post. But we dug around pretty hard and didn’t see any evidence of it, so if there was any communication, we’re willing to bet a lot of Brackett families may have missed it as well.)
Second point - Brackett Elementary parents might be caught unawares by the sexuality-tie-in with this event, and others, because apparently, rainbows are also a historical part of Brackett’s school iconography. They might assume that any rainbows they see are just, as the Brackett website says, “a long-standing symbol of the beautiful spectrum of learning that our community values.” In fact, rainbows are everywhere at Brackett:
Are all of these rainbows intended to be ideologically charged? Not according to the district website. That could certainly be true because those of us who grew up reading the Bible know that the rainbow represents a promise from God to never flood the world again, and it can mean other things as well (remember Rainbow Brite, Gen X fam?). We understand that the symbol of the rainbow is not exclusively owned by the LGBTQ+ movement. But the ubiquity of rainbows at Brackett Elementary, even if well-intentioned, inadvertently could make for a desensitized student (and parent) population, who now see rainbows as commonplace and may not realize that some of them actually do carry a politically and sexually charged message.
For instance, the rainbows associated with the Rainbow Alliance.
See, the APS has “Rainbow Alliance Clubs.” These clubs are for “LGBTQ+ students, teachers, and allies” (a description that begs the question, why would anyone be talking to a third grader about who they are sexually attracted to, and why should a teacher be talking about their own sexual attractions with third graders?). The Rainbow Alliance at Brackett seems to be especially active (thanks to some highly motivated leaders, no doubt), but Rainbow Alliances can be found in other Arlington elementary schools as well.
And, not only does the APS offer these sexuality-focused clubs for youngsters, according to the Brackett Parents Diversity and Inclusion Group (DIG) website, but they are funded by the school budget!
These are your tax dollars at work, good people of Arlington.
Sexuality-related clubs are becoming increasingly common in elementary schools in MA (a disturbing fact that parents should be aware of), but Arlington is the first place that we have seen the clubs apparently fully funded by the district. In the past, GSAs and similar clubs nationwide have avoided scrutiny because they generally fall into the category of “student activities,” which are led and initiated by students under the guidance of an advisor, but not actually curricular. But it seems like the Rainbow Alliances are totally owned by the APS, which puts them in a category that requires a higher level of accountability from district leadership (and ideally, the taxpayers who pay their salaries).
Taxpayer sponsored sexuality clubs for prepubescent kids should definitely raise some eyebrows. But maybe the obvious red flags are ignored in Arlington, since their School Committee has been coopted by activists:
The superintendent seems to be a true believer herself, or possibly cowed under the pressure of the Arlington rainbow juggernaut and her own activist staff members and school committee.
We have no reason to doubt that the rainbow in Brackett’s logo really was just originally intended to represent a “spectrum of learning” - and we have nothing against rainbows in and of themselves. But with all of the levers of power in the APS controlled by people with a specific ideological agenda, parents can no longer assume a non-sexuality-related motive when they see ol’ ROY-G-BIV within the APS.
It’s no fun to point any of this out, but we must, because it’s possible that some well-meaning Arlington parents might still not be aware of just. how. over. the. top. their district is when it comes to the gender-ideology-and-diverse-sexualities agenda.
Dear Arlington Mom and Dad, here is your red alert warning. Not even your littles are safe from sexualization and indoctrination in the APS. Nothing short of a complete overhaul of your School Committee and district leadership is going to right the APS ship. If you are a conservative parent in Arlington and you want to run for School Committee, check out these upcoming Candidate Campaign Trainings from MFI. The world needs people like you to step up, step out, and get in the arena to fight for our kids. If you are a parent in Arlington and you are still trusting the APS with your precious child for many hours every day, five days a week, you need to know that your child is not safe. We do not doubt that there are probably some great teachers (and maybe even some administrators) in the APS who are good people who don’t go to work every day with the goal of indoctrinating your child. Connecting with these people is important, as is opting out of sex ed, but ultimately it won’t be enough to protect your child. If you want to keep your child safe from sexualization and gender confusion, you need to get your child out of the APS.
(There is a lot to say about the actual sex ed curriculum being used in Arlington as well. That’s a topic for another post, which we may write someday. In the meantime, Arlington parents should read this excellent article from Parents Defending Education that outlines the biased, unscientific, and hyper-sexual curriculum being used in the APS health classes.)
But the point of this post isn’t just to shine a light on Arlington, though they certainly deserve the attention. This is a warning to parents everywhere that they need to beware of “No Name-Calling Week,” and other similar nice-sounding events.
“No Name-Calling Week” is a national event originally promoted by GLSEN. GLSEN is the progressive LGBTQ+ activist organization that we have to thank for the proliferation of GSAs nationwide, as well as other in-school activism events like “Day of Silence.” “No Name-Calling Week” is absent from their current website, apparently because they decided recently to no longer promote the event. But thanks to the Wayback Machine, we can see what their website said about this event, as recently as October 2023. In case you’re reading this on a mobile device and that Wayback Machine link doesn’t work for you, here’s a bit of what it looked like:
And here’s the resource they provide for students who want to host this week at their school (Wayback Machine link HERE):
Did you catch the part on page 3 where they talk about polyamory? What about the vision board on page 4 where their aspirations include “No more pledge of allegiance in school,” “homomarxism,” and “gender neutral bathrooms/locker rooms?”
Remember, folks, this document is made for STUDENTS.
Just because this is no longer live-linked on the GLSEN website doesn’t mean that districts can’t still find (and use) this resource. A simple Google search for “GLSEN no name calling week” turns it up HERE. If the school has done this event in previous years, they likely still have this document on file.
Now, do we know that they used this document to guide their planning of “No Name-Calling Week” in Arlington? No, we don’t. But it’s possible they did. But even if they didn’t, it’s important for parents to see that an event marketed as anti-bullying and pro-niceness actually just might be pushing “homomarxism,” polyamory, and anti-Americanism. Unfortunately, this type of ideological bait-and-switch is not uncommon for these kinds of events.
Tricky, right? Yes, it is tricky - intentionally so. And no, it’s not fair. It’s not fair to kids who get sucked into activism before they are old enough to understand the implications of their actions, or to the well-meaning adults who don’t speak up against nonsense like this because they really still think it’s just about teaching kids to be nice. But this is a perfect example of why parents - and all mature adults - need to be aware that anti-bullying and/or “kindness” initiatives in any SEL-laden (social emotional learning), DEI-obsessed public school system in 2024 are almost ALWAYS a trojan horse for woke ideology.
That’s not a problem that’s limited to the APS - or even MA public schools - to be sure. But since the APS has chosen to distinguish themselves by not only bringing sexuality-themed weeks into the schools but by doing it on purpose with elementary schoolers, they deserve some special time in the stop-talking-to-little-kids-about-sex spotlight all to themselves.
The APS is run by activists, full stop. The sooner APS parents recognize how far gone the situation is, the better equipped they will be to protect their kids.
We’re not “name-calling” the APS. But we are calling them out.
Parents need to know the truth.
#equippingparents
#protectingkids
Did you love this post? Do you know people who would like to receive this type of in-depth analysis in their inbox, once a week (or whenever we post it)? If so, share Massachusetts Informed Parents Substack with your friends now!
Was this post forwarded to you by a friend? If so, subscribe today!
The first place I ever heard of any child being trans-itioned was from the Arlington Unitarian Church, if memory serves. Absolutely blinding reprobation. Complete cultural madness.