Westborough Public Schools Thinks Keeping Secrets from Parents is More Important than Keeping Kids Safe

WPS, time to stop being "woke" and ACTUALLY wake up, before it's too late.

Westborough parents, we need to talk. Your school system is keeping secrets from you, and you need to know what they are hiding because it ain’t pretty.

But first, a history lesson.

Back in May 2022, Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) submitted a Public Records Request asking the Westborough Public Schools for (amongst other things):

1. The title, edition, and publisher for all books, videos, pamphlets, web-based materials, or other curricula involving human sexual education or human sexuality issues implemented or maintained in the district, 

2. Invoices for the purchase of all resources, including printed materials, demonstrative aids, and subscriptions to online content, involving human sexual education or human sexuality issues implemented or maintained in the district,  

3. The grade or grades for which the above referenced materials are implemented or maintained. 

Shortly after MFI made their PRR, a concerned parent posted the following in our Massachusetts Informed Parents Facebook group.

Question #6 on the Sexuality: Myths v. Facts sheet reads:

6. A person can look like a boy or a man and feel on the inside like they are a girl or a woman. (Students are given the option to circle either “Myth” or “Fact” as an answer.)

On the Sexuality: Vocab, Facts, Support sheet, students are required to define terms like “genderfluid” and “cisgender.” The bottom of the sheet includes the following “Facts:”

• Gender variance and sexual orientation are not mental illnesses.

• They are not determined by any one single factor.

• Timing, emergence, recognition, and expression are individual.

• Everyone’s timeline needs to be respected!

• We’re all evolving as individuals as we learn about ourselves through experience and maturity.

Parents sniffed the ideological bias out right away, and they weren’t happy. Putting an exclamation point after an opinion doesn’t make it a fact - even if it’s on a school worksheet. Parents wondered - where is the evidence for these so-called “facts?” What would happen if a student asked deeper questions, like “‘what does it mean to ‘feel on the inside like (someone is) a girl or a woman?’” Who designed these sheets? And what other controversial-ideologies-masquerading-as-“facts” were their children being taught?

MFI received a response from their PRR of WPS, and while it yielded some information, it did not answer the questions related to this worksheet. In fact, it did not include this worksheet at all.

Here’s what the PRR did say:

The WPS did NOT send MFI the worksheets being given out in 9th-grade health, but they did send a list of Comprehensive Sexuality Education resources they claim to use. Their list includes The 3Rs (aka Rights, Respect, Responsibility), Amaze, and the National Sexual Education Standards, all of which are funded (in part or in whole) by the wokesters at Advocates for Youth, an activist organization that stumps for progressive causes like increased abortion access, free condoms and emergency contraception on campuses, the Trans-Affirming Schools Project, and something called The Queer and Gender Equity Project.

So, y’know. Totally not biased at all.

Does WPS show kids this Amaze video, What is Pleasure?, that teaches kids about masturbation and “cumming?” IDK. Maybe somebody should ask them.

The WPS also said they use resources from OUT MetroWest, which is not a curriculum company. OUT MetroWest is a local nonprofit that provides free programs that “connect LGBTQ+ youth with supportive peers and LGBTQ+ adult role models” as well as offering “Community Education” to a variety of audiences, including schools (but not police departments, because according to their policy on engagement with law enforcement, they think the best way to protect the youth they serve is NOT to have police around. Or something like that.).

From the OUT Metrowest website. We will have more to say about them soon. Keep reading.

WPS didn’t tell us what exact resources they use from OUT MetroWest, so we are left to wonder. What might an organization that offers programming like “Glow,” which is geared toward “all LGBTQ+ young children (ages pre-K through Grade 5)” offer to WPS students? We just have to guess, at least for now.

You can read MFI’s full analysis of the information received from Westborough’s 2022 PRR HERE (if you’re in Westborough, you definitely should check it out).

Since MFI doesn’t like to guess, especially when it comes to protecting our kids from sexualization, they are submitting a new PRR to the WPS asking for more specific information about what is being taught to district students. We’ll keep you posted on what MFI receives, for sure.

But while we wait to see if the WPS discloses what they are teaching to students, Westborough parents are continuing to share with us what they are seeing in their children’s classrooms. Just last month another parent posted those same sheets we saw last year along with another activity. So, we know these fake-facts are still being taught to 9th graders.

We’ve learned of this slideshow too, which we were told is also shown in 9th grade: “Sexuality: Sex, Gender and Orientation”

“40+ terms to identify gender identity.”

“But wait! There’s more!” Is this some sort of infomercial for gender identity?

Again, with the “But wait! There’s more!” Why are they so excited about this stuff?!

Maybe this is part of why kids are so anxious these days. It is a LOT of work to remember all of this.

See the text at the bottom? It appears the WPS is now an expert on what “can’t be changed through prayer.” Since when is the WPS the authority on prayer?

Let’s take a closer look at that last slide, shall we?

The WPS is sharing these resources with their students, yet they didn’t share most of them with MFI. Hmm. Now we’re gonna have to dig in and see what each of them are all about.

We’ll take a look at the list from the bottom up.

I Wanna Know is a website sponsored by the American Sexual Health Association that teaches kids how to put on condoms, how to find an abortion provider, provides links to other websites about sex and sexuality, and more.

Sex, Etc. is a website that is supposed to be “by teens, for teens” but is sponsored by Answer, a national organization that advocates for Comprehensive Sexuality Education (a specific kind of sex ed written on the premise that kids are sexual from birth and that they have the right to sexual pleasure). On Sex, Etc. teens can read articles about “the value of gender affirming care,” take a poll about masturbation, visit a glossary of Sex Terms where they can find definitions to words like “analingus” and “beaver,” and more.

Scarleteen, which claims to offer “Sex Ed for the real world,” is one of the biggest offenders in the realm of teen sexualization. On Scarleteen kids can learn about kink, read the how-to’s of masturbation, find out how to access abortion (and be introduced to the topic of herbal abortion), and so many more gross and disturbing things that it would take all day to list them here. There’s also a live chat option where minors can talk about these things with… well, the kind of adult who thinks Scarleteen thinks these topics are appropriate for kids. If you want to go look for yourself, be our guest. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

This is a real question from Scarleteen’s message board. You can read it HERE.

The Trevor Project “is the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for LGBTQ young people. We provide information & support to LGBTQ young people 24/7, all year round.” Included in the “information and support” the Trevor Project offers is TrevorSpace, an “international community for LGBTQ young people ages 13–24.” Minors are invited to “sign up for free and start a conversation.” TrevorSpace has been outed as a groomer’s paradise by multiple independent sources (HERE and HERE, for starters). Someone should tell the folks at WPS, since apparently it hasn’t occurred to them, that giving minors access to chats about sexuality with strange adults on the internet could be problematic.

Also listed as a resource is OUTMetrowest.org. If that sounds familiar, it’s because we mentioned it earlier. OUT MetroWest is the organization that doesn’t like police and has programming for (so-called) LGBTQ Pre-K aged kids. But what does OUT MetroWest have to offer to students who might check them out after seeing their name listed here? Let’s take a peek at their Instagram.

Oh, look. Last September, they had a presentation on “Hormones 101” for “trans and enby youth in grades 9-12.”

And just last month they had a “Surgery 101” presentation, also for “trans & enby youth in grades 9-12.” (In case you’re not familiar with the term “enby,” it’s another way of saying “non-binary.” Like, N-B. Get it? They/them are so clever.)

Just within the last few weeks, OUT MetroWest announced that they have increased their programming - “Umbrella,” their program for “transgender and non-binary high school youth” will now meet weekly.

That’s the same program that is teaching kids about hormones and gender surgeries.

(And for months with a 5th Wednesday, the Umbrella meetings will be open to middle schoolers too!)

“Double the trans, triple the fun!”… because learning about cutting off your healthy body parts is - fun?!

But this shouldn’t be a concern, since parents have to consent to their kids going to these programs - right?

Wrong. Here’s what their website says about parental permission.

Red highlights are inserted by us. OUT MetroWest doesn’t highlight their own affronts to parental rights.

According to their FAQ page, “You can always tell us if there is a way you prefer that we -not- contact you. (For example, you can ask us not to send you snail mail or call your home phone.) We do ask that all youth participants provide contact information for an adult we can reach in case of an emergency. Which adult you choose is up to you.” (Emphasis ours.)

So, the WPS is pointing students toward an off-campus, outside organization where they can receive information and resources (including information on cross-sex hormones and surgery) without parental consent. As long as a kid can find some random adult to sign off, they’re good to go.

And it looks like not all of their events are even advertised publicly like this “private event” to celebrate “our trans, non-binary, and gender expansive kids and their families” (or, we can assume, whatever random adult a kid listed as an emergency contact). This event featured Alok Vaid-Menon, a controversial “non-binary” activist celebrity author who believes that there are as many genders as there are people, and every person should be able to determine their own gender.

From the Instagram account of OUT Metrowest’s former Program and Outreach Manager.

Alok Vaid-Menon is quite famous, with 1.3 million Instagram followers and 2.5M likes on TikTok. He has also taken some heat over the last few years after being linked to disturbing comments made in 2016 that referred to little girls as “kinky” and “deviant.” Alok has denied writing those comments, but not everyone in the LGBTQ community is buying his explanation. Whether he made pedophilic comments or not (which were discovered in 2021, prior to this event), a glance at his social media should have at the very least, given the folks at OUT MetroWest pause about introducing his work to minors.

One would hope that OUT MetroWest leadership thoroughly investigated the concerns about Alok’s “kinky” comments before they invited him to their event, but since so many of their staff members are big fans, it seems unlikely that they did. But even the troubling comments aside, there’s no denying that some of Alok’s online presence is highly sexualized. We’re not sure why OUT MetroWest leadership would think this type of celebrity is an appropriate role model for young people, especially young people who are permitted to attend events without parental consent. The former employee who posted the pic with Alok on his personal Instagram is no longer with OUT MetroWest, but the two ladies in this picture below are. If they would like to demonstrate that NO minors were allowed to attend this event without consent from their parents or legal guardians and that they thoroughly researched the concerns about Alok’s tie to pedophilic-sounding comments before they invited him, we would be happy to update this post.

Remember, we aren’t simply pointing out the problems with an outside community organization. We are pointing to a bigger problem: the WPS expressly recommending (partnering with?) OUT MetroWest as part of their curriculum.

Now back to that curriculum - at the very top of the list of resources at the end of the slideshow is the “WHS Gay/Straight Alliance.”

Or as they refer to themselves, the Westborough GSA. According to their Instagram bio, the “WHS Gender and Sexuality Acceptance club is a supportive group making a better world for LGBTQ+ students and allies alike.”

(Yes, reader, you may have picked up on the fact that there are different meanings for “GSA.” The meaning of these letters has morphed and changed since the first GSAs started in the late 80’s. The most common term for these clubs now is “Gender and Sexuality Alliance.” The fact that the international GSA powers-that-be decided that “gay/straight” was no longer good enough and that they had to expand to “gender and sexuality” is really quite telling about the degradation of the common understanding of the gender binary - but that’s a topic for another post.)

So, what does the Westborough GSA do? Their Instagram profile shows us a few events they have hosted or organized. They have bake sales, meetings at the school, and in 2021 they participated in the Day of Silence. This is all pretty standard stuff for GSA clubs.

But we can’t help but notice that they also have a history of advertising for OUT MetroWest programs. That’s the third time OUT MetroWest has come up, for anyone keeping score at home.

Then we noticed something else. While we have major concerns about the odd frequency of OUT MetroWest and their parents-optional ethos being marketed to minors, that’s not even the worst part. Let’s take a closer look at this picture from 2021:

Here we can see that the GSA is marketing all sorts of alternative sexualities to kids. Gross, but not surprising. But zoom in for a moment on the bottom corner, and that purple and white face-like logo you might not recognize.

That’s the logo for Discord, an online platform that has been called a “haven for sexual exploiters.” Discord is popular with the gaming community and has flown under the radar of most parents, who either have never heard of it or don’t realize how dangerous it can be. But even NBC News has reported that Discord is being used for sextortion and abductions. We sounded the alarm about the dangers of Discord in MIP last year, you can read more HERE.

According to this display, a Westborough HS student who was interested in the GSA would join the GSA’s google classroom, and then be forwarded information about how to connect on Discord. This begs two questions.

1. Why wouldn’t the GSA members just use Google Classroom to communicate?

2. This post is from 2021. How do we know the GSA is still using Discord?

This picture is how.

This photo of the Westborough HS GSA bulletin board was taken at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year. Notice the Discord logo in the top right-hand corner. That answers question #2.

It also sheds some light on question #1.

The bulletin board reads: “Note: our Google Classroom’s appearance is VERY DISCREET! You don’t need to worry about non-accepting guardians finding out.” It then shows the Discord logo and says, “Link on Google Classroom.”

So, the GSA’s “discreet” Google Classroom (that parents probably don’t know about) is used as a mechanism to funnel kids into a Discord group (that parents definitely don’t know about).

In other words, it’s all being done to hide GSA involvement from parents. And, oh look at what pops up again - OUT MetroWest. That’s the fourth time we’ve seen their activities promoted to students.

But back to the discreet-Google-Classroom-to-Discord-danger pipeline. This is not merely sneaky or foolish behavior. It is a violation of WPS policy.

It is a violation of policy IJNDB-E-I, Student Technology Responsible Use, which governs student access to the district-wide network and states that students must not “use communication tools… without teacher and parent consent.”

It also violates policy JJA, Student Organizations, which outlines the fact that student organizations (a category that includes the GSA) are still bound to school committee policies (like the one above).

It also arguably violates policy JJ, Co-Curricular and Extracurricular Activities, which clearly depicts parents as having a role in whether or not their child participates in extracurricular activities.

While some administrators may argue that the GSA is a student organization and not a co-curricular/extracurricular activity, and therefore not bound to policy JJ, the Westborough High School 2023-2024 Handbook seems to view these two categories as interchangeable.

The same Handbook illustrates a level of administrative approval required for “Posters and Banners.” If an administrator must approve posters and banners, who is responsible for what is put on bulletin boards? If not the administrator, then possibly the GSA advisor? Regardless, SOME adult-whose-salary-is-funded-by-taxpayer-dollars should be paying attention to this.

Ok, ok… we know that was the part of the post where we probably lost some of you in the weeds. Digging through school committee policies isn’t exactly a nail-biter. But it’s the Westborough School Committee’s job to make sure the Westborough Public Schools Superintendent does her job (even if she’s on her way out the door). We also hope that when her replacement is hired, they find someone who will hold a higher standard for WPS building-level administrators. Because this isn’t a new problem - this same bulletin board has been up since 2021! Building-level admins probably walk by it every day. The fact that they either didn’t notice the Google-Classroom-to-Discord-pipeline, or didn’t see a problem with it, illustrates exactly why parents have lost trust in the public school system (and why Massachusetts Informed Parents exists).

This post from 2021 clearly shows the same sneaky Discord trick.

Remember, like OUT MetroWest’s off-campus shenanigans, the GSA’s questionable behavior matters even more because it is pushed in the 9th-grade curriculum as a recommended resource.

But let’s go back to that 9th grade curriculum because believe it or not, there’s MORE we need to show you. Thanks to concerned parents, we also know that 9th graders are receiving this assignment that sends them into (yet another) perilous corner of the internet.

The “Love is Respect Webquest” doesn’t merely recommend that students access websites with objectionable material - it forces them to do so!

Love is respect, a website funded by federal grants ostensibly to protect teens, sexualizes them in the process. Just like the other secret-keepers mentioned in this post, love is respect is on the hush-hush bandwagon too. In fact, they have not one, but two, escape-hatch-alerts to let kids know that they can quickly leave the website if prying eyes are around.

Does love is respect contain some valuable information? Sure. But there’s also stuff like this:

Remember, this resource is being used with 9th graders, and 9th graders aren’t legally old enough to consent to sex in MA. This website talks a LOT about “consent,” but we didn’t see anywhere that specifically mentioned that you have to be a certain AGE to legally consent to sex.

Here’s another problem - see where the red arrow is pointing? That’s what pops up when you click “chat live now.” Kids can use this function to chat with unknown adults about sex and relationships. This isn’t the only website mentioned in this post with this function (we’re looking at you, Scarleteen and TrevorSpace!), but it’s the first one that students are expressly required to visit.

Did you notice what else it says on this “Dating 101” page, by the way? They define dating as “two or more people in an intimate relationship.” Oh, and both of the screenshots we used from this website depict non-heterosexual relationships. We didn’t have to dig for those. Pretty much any page that depicts a couple includes at least one photo of a same-sex pairing. This proliferation goes beyond “representation;” this is activism-via-photo-selection. To read our analysis of why this isn’t good for kids, see our post about Longmeadow Public Schools and their resources HERE.

While we’re still talking about the 9th-grade health curriculum, here’s one more list of resources provided to 13-and-14-year-olds during their school day, on their district-issued device.

We aren’t going to go back through these resources, many of which we have already talked about. But we would be remiss if we didn’t point out the fact that the WPS is telling kids that websites like Scarleteen, where minors can learn about kink and masturbating with cucumbers and can get advice from rando “sex-positive” volunteers who are passionate about talking to kids about pleasure (see below), are “Safe Sites to Check Out.”

This is exactly why many parents (and taxpayers) in Westborough no longer have confidence that their school district has their children’s best interests at heart. They are right to question the WPS because the WPS has shown over and over that, while they appear quite capable of vomiting rainbows on every child who walks in the door, they seem quite INcapable of detecting any of the red flags that pop up when ideology takes over and discernment is kicked to the curb. In 2022, an employee of a Westborough elementary school was arrested for alleged possession of child pornography. One would think that, given that close call, Westborough administrators and the Westborough School Committee would be hypervigilant for possible avenues of abuse. One would think they would prioritize parental involvement at every turn and tighten the reins on activities where students interact with unknown outside adults. One would think that they would be on high alert for situations that might put their students in danger, and that they would stop at nothing to protect their kids. Yet, it wasn’t that difficult for us to find clear examples of them doing exactly the opposite.

But we are choosing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they just don’t know about all of the red flags we found.

Maybe this post will wake them up.

Mural, Westborough High School. If they spent as much time protecting kids from sexualization and exploitation as they did painting stuff like this, parents wouldn’t be nearly as concerned.

In fact, Westborough parents and taxpayers should demand that the district wake up and act now to protect students from harm. And not just the parents who have been speaking up at school committee meetings expressing their concerns. ALL parents should demand that the district does more to safeguard their kids. The reputation of their school district is on the line. The WPS is already “woke,” but now it needs to be woke in a totally different way. Setting a high bar for guarding kids from sexualization and exploitation is not a partisan issue. Most liberal parents don’t want their kids talking to strangers on the internet about sex or attending off-campus events at a place where parental consent isn’t required, without their knowledge, either. If a school district isn’t protecting kids from predators, they are failing at their most basic responsibility. This isn’t complicated.

WPS school committee members, we implore you. Take the rainbow-colored blinders off. You have been elected to ensure a quality education for the kids of Westborough, not set them up to be taken advantage of online or to undermine their relationship with their parents. It’s time to be brave and make some changes in your district before you end up in the news again. Maybe the last time didn’t end up involving WPS students, but it easily could have. The next time, it might be your students.

Change needs to come to Westborough before a (or another!) confused 14-year-old gets counseled by an OUT MetroWest “role model” to take the next step toward irreversibly scarring gender mutilation surgery. Change needs to come to Westborough before a GSA member is trafficked by someone they met on Discord, or a 9th-grade health student is sextorted by someone they met on TrevorSpace. Yes, change needs to come to Westborough before more students have their innocence stolen during 9th-grade health class - because even though forcing kids to access websites that tell them that threesomes are okay and that they can have sex with whomever they want as long as they get consent isn’t technically illegal, it should be. It’s wrong. And it’s gross. Maybe you didn’t know about it before, but now you do. Now you need to do something.

Concerned Westborough parents, we know many of you want to turn the rainbow-colored tide in your district. The woke force is strong in Westborough, and regardless of how it got to where it is today, it will be an uphill battle to bring the WPS back into the realm of we-teach-facts-and-not-ideology. However, we think there are a few reasonable changes that most parents could agree on that would get you headed in the right direction. We recommend that you bring these three “asks” to your school committee:

1. Reassess the websites used or recommended in the WPS health curriculum. Remove any websites that include links to chatbots, graphic sexual material, or controversial political and/or ideological views on gender and sexual orientation. If new websites are added, ensure that they do not contain this type of content.

2. Ensure that all student activity groups, clubs, and extra-curricular/co-curricular activities adhere to the letter as well as the spirit of school committee policies concerning proper technology use, avoiding the use of unapproved communication platforms, and welcoming parental involvement. Set and maintain an expectation that, in the name of transparency and to ensure that public records are correctly maintained, all Google classrooms are named in a manner consistent with their use and that parents are granted access to any Google classroom that their child is a member of.

3. Discontinue the promotion of, or partnership with, any outside organization that has policies or procedures that, intentionally or unintentionally, create an environment where student involvement or participation can be concealed from parents.

These three requests are very reasonable. Most parents would probably agree that these are fair requests. If followed, these three requests would tie up three gaping holes in student safety and maintain the rights of parents to direct the upbringing of their own children. The school committee could easily express their support for these requests and direct the Superintendent to act accordingly. And they should.

Speaking of the Superintendent, since Westborough will be looking for a new one, parents should (respectfully) send the message loud and clear that they want the next person who sits in that chair to be focused on education, not indoctrination. Westborough Public Schools has a chance to chart a new course with a new leader at the helm. The only question is, will they do it?

The woke force is strong district wide, not just at WHS. This picture, from Gibbons Middle School, depicts the entrance to an art class. Kids are supposed to learn about colors in art, but not like this.

Westborough parents, pretty soon you will know exactly where your district truly stands. If the Westborough school committee won’t make the modest changes suggested in this post, and if the new Superintendent also insists on placing sexual ideology over student safety, your path is clear. You need to take your kids out of the WPS and tell all of your friends to do the same.

Your move, WPS. Will you protect the kids in your district?

#equippingparents
#protectingkids

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