Add Maine to the list of states figuring out that you shouldn’t whisper sexually suggestive things to other people’s small children. This includes when they’re in school trying to learn reading, writing and arithmetic.
Maine’s Department of Education has pulled from its website a video aimed at turning kindergarteners on to transgender identity and same-sex relationships, but only after the video was featured in a Republican TV spot aimed at unseating Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.
The Portland Press Herald said the department and Mills agreed that a teacher-developed lesson plan called “Freedom Holidays” – created during the COVID-19 pandemic to help teachers engage remote learners – was not appropriate for kindergarteners.
The Democratic governor even claimed innocence of the video’s existence. “The governor was not aware of the lesson, but she understands the concerns expressed about the age appropriateness, and agrees with the Department of Education’s decision to remove the lesson,” a Mills spokeswoman said on May 18, as soon as the Republican ad started running.
It seems that Mills suddenly believes that what is taught in a classroom should be decided together by parents, community members, teachers and local elected school boards. She will also “continue to respect LGBTQ+ people as valued members of the Maine community,” however, so little kids aren’t out of danger just yet.
Maine Department of Education spokesman Marcus Mrowka said the lesson-plan video in question “should have received further review by a DOE specialist” before it was posted online as part of a program that provides free, project-based lesson plans created by Maine teachers for optional use by other Maine teachers. In fact that online resource is now under new scrutiny by department staff, he said.
Yet the kindergarten teacher who created the unreviewed, un-vetted trans video was paid $1,000 for doing so, Mrowka acknowledged.
