A special needs student at a California high school was allegedly called a “bigot” by her teachers for mistakenly not using preferred pronouns, objecting to participating in a lesson about “scissoring” and refusing to get undressed near male teachers.
When Marina Vivar signed her daughter, Thelma Gonzalez, up for a course on health and relationships at Glendale High School, she checked a box excusing her from being taught about “anything LGBTQ+ or about sexual acts which were gay in nature.”
During a speech to the Glendale City Council, Vivar said her decision to exempt her daughter was not respected by school staff, and that she was taught about sex acts such as scissoring and using a female condom.
When Gonzalez told teachers she should not be in the class, Vivar alleges they called her daughter a “bigot, intolerant and homophobic.”
Those terms, Vivar told the council, were unfamiliar to her daughter and aren’t words their family uses at home. She added her daughter would not have known the words unless she learned them at school and that her disability prevents her from coming across them organically.
“My teachers were going to send me to the principal office when I told them that it was against my beliefs and that I felt uncomfortable,” Gonzalez told the city council.
Vivar said Glendale High’s principal Benjamin Wolf conducted an investigation and concluded nothing happened.
“The lesson Ms. Vivar is referencing was a general lesson from the health textbook about making healthy decisions in your relationships. The teacher did ask Ms. Vivar’s daughter to refrain from making inappropriate remarks in response to a reference to LGBTQ+ relationships,” Glendale High Communications Director Kristine Nam told Fox News Digital.
“We have investigated the interaction and have not found any evidence that inappropriate remarks [for instance, referring to the student as a ‘bigot’] were used by the teacher. We will continue to thoroughly investigate,” Nam continued.
Marina Vivar speaks to the Glendale City Council as her daughter stands by her side. (Glendale City Council)
Gonzalez said she also felt uncomfortable having to change for gym class.
“I once got in trouble in the girls’ locker room because I did not dress down in front of other people,” Gonzalez said. “There are male teachers inside the girls’ locker room talking to Ms. Lewis. Her office [which is inside the locker room] has her door open and there are male teachers inside her office.”
The teen added: “I never wanted to see that, that’s why I don’t dress out to P.E. I was scared, I was terrified, because I was afraid of an adult male staring at me while I was changing. That’s why I don’t change.”
Nam called Gonzalez’s recollection “inaccurate” and said that male teachers have no reason to be in the girls’ locker room.
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“At no point would a male teacher or coach have reason to enter the girls’ locker room. Male and female coaches have separate offices and these offices are completely separate from the locker room changing areas,” Nam said. “Even if a male coach were to enter the female coaches’ office, the office does not have a window into the girls’ locker room. It is a completely different space separated by a brick wall.”
Thelma Gonzalez speaks to the Glendale City Council about her teachers making her feel uncomfortable. (Glendale City Council)
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The Glendale Unified School District has been heavily criticized in recent months after a policy update allowed educators to lie to parents about a student’s gender identity, and after the district sent LGBTQ+ educational materials to teachers for use during pride month without parental knowledge.
