They Trained Us How to Hide Kids' Gender Changes from Mom & Dad [WATCH]

A former public school teacher in Olympia, Washington, says educators were instructed to conceal sensitive student information from parents, including changes to gender identity and pronouns, during his time working in the Olympia School District.

Ryan Defant, who now teaches at Evergreen Christian School in Olympia, made the claims while describing his experience as a teacher at Centennial Elementary.

Defant said that during multiple staff meetings, teachers were trained on how to use internal systems to keep certain student information hidden from parents.

“My name is Ryan Defant right now. I’m currently teaching at Evergreen Christian school, and I live in Olympia, Washington. I used to work at Centennial Elementary in the Olympia School District, and I can recall several staff meetings where we were trained and showed how we can hide information from parents using our skyward program,” Defant said.

Skyward is a widely used student information system that allows families to access grades, attendance records, and other school-related information.

According to Defant, teachers were instructed on how to enter data into the system in a way that blocked parental access.

“Skyward program was where we did our grades and attendance and information for families to access, but we had a teacher, and a couple teachers actually train us on how we can input information into skyward that was behind a wall that parents couldn’t access,” he said.

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Defant stated that the concealed information included changes to a student’s gender identity and pronouns, which he said were entered without notifying parents.

“We were changing pronouns, we were changing gender. We were hiding that information,” Defant said.

He also described what he characterized as a broader culture of silence among teachers, driven by fear of losing their jobs if they spoke out against district policies.

“I think many teachers want to keep their heads down, bite their lips, bite their tongues because they want a job,” Defant said.

Defant said teachers often want to work collaboratively with families but feel constrained by rules that limit communication with parents, even on issues involving student safety or health.

“We want to partner with our teeth, our parents, and we want to trust them, and they want to trust us with medical stuff, with bullying,” he said.

According to Defant, teachers were sometimes prohibited from sharing information with parents for extended periods, even when immediate communication would normally be expected.

“There’s times where we don’t we can’t disclose that information for 48 hours or more,” Defant said.