Dear Highline… Remember Mary Kay Letourneau?

It all started with secrecy … a teacher’s secret communication with a child.

The following is an open letter from Stuart Jenner to the Highline School Board and Superintendent Duran, regarding Patricia Bailey’s testimony on the new Parents’ Rights law.[NOTE FROM EDITOR: Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Burien-News or Daniel Media. If you wish to submit a story, photo, article or letter, please contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.]Dear Dr. Duran and Highline Directors,Remember Mary Kay Letourneau? Remember how she abused a child in her classroom, got pregnant by him, gave birth, ruined her life, ruined his life, caused a great deal of grief for countless numbers of people?It all started with secrecy … a teacher’s secret communication with a child.Her student/spouse was living in the area at one point and their kids went to Marvista. In 2020, she died from cancer.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau[caption id="attachment_15159" align="aligncenter" width="216"]

Mary Kay Letourneau (Wikipedia.com)[/caption]

If teachers and administrators don’t obey the law, there are major consequences. The Highline district had major legal bills because of Letourneau’s behavior. The district was portrayed as inattentive. A lot went wrong, and a lot can go wrong if the district doesn’t have its act together.

I remember some of the bond campaigns 20 – 25 years ago had people voting no in part because they said this district can’t be trusted, this district is incompetent, you’re asking for money because you need it to pay legal bills for Mary Kay. That was not true, but it was something we had to deal with.

Tonight, I heard Patricia Bailey give relevant testimony on the new Parents’ Rights Bill, so I am attaching it here.

Ms. Bailey has wise words. Please heed them.-Stuart JennerHIGHLINE SCHOOL BOARD TESTIMONY: 3/20/24 New Law Prohibiting Secrecy.Presented by Patricia BaileyGood evening.The Highline School District’s, “Gender Inclusive Schools” Policy 3211, will need some drastic amendments with the recent adoption of the Washington State “Parents’ Bill of Rights”. Passed by a wide margin earlier this month, it is a common sense law that prohibits schools from withholding mental health information from parents.Highline Procedure 3211 states a teacher will “privately ask known transgender or gender nonconforming students how they would like to be addressed...in correspondence to the home, and at conferences with the student’s parent or guardian.”This means if the student is using an alternative name and pronouns at school, unbeknownst to their parents, the student can direct the teacher to keep this identity a secret from their parents or guardian. This is lying by omission.Withholding serious mental health information from parents puts the student in extreme peril and disconnects children from the ones who love them the most—their family. It also puts up a psychological wall between the teacher and parent which is very damaging to the student’s education. This kind of cloak and dagger behavior is unbecoming for professionals and harmful to children.There is entirely too much emphasis in Highline on the so-called “culture of belonging.” The children belong to their parents. The family is where they belong. Schools are supposed to maintain a culture of learning and achievement.Please take care to delete all the anti-parent language in Procedures 3211 and retrain teachers in conformity with the new “Parents’ Bill of Rights.”