(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Montgomery County Public Schools, the largest school district in the state of Maryland, saw a 582% spike in the number of students identifying as gender-nonconforming.
According to the Post Millennial, the stats were originally posted by an educator on Twitter and came from forms that school counselors are required to fill in whenever a student comes to them to discuss issues related to gender identity.
The information was shared by Quince Orchard High School’s acting principal, Elicia Eberhart–Bliss, who posted it in a tweet as a follow up to a kick off event for their “MCPS Pride ALLiance meeting.”
An amazing kickoff event for the first in-person MCPS Pride ALLiance meeting! 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ QO was proud to host this opportunity to share glows and grows for LGBTQ+ students and staff #allmeansall #equityandinclusion #representationmatters @QOHSPrin_Thomas @mcpsequityteam @mcps_lgbtq pic.twitter.com/LPKdVhN82V
— Elicia Eberhart-Bliss (@QOActingAP) October 7, 2022
The data in an attached photograph showed that during the 2019-2020 school year, 35 students reported gender nonconformity to a counselor—four in elementary school, 19 in middle school and 12 in high school.
During the 2021-2022 school year, the total number had increased to 239, including 18 in elementary school, 129 in middle school and 92 in high school.
In total, 423 students filled out the form, and of those 45% identified themselves as “non-binary.”
MCPS collected the data across 84 different schools and included 20 elementary schools.
The district’s guidelines currently advise teachers to keep information about student’s self-proclaimed gender identity from their parents unless the child gives them permission to discuss it openly.
The form used to collect such data states that parents can be involved only “if the student states that [the parents] are aware and supportive of the gender identity.”
Bethany Mandel, a conservative activist and parent in Montgomery County, said the school’s aim of celebrating the surge in sexual deviancy among its students may backfire now that the information has gone public.
“This isn’t data that the outside world has seen before; it was accidentally shared and is incredibly illuminating,” Mandel said.
“There is a clear explosion of gender-confused children year-over-year, and it’s clear the majority of those are legitimately children, middle school and below,” she continued. “This isn’t just a Montgomery County problem, it’s nationwide; we were just able to get a glimpse of the data here.”
