A mother of an LGBTQ+ sixth-grade student in Tennessee called out the Wilson County Schools at a board meeting for the bigoted policies she was vehemently against.
Lindsey Patrick-Wright recited a list of anti-LGBTQ+ statements that were yelled at her lesbian daughter Pippy, who attends West Wilson Middle School in Mount Juliet.
Patrick-Wright said Pippy came out to her family when she was in the fourth grade. Six months later, Pippy asked to be referred to by using she/they pronouns.
During the public comments section, Patrick-Wright read aloud some of the hateful comments aimed at her daughter.
You can listen to her speech in the video here.
The insults included:
"You’re going to hell.”
“My parents say I can’t talk to you because you’re gay.”
“I bet if I kissed you, you’d like it.”
“You don’t deserve to live.”
“My parents say you’re a pervert and if I beat you up, they wouldn’t care.”
“You should kill yourself.”
“Die f*ggot!”
Patrick-Wright said the bullying intensified in February as Pippy was preparing to perform in the school's musical production of The Addams Family.
The mother recalled:
“My kid shaved their head, and they did it in part because they were playing Uncle Fester."
Over the school year, Patrick-Wright said Pippy came home upset "30 percent of the days if not 50.”
She continued:
“And it’s primarily because a lot of this was happening on the bus."
“It happened in the hallway, in the cafeteria, and on the bus."
"And those are three areas where it is very difficult for the staff and the teachers to moderate behavior.”
“I think the teachers are doing the best job that they can. And I don’t blame the administrators."
"I blame the elected officials who are allowing this rhetoric to be repeated in the homes.”
On July 7 during a school board work session that happens between regular meetings, Board member Joseph Padilla proposed that a parent or guardian be notified within three days in writing when a teacher, or school staff member becomes aware that a student is identifying “as a gender that does not align with a child’s sex on their birth certificate.”
Patrick-Wright and Pippy–who together watch the filmed work sessions reguarly–were appalled after waching Padilla repeatedy proposing "discriminatory policies that target LGBTQ students" under the guise of reflecting "Wilson County Values."
In a recent board work session, only one of the seven board members, Carrie Pfeiffer, opposed Padilla's proposal to alert parents of students under suspicion of being LGBTQ+–essentially outing them before they have an opportunity to come out on their own terms.
He backed his proposal, calling it a move that was "common sense" to him.
Pfeiffer argued:
"I would say that it is not the role of the school."
“I would say that it would undermine, if not destroy, the relationship between students and their teachers.”
To which Padilla countered:
“What we’re trying to do here is just let the parents know if their child is wanting to go by a different name.”
Pfeiffer rebuffed his excuse and said it was not the school's responsibility to interfere with parental duties.
“My position on that is that you as a parent have a responsibility to know your child and to talk to your child and to parent your child, and that it is not the school’s job to do your parenting for you and to have that relationship on your behalf."
She added:
"And it is the school’s job to maintain a relationship, an educational relationship with the child, and that if the child does not trust the people who are their teachers, that has a significant impact on the ability of the child to learn.”
Padilla remained unconcerned and said:
“A child gets in a fight at school, we call the parents."
“If a child gets caught with drugs at school, we call the parents.”
Pfeiffer then challenged him with:
“Are you suggesting that a child's sexual orientation or transgender orientation is a disciplinary matter?”
Patrick-Wright showed up at the board meeting wearing a T-shirt designed by Pippy with a phrase that reclaimed Padilla's much-touted mantra:
"Wilson County Values."
She addressed Padilla and said:
"Out of frustration, my kid designed this logo. And I loved it."
"So I put it on shirts and stickers and buttons because I think every queer kid and family in Wilson County deserves to know that the majority of us do not to the bigoted ideas of what you think Wilson County Values stands for."
After reading the list of the horrific comments targeting PIppy, Patrick-Wright accentuated the positive.
“And the kicker is, my kid’s lucky when they go home," she said.
“They have a family that loves and supports them, a family that doesn't believe their identity is a mental illness.”
She told Padilla:
“Joe, not all kids have that support at home, and you all know that. How dare you propose taking away the one lifeline that a kid might have of a trusted teacher?"
"How dare you propose taking away the ability for a teacher to be that lifeline? Shame on you!”
Members from far-right exremist groups like Moms for Liberty–which advocates against school curriculums discussing topics such as LGBTQ+ themes, critical race theory, and discrimination–began showing up at the Wilson County School board meetings.
The group called for a book ban for publics schools that had books with LGBTQ+ content accessible to students.
Patrick-Wright told The Daily Beast these far-right firebrands didn't even have a child enrolled in the district's public schools.
She told the outlet:
“I’ve been getting up at board meetings this whole year to talk about book-banning and to talk about the epidemic of Moms for Liberty and what they’re doing to dismantle the public education system."
“That's what I’ve been focused on. I haven’t wanted to put my kid in the spotlight.”
At the board meeting, Patrick-Wright addressed the rest of the board members and shared her thoughts on Moms for Liberty calling for a book ban.
“Your colleague proposed the forced outing of trans students and only one of you stood up to him," she said of Padilla, adding:
"These books aren’t dangerous. Your rhetoric is dangerous. Your proposed policies are dangerous."
"We are not asking you all to understand our kids. We are asking, we are begging you, if you will not support our kids, leave them alone.“
She concluded her time with:
"Do better! All of you!”