Transgender Literature Causes a Stir at Katonah-Lewisboro Board of Ed Meeting

CROSS RIVER, N.Y. - Troubled that kindergarteners and other Meadow Pond Elementary School youngsters might hear a book’s fictional account of gender change, parents brought their concerns this month to a meeting of the Katonah-Lewisboro School District board.

Fifteen community members turned out for the trustees’ Oct. 10 meeting and five addressed the board. They protested any reading to their children of the book “When Aidan Became a Brother,” which tells the story of a child—”everyone thought he was a girl,” the book opens—who is allowed to change his name, room and appearance to become a boy and a brother to his newborn sibling.

KLSD officials—board members and administrators—did not discuss the parents’ concerns at the meeting. The next day, in response to a question from The Katonah-Lewisboro Times, Superintendent Raymond Blanch issued a 137-word prepared statement saying the district had no plans to read the book to students.

The school district did not respond to a follow-up query asking why the parents did not receive such assurance first-hand, at the meeting. Under longstanding policy, neither board members nor administration officials respond in the moment to speakers during public comment. But exceptions have routinely been made, especially to correct remarks or otherwise provide clarification.

Blanch said in his statement “there is not and never was a plan to read [the book] as part of an elementary school unit.” He called the book “age-appropriate for students in pre-K through second grade.”

Carly Cardellino Vaccaro, a mother who had learned about the “Aidan” book and subsequently alerted other moms, called Blanch’s next-day assurance “good news.” But his written statement left unanswered one of the key requests Vaccaro had made at the meeting for a “schedule of social/emotional books and when they are being read.”
That would allow parents to “opt out” if they believe “something is age-inappropriate,” she told the board meeting.
Other speakers agreed. Brad Guszack called transparency “absolutely critical. We deserve to know what’s happening in our children’s classrooms.”

“We, the parents, need to be informed—and not from our kids coming home from school, because that’s what’s being done right now,” he said. “We’re not knowing what’s going to be taught in school. They come home and they have questions. Little kids do. . . . That’s unacceptable.”

Another mom, Katie Case, said, “The majority of families have absolutely no idea—they are shocked to find out—that these topics are being taught in elementary school.”

At that age, Case noted, youngsters are “still leaving notes for a fairy and anxiously awaiting  their “Elf on the Shelf” to come back. They’re still in the land of the innocent and are highly suggestive to ideas that are presented to them, particularly by a teacher.”

“Aidan” is one of the most frequently banned children’s picture books in the nation. But speakers at the KLSD meeting emphasized that they were prompted not by antipathy toward transgender subjects but concern “about the anxiety that children may experience due to exposure to complex topics at such a young age, especially as they strive to understand their own identities and emotions,” Tatiana Gil Salerno said.\

“If we truly aim to be inclusive,” she told the board, “it is vital to allow parents to engage in open conversations with their children about what they are learning in school.”
Glenn DeFaber, whose granddaughter attends Maple Pond Elementary, said that introducing topics like gender change is “more of a parent’s responsibility.” 

“I don’t think I should be paying tax dollars to have teachers teaching her about that. That’s something a parent should do.”
Books like “Aidan” seek to provide what educators call mirrors and windows: they are meant to let students see themselves reflected in the stories or provide a view—a window—into the lives of others.

In responding to a press inquiry about the parents’ concerns, Blanch did not make himself available for an interview. Instead, the district prepared this statement:

“We appreciate that parents take the time to share their views with the Board of Education and school administrators. Our goal as a district is to foster a partnership with families and share relevant, reliable information. It is important to note that there is not and never was a plan to read “When Aidan Became a Brother” as part of an elementary school unit. The book, considered age-appropriate for students in pre-K through second grade by the School Library Journal, is one of many in a classroom library that is used to respond to and support the particular children in a teacher’s classroom in a given year. These age-appropriate books are used to provide windows and mirrors into the lives of students and those of their classmates to foster understanding of and appreciation for our unique situations.”