A Rochester Public Schools student counselor is blowing the whistle on the district’s “administrative guidelines” for supporting “transgender and gender-expansive students,” which she says were implemented without the public’s knowledge.

Christina Barton has taken her fight public, speaking out at a recent school board meeting and listening session.

“I had consulted with RPS personnel who had warned me against making this guideline public and that there is a risk of job retaliation up to disciplinary action or termination if I speak to the board or am noncompliant regarding these guidelines. I have also spoken to other staff who are also afraid to speak up for the same reason,” Barton said at a school board meeting last month.

At the meeting, she pointed to a section of the document which states that parents will be provided with “information about whether [their] child is transgender” only if they request it.

“So how would a parent know to request such information if they aren’t aware that their child is struggling with gender dysphoria? How would a parent be able to care for and support their student if the school never reached out to them?” Barton said.

Barton, who said she’s willing to stand up for the truth “even if it comes at a cost,” shared her story this week on Liz Collin Reports.

She has been a school counselor at an elementary school in the district for the last few years, but what happened at a staff meeting earlier this school year didn’t sit well with her.

“On Feb. 14 of this year, we had a staff meeting, as we do every month. We had a staff member present about a topic that was very controversial entitled ‘pronouns.’ She asked that we prayerfully consider using them in the classroom and students expressing themselves with those pronouns and asked us to watch a video about pronouns where a nonbinary lady basically educated us on what pronouns were and different types of pronouns and why they’re really important to use in gender-affirming care,” Barton explained.

That’s when Barton learned about Superintendent Kent Pekel’s “guidelines” that were put in place in September 2023 and will remain in effect until the school board “develops and approves a policy and/or procedures to support transgender and gender-expansive students.”

Barton said that when she brought up the guidelines with a school board member, that board member “seemed surprised and didn’t know how to respond” when Barton asked when the board may vote on a formal policy.

“That rose a red flag to me that this was something that they are trying to hide from the public and that they’re going to possibly just slip it right in without the feedback from the community and without informing parents,” Barton said.

The guidelines 

The guidelines detail how students must be referred to by their preferred name and pronouns and allowed access to bathrooms and sporting activities in accordance with their gender identity.

District staff who fail to comply with the guidelines, such as by refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns, “may be subject to disciplinary actions, up to and including termination.”

A section on “parent access to information” stipulates that parents will be provided with information about whether their child is “transgender or whether their child has asked to use a name, pronouns, restrooms, or locker rooms based on the child’s gender identity rather than sex assigned at birth” only if they request such information.

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