I wanted everyone to see this Christian Post article, that describes what it is like for mothers who trusted the school system to find out the hard way what schools are really like. Schools are dominated by women teachers and administrators. Their creed is “compassion” and “tolerance”. How does that work out for boys? Let’s get the stories straight from the mouths of nine mothers.

Here’s one example:

Approximately three years ago, Danae Johnson started to notice that her then-14-year-old son, Jeremy, a freshman in high school at the time, had some troubling text messages and pictures on his phone of kids who were dressed as the opposite sex.

At a mother-son dinner, he announced that he was transgender.

[…]Jeremy was a smaller kid, bullied ever since middle school, sometimes coming home with scrapes down his arms, his mother said. He consistently makes good grades, is in all honors classes and makes the honor roll. But being transgender meant he got to go from being bullied and struggling to popular. Female schoolmates have been particularly encouraging him in this new identity.

There was an attempt at suicide:

Johnson took him to the hospital immediately to get him evaluated. On the way there, Jeremy tried to make it seem like he was kidding. They spent several hours at the hospital where he was examined by four professionals, all of whom told Johnson that he was doing this for attention and that he was not genuinely suicidal.

And:

Johnson is “100% convinced” the bullying drove him into the gender identity madness. They removed him from that school and put him in a local Catholic school where the bullying ceased. Yet despite the improved environment, the trans identity continued to bring him attention, so he maintained it.

So what to make of this? Well, I really am glad to see the wife siding with her husband against the child’s peer-driven behavior. Today there is an epidemic of mothers bending over backwards to agree with their children. Instead of parenting them, they just affirm them and completely abdicate their role as parents. They want to be liked. This woman did not want to be liked.

Second point is that this story clearly shows how peer pressure plays a role in causing children to go down the transgender path. And the teachers and administrators have a secular left agenda, and that agenda is more important than your child.

A study that was first reported by Science Daily talked about the role of peer pressure. This article at The Federalist had a few examples to illustrate the conclusion of the study. I’ll pick two.

The study includes other eye-opening information, such as case studies of several children’s stories.

• “A 14-year-old natal female and three of her natal female friends were taking group lessons together with a very popular coach. The coach came out as transgender, and, within one year, all four students announced they were also transgender.”

• “A 14-year-old natal female and three of her natal female friends are part of a larger friend group that spends much of their time talking about gender and sexuality. The three natal female friends all announced they were trans boys and chose similar masculine names. After spending time with these three friends, the 14-year-old natal female announced that she was also a trans boy.”

And surprise! Giving gay rights groups access to schools makes the problem worse:

The study also may indicate that school “anti-bullying” programs typically created by LGBT activist organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign may help accelerate children identifying as transgender by pushing peers and authority figures to profusely express their support.

Coming out as transgender means instant fame and popularity, because you’re a victim, and everyone has to be nice to you… or else:

“Great increase in popularity among the student body at large. Being trans is a gold star in the eyes of other teens,” wrote one parent on the study response form. Another wrote, “not so much ‘popularity’ increasing as ‘status’ … also she became untouchable in terms of bullying in school as teachers who ignored homophobic bullying …are now all at pains to be hot on the heels of any trans bullying.”

I really think parents need to think twice before throwing their children into public schools and unmonitored social media.

The second mother from the CP article was even more interesting. She’s a far-left supporter of Planned Parenthood, NPR listener and Bill Maher watcher. She only has one child – I think she delayed having children to focus on her career.

Here’s what she said:

“Children are being groomed online by adults,” she said when asked what the public at large misunderstands about the transgender movement.

[…]“They are confusing kids. They’re ruining families. You thought you could have a child and make a difference,” she said. “It’s like they’re taking away the core of a family. And I look at everyone who is having a child, and I’m like, ‘Don’t do it,’ because you have no control over your child. Parental rights have been taken away. The schools are complicit in pushing this agenda.”

She recalled reading about Communist Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong’s rulership and how under his reign, children were instructed to turn on their parents and rupture the family structure.

“I feel like that’s what’s happening. It used to be a world where the parents had control. But it’s all taken away from us because our kid can complain to the school, and social services would be called because we’re not affirming them in this lie. We could lose custody. That’s a really scary, scary world we’re in.”

It’s a scary world that people on the secular left made.

Some people freak out when I say to be careful about getting married to someone who isn’t aware of these threats, and to especially NOT have children with a progressive spouse. But do you think the same thing after hearing from these mothers?