A Parent’s Experience of Gender Activism in Schools

Behind parents' backs, changing childrens' names, pronouns, restroom preference

January Littlejohn, parental rights activist and mental health professional. Fei Meng

“It wasn’t just changing names and pronouns,” says parental rights activist and mental health professional January Littlejohn. “They asked her which restroom she preferred to use. They asked her which sex she preferred to room with on overnight field trips.”

Then, she said, school personnel asked her 13-year-old daughter how they should refer to her when speaking to her parents, suggesting they deceive them.

In a recent episode of “American Thought Leaders,” host Jan Jekielek spoke with Littlejohn, who in 2021 filed a lawsuit against her daughter’s Florida school district after school officials met with the 13-year-old—without Littlejohn’s knowledge or consent—to discuss a “gender support” plan.

Littlejohn discussed gender activism in schools; how vulnerable teenagers are influenced, misdiagnosed, and started on a pathway that can cause permanent changes to their bodies; and how parents can protect their children.

Jan Jekielek: January, tell us what happened to your daughter.

January Littlejohn: Ironically, I specialized in ADHD, and my daughter was diagnosed with ADHD. She struggled to fit in at school. When she went to middle school, she found this friend group, and we were thrilled. Then, we started to see warning signs that this wasn’t a healthy place for her.

Fast forward to the spring of 2020, and our daughter, out of the blue, expressed to us that she was confused about her sex. This was after three of her school friends had started identifying as transgender. Back then, there wasn’t a lot of information. So we were struggling, getting help from another mental health professional and trying to get to the root of her issue. Like so many other kids that fall into this ideology, she also had issues like anxiety, plus she’s ADHD. She’s gifted, her intelligence is high, but her ADHD keeps her emotional intelligence and maturity low.

And so, we embraced her quirkiness and allowed her to dress how she wanted. When this happened, like many of these kids, she wanted a name change, a change in pronouns. I knew what gender dysphoria was, which is a mental health diagnosis, but it’s rare, and it doesn’t appear in clusters of friends. When she would come home and say these things, I was thinking, “Statistically, this is impossible.”

Several weeks later, my daughter got into the car after school and said, “Mom, I had a meeting today with school officials and they asked me which restroom I wanted to use.” I was taken aback. I didn’t know why they would be having a meeting with my child without telling me, because my daughter, with her ADHD, has a 504 plan on file. I had been present and involved at every 504 plan meeting. I knew by law they could not implement a 504 plan without my signature and because she’s a minor.

Mr. Jekielek: What is a 504 plan?

Ms. Littlejohn: A 504 plan is that by law, children who have learning disabilities are afforded accommodations under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). That dictated what accommodations she was privy to, to help her be successful in school. I immediately emailed the guidance counselor whom I knew and said, “I have great concerns that my daughter had a meeting I wasn’t aware of, and you asked her which restroom she wanted to use.”

I was called back by the guidance counselor and the assistant principal and was told that by law, my daughter was now protected from me, her parent, under a nondiscrimination law, and they couldn’t give me any information about the meeting with my 13-year-old child.

They told me my only recourse was to speak with the assistant district superintendent, which I did immediately. Just to give you an idea of how long this took, the violation occurred when school had started, but we didn’t get a meeting with the principal until the end of October. We were shown the transgender or gender-nonconforming support plan they had completed with our daughter behind closed doors without our notification or consent.

It was done with a school counselor, the assistant principal, and a social worker I’d never met. You have three adults in a room with a 13-year-old child. And then, they put the burden of whether my parental rights would be respected and whether my husband and I would be invited to attend this meeting on my daughter. She was the sole determiner.

It wasn’t just changing names and pronouns. They asked her which restroom she preferred. They asked her which sex she preferred to room with on overnight field trips. And then, they did something particularly egregious. They said, “How should we refer to you when we speak to your parents? Should we use your birth name and pronouns?” to effectively deceive us that the meeting had ever taken place.

When they socially transition these children, they are putting them on a pathway. Social transition is the first step toward medical transition. When parents discover what “gender-affirming care” is—that we are giving children experimental puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, which will eventually sterilize them—parents are horrified that schools take them along this pathway. And this is not a neutral intervention. They are celebrating these kids.

Mr. Jekielek: There’s an explosion of children going to these pediatric gender clinics.

Ms. Littlejohn: It’s frightening because we’re ignoring a mental health issue. These children and adults struggling with confusion over their sex deserve compassion, but they also deserve ethical evidence-based treatment. What we have seen is activism infiltrating not just our schools but our psychological associations and our medicine.

Think about this. A child who is 9 or 10 years old is put on this medical pathway. They start the child on puberty blockers around 10, or stage 2 of puberty, when the secondary sex characteristics are just starting. That process has never been done on this scale.

They call it a pause button. That’s a lie. They say that these puberty blockers are reversible. That’s a lie. We’re basing this on a feeling the child has, and we’re trying to alter their body before their brain is fully developed. We’ve taken a mental health diagnosis, normalized it, and we’re medicalizing children.

No matter what these children or adults do physically, you cannot change your sex. Your DNA stays the same. It’s a war they’re never going to win. You can’t outrun biological truth.

Mr. Jekielek: You mentioned earlier that it was statistically impossible to have this cluster of gender dysphoric girls in your school. There is this element of social contagion, which I know you’ve been thinking about.

Ms. Littlejohn: What’s happening is the normalization of transgender identities, and again, I firmly believe that these people who are struggling deserve compassion. But when you normalize a mental health issue, then you introduce ideology into the school system.

They are creating confusion in children where no previous confusion existed. That is wrong, and that is evil. And that word, transgender, no longer has a coherent meaning. It means whatever that person wants it to mean. We’re making serious medical changes to children’s and teens’ bodies based on a nonscientific feeling.

Mr. Jekielek: Are there any red flags you can point out to parents?

Ms. Littlejohn: Many of these children spend a great deal of time on their phones and the internet. There are a number of trans influencers on YouTube and TikTok. Abigail Shrier, in her book “Irreversible Damage,” dedicated an entire chapter to the trans influencers, because they’re so powerful, intriguing, and convincing. It’s really important that parents monitor what their kids are seeing and consuming.

I’m not a proponent of children under 16 having a smartphone. And even then, parents, your No. 1 job is to protect your child. You need to know what your children are being exposed to. A kid with a smartphone is a recipe for disaster.

Some of the other warning signs would be drastic changes in mood, being withdrawn, and wanting to alter their appearance overnight. Are they coming home with propaganda, the pronoun pens and flags? What clubs are they in at school?

Do not freak out on your child. Stay calm. Ask questions. Work on your relationship, because one of the biggest indicators of children desisting is a strong parent-child relationship. And do your research. There are many parent organizations, like Genspect, where parents can get accurate information and understand their treatment options.

Mr. Jekielek: I know this is a sensitive question, but how are your daughter and family doing?

Ms. Littlejohn: Thank you for asking. I am fiercely protective over my daughter’s privacy now. No child should ever be in the situation she was put in by the school. And after several years, she’s now on a path to self-love. But that’s all I’ll say. This is her story to tell one day if she chooses to do so.

Mr. Jekielek: What is the core of your message to parents in America right now?

Ms. Littlejohn: Parents need to fight for their parental rights. They need to know what’s happening in their child’s school, and we need to eradicate gender ideology in the school system. This nonscientific idea has taken root in our society and our schools, and we need to get it out of there.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.