Elementary School Proposes Policy Change After Parents Push Back Against LGBT Club

Donated LGBT books are displayed in the library at Nystrom Elementary School in Richmond, Calif., on May 17, 2022. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Board members at Elk Grove Unified School District near Sacramento, California, will vote on Sept. 17 on a new policy proposal requiring students in grades TK–6 to receive parental consent to join any club.

The proposed change followed backlash from parents over the establishment of an LGBT club, called the “UBU club,” at Pleasant Grove Elementary School (PGES) in January.

On March 21, the National Center for Law & Policy (NCLP), a legal defense organization, issued a cease-and-desist letter in response to the club, alleging it was kept secret from parents and calling for its permanent suspension, saying it is not age-appropriate for 8- to 12-year-old children.

Dean Broyles, president and chief counsel of the NCLP, told The Epoch Times he was first contacted by concerned parents and has reason to believe there are up to five other LGBT clubs at district elementary schools.

PGES’s UBU club was established by Daniel Bishop, a third grade teacher who began fundraising for board games for the club in November 2023. He said: “When a school has a safe supportive space for LGBT students, it actually reduces bullying across the whole school. To that end I am starting a UBU Lunch Club.”

The NCLP’s letter said Bishop targeted students in the third through sixth grade classrooms and that the club met during lunch, allowing children to attend without a permission slip from their parents.

“[Bishop] told the young PGES students the club was for ‘boys who crush on boys’ and ‘girls who crush on girls,’ but that anyone could come,” the letter said. “He also proactively attempted to lure all students to come, promising that there would be fun games for the children to play.”

The letter alleged it was insinuated that PGES students should not tell their parents about the UBU Club.

“The rights of parents and families must be respected, honored and protected in our nation’s public schools,” the letter said. “[School boards] do not possess unlimited power to coercively impose their controversial, one-sided viewpoints regarding human sexuality on children and families.”

Heidi Moore, a mother of four children in the district and candidate for the school board, told The Epoch Times she “was very concerned to hear that children as young as second and third grade were being recruited to a secret lunchtime club.”

“It was even more alarming that the children were told not to tell their parents and that they could play special games at the club that they couldn’t play anywhere else,” she said. “A large group of parents complained to school administrators and were ignored for several weeks.”

Approximately 30 parents, according to the letter, met with PGES Principal Deidra Wood, who defended the club and told parents it was for “inclusivity” purposes.

“Wood implied during the meeting that some of the parents were probably anti-gay and denied that PGES students were told by teachers not to inform their parents about the existence of the new club,” the letter said.

Larrah Feliciano, head of the district’s Youth Development Office, said that LGBT Clubs were not recruiting or teaching anything to kids about sexuality but were merely “safe spaces,” according to the letter.

Bishop, Wood, and Feliciano did not respond to requests for comments.

Following the cease-and-desist letter, the UBU club and others were temporarily suspended as the district reviewed its policies.

The new proposed policies, released in August, said, that “all students in grades TK–6 must have parent/guardian permission in order to participate or attend meetings of extracurricular or cocurricular activities that take place before or after school, or during lunch, recess, or other noninstructional times.”

School staff who wish to start a new club must obtain authorization from the principal, inform families, and require students to have a permission slip, the policies state.

Broyles told The Epoch Times the proposed policy change is encouraging, and he hoped the consent form would be in writing and signed by at least one parent, “so there’s no confusion about whether the parent provided verbal consent to the teacher.”

“There have been a lot of LGBTQ clubs at the high school level and some at the junior high level, but it’s much more rare to have them at the elementary school level, and that’s really a recent development,” Broyles told The Epoch Times.

Additionally, he wants more information given to parents when these clubs start, such as information packets, details on the district’s website, and what books and curricula the students will look at.

“We believe that there’s rights of conscience within families and students and that they shouldn’t be forced to believe and infirm things that they believe are fundamentally not true,” he said.

Moore is pleased the district is requiring parental permission for elementary school clubs but says transparency with parents still needs to be improved.

“This is a great example of the power of concerned parents,” she said. “The organized efforts of concerned parents ultimately drove the district to make this change in their club policy.”