California mom claims teachers manipulated daughter to change gender identity
Jessica Konen is taking legal action against her school district after two teachers allegedly manipulated her 11-year-old daughter into believing she was a transgender boy.
A pre-kindergarten teacher and early childhood professor repeatedly attacked the idea of "childhood innocence" and claimed that early childhood teachers should introduce children to gender ideology at the youngest ages, Fox News Digital found.
William "Willy" Villalpando works at Santa Ana College in California where he teaches early child development. He also indicated on his Instagram that he is a pre-kindergarten educator.
Fox News found documentation that Villalpando worked in the Rialto Unified School District pre-k division from 2016 through at least June 2021, the latest date California updated teacher's records. It was unclear whether Villalpando continued to work at the district for the 2022-23 academic year, and they refused to respond. When Fox News reached out to Villalpando's Rialto district email address it was not returned to sender.
In 2020, Villalpando called the idea of "childhood innocence" an example of "mythology."
Childhood innocence Insta (Fox News Digital | Instagram/screenshot | iStock)
"There is a common mythology that children live in this world of pure innocence, and that by introducing or exposing them to the real-world adults are somehow shattering this illusion for them. Therefore, there is a banning of topics and issues that children should not be exposed to, as if they are not experiencing them already."
On another occasion, he said, "I'm tired of the ‘Childhood Innocence’ argument… Stop blaming a phenomenon that doesn't exist."
He went on to attack the idea that children shouldn't be exposed to "sexuality," claiming that "such a view is a very white, Christian, upper-class, cis-gendered, and hetero-centric."
William "Willy" Villalpando said "Queerness" and "sexuality" needed to be discussed in classrooms. (iStock | TikTok/screenshot)
"Not talking about Queerness in the Classroom, is NOT Letting Children be Children. It's Telling Those people They Do Not Deserve to Exist," he said in September 2021. "Kids are never too young."
"Let's work to deconstruct some of our own biases. (Adults incorrectly link discussions on sexuality and gender as equating to discussions about sex.)," the early childhood educator said.
The district Santa Ana College where the teacher works told Fox News that they do "not condone any form of attack on 'childhood innocence.'
"Our RSCCD community college courses in Child Development and Education Studies do not address nor teach gender studies," the district said.
He said in a November 2022 podcast of "Rainbow Parenting" that "we have so many people who tell us that this is inappropriate stuff we can talk about. And so I'm like, hey, no, we can't talk about this."
The teacher went on to say that if parents didn't have the conversations with kids, it was up to teachers to foster classroom environments that "may make others uncomfortable."
"Children who are exposed to environments with more fluid understandings of gender, are more likely to understand that gender is fluid."
He added that educators should talk to little kids about queerness even if parents have avoided the topic.
William Villalpando repeatedly attacked the idea of "childhood innocence" as something that doesn't exist. (Fox News Digital | TikTok/screenshot | iStock)
"Parents haven't already had conversations about these things with their kids, that kids don't know, that they might be intersex, that they might be agender... non-binary. And really, children have a right to see themselves in our classrooms. It's not okay to just forget about them or push them out just because it might make us uncomfortable or may make others uncomfortable."
According to Villalpando, "talking to children about gender" includes telling them that it is a "social construct."
"This goes alongside teaching children to ask others for their pronouns. Trust me when I say children get this so much faster than adults give them credit for. Let kids practice with you," he said.
Villalpando's social media accounts went dark after Fox News Digital reached out for comment.
Villalpando's social media accounts went dark after Fox News Digital reached out for comment.
"[C]hildren are exploring and understanding gendered association before they say their first words," he said.
"Around 3 to 4 months old, infants [sic] show a sex and gender preference in who they look at."
"At 3 years old, a child can label their perceived gender identity," he said. "By 4 years old, children have a stable sense of their gender identity and have assumptions and beliefs of what they can and cannot do based on their gender (i.e. dolls are for girls, cars are for boys)."
Other teachers in California have raised the topic of gender ideology in their classrooms.
A California teacher named Olivia Garrison bragged about helping students hide their social transitions from parents. Fox News Digital found that Garrison, a 9th grade history teacher, worked at Del Oro High School located in the Kern High School District.
Olivia Garrison discussed social transitioning students in her classroom. (Fox News Digital | TikTok/screenshot)
Social transitioning is a first step for transgender children. It entails adopting new names, pronouns, changing their clothing and getting haircuts to match a preferred gender expression.
The New York Times reported, "Olivia Garrison, a history teacher in Bakersfield, Calif., who is nonbinary… has helped students socially transition at school without their parents' knowledge."
"My job, which is a public service, is to protect kids… Sometimes, they need protection from their own parents," Garrison told The Times. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another teacher in the Sacramento City Unified District, Danita McCray recommended using a "gender unicorn" with toddlers to introduce gender theory.
Danita McCray advocated for introducing gender identity to toddlers using a ‘unicorn.’ (Fox News | Respective Authors)
"Now, early childhood is 0 to 8 years old, so that's kind of like from preschool to third grade… And the focus… of this workshop is to provide you with positive strategies to support transgender and gender non-conforming children," McCray said in a video exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.
"I've done research. I have got my doctorate degree. Children are not too young at five years old. Children understand gender as early as three years old," she said.
Skye Tooley, a teacher at Saturn Street Elementary, located in the Los Angeles Unified School District, discussed on TikTok using a "gender-fluid" stuffed animal to teach children on pronouns and being non-binary. Gender fluidity refers to change over time in a person's gender expression or gender identity, or both.
Teacher named Skye Tooley uses stuffed animals to teach children about pronouns and gender identities. (Screenshot/TikTok)
"This is a llama unicorn... I thought it was so cute to let my kids name the llama unicorn. It was a mistake. So this little llama is gender-fluid; we will be practicing pronouns with this little llama," Tooley said.
"[Children] are very much ready for these topics, and are way more accepting than adults when it comes to... gender, gender assumptions, pronouns, all the things. And it is child-development appropriate and age appropriate," the teacher said.
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Tooley provided another example of a stuffed animal that had they/them pronouns.
"I started talking [to students] about Norbert the Narwhal … who uses they/them pronouns, and we practice making mistakes with their pronouns as well as correcting them."