A Connecticut teacher has announced plans to open an LGBTQ-centered school this year.
Patricia Nicolari told NBC News that she wanted to create an LGTBQ-friendly school after the intense harassment she experienced in her three decades as an educator. Just eight months away from the official opening in September, at least 30 parents have already shown interest in her academy.
“I remember thinking, ‘I’m going through so much anxiety as a teacher. I can’t imagine what our students go through questioning themselves and how unsafe it is for them to come out,’” Ms Nicolari told the network.
PROUD Academy — Proudly Respecting Our Unique Differences — will be located near New Haven. Ms Nicolari said she hopes her school is a safe haven for gay, lesbian, trans, non-binary and other queer students who for years have faced the consequences of the US education system’s shortcomings.
“Some parents are just saying, ‘I just want my child to be happy again,’” Ms Nicolari also told the network. “And if we can offer that to a family? That’d be priceless.”
The school plans to include subjects with an LGBTQ focus in its curriculum, and will also offer advanced and honour-level classes. Ms Nicolari plans to make mental health professionals available that have skills tailored to the experiences and difficulties of LGBTQ students.
Courses will range from the third grade through grade 12, with several parents currently living in conservative states already showing interest in moving to Connecticut so their children can attend PRIDE academy.
Melissa Combs told NBC that the prospect of her transgender son going to a school where he feels as though he belongs is “life-changing.” Ms Combs said the minor has been bullied and physically assaulted for being transgender.
“This means that I won’t knowingly send my child into a hostile environment every day,” Ms Combs told the outlet. “It means that my kid will get to be who he is 100[per cent] of the time.”
Ms Nicolari’s academy could be the answer to many parents’ challenges as GOP-controlled states continue to push for legislation that bans the discussion of LGBTQ topics and books about the community.
Last year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed the “Parental Rights in Education” law, later dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law. The now-in-effect legislation bans classroom discussion about “sexual orientation or gender” in kindergarten through the third grade.
Mr DeSantis also signed the “Stop WOKE” law, which restricted how colleges and universities teach classes on race and gender, before it was blocked by a judge in November on the basis that it amounted to unconstitutional discrimination.
In October, a new law in Oklahoma banned public elementary, middle school, high school and college athletes from competing on the sports teams of their gender identity if it is different from their sex assigned at birth.
Most recently, the North Carolina Senate advanced a bill that would prohibit instruction about sexuality and gender identity in K-4 public school classes.
Sponsors of the bill say they want to grant parents greater authority over their children’s education and health care. The bill would require schools to alert parents, in most circumstances, prior to a change in the name or pronouns used for their child.
PEN America has described some of those legislations as “educational gag orders,” a term coined by the nonprofit “to describe bills that regulate whether and how educators may discuss certain subjects and ideas.”
Ms Nicolari says that she hopes her initiative is replicated in other states.
“...[W]e can’t have our students and families be bullied into being less than they’re capable of being,” she told NBC.
