A Missouri teacher’s involvement in drag shows and a recent “drag brunch” for kids and families has a Missouri education group crying foul.
The drag show event on Saturday in North Kansas City was hosted by “Aria Queer,” a drag queen identified on social media as a local 24-year-old teacher with the initials P.D. The brunch was presented by Nclusion Plus, an organization that dubs itself “a new-age, next-level club that features all things LGBTQIA+.”
P.D., whose social media profiles identify him as a Spanish teacher in the KC-area Park Hill School District, is Nclusion’s Kansas City regional director. According to the group’s recent event promotions, “Aria Queer” performs frequently around the region.
A video from Saturday’s lunch-time event was posted to Nclusion’s Facebook page, showing three drag queens dancing, in-turn, around guests, including children and adults seated in a restaurant. Various guests held up dollar bills, which the performers enthusiastically took.
A public Facebook group, “Take Back Missouri Schools/Education,” shared a post the day after the event with screenshots of P.D.’s Facebook profile, his promotion of merchandise related to “Aria Queer,” and a poster advertising the drag brunch.
The post also included a link to a local news story about a Park Hill School District teacher placed on leave for allegedly attempting to have sex with an underaged student. The Facebook post identifies P.D. as the teacher, however The Lion could not independently confirm the identity of the suspended teacher.
The school district has only confirmed what LEAD Innovation Studio Principal Ryan Stanley announced in an April letter – that an unnamed staff member was placed on leave due to “inappropriate behavior.” Neither Stanley nor the Park Hill School District responded to requests for comment.
The police report related to the misconduct alleges “enticement,” according to the Kansas City Star. According to Missouri law, enticement occurs when a person 21 or older attempts to persuade a child under 16 to have sex. The address of the incident in the police report matches that of the LEAD Innovation Studio at Park Hill Schools.
On Monday, P.D.’s social media profiles still listed his job status as a Spanish teacher at Park Hill. An online search revealed a link to his staff profile on the school’s website, which also listed his location in the district to be the LEAD Innovation Studio, though the staff profile itself is no longer available.
On Monday, P.D.’s Facebook and Instagram profiles were made private.
P.D.’s TikTok account contains a few videos from the classroom in which he playfully interacts with students, including one where he sings to music being played by a student. The video contains the caption, “When your students know how to Distract that inner gay.”
Saturday’s drag brunch was a ticketed event held at Chicken N Pickle in North Kansas City, an all-ages entertainment venue that includes a restaurant and pickle ball courts.
The Lion asked Chicken N Pickle’s director of marketing, Carrie Bartlow – whose husband, Nick Bartlow, serves on the school board of another KC-area school district, Liberty Public Schools – how it is the entertainment venue plans children’s events that parents may understandably find objectionable.
“We provide spaces for events hosted by organizations in our community, and we don’t discriminate against anyone’s political, social, religious, minority or gender identification,” Bartlow told The Lion in an email. “We aspire to be family friendly, and we allow families to make their own choices about what activities are best for their children, including which private parties to attend.”
Chicken N Pickle posted the event on Facebook, describing it as “family fun.” But many parents around the country have expressed disgust over an increasing number of drag shows aimed at children, calling the events attempts to sexualize children.
