(The Lion) — A New Jersey elementary school will not send its 2nd graders on a field trip to the Alice Paul Center for Gender Justice after receiving online backlash.
Fleetwood Elementary School in Mount Laurel planned to send three teachers and 76 2nd graders to the center on April 4. The school serves over 400 students and is about 15 miles east of Philadelphia.
However, Mount Laurel Schools Superintendent George J. Rafferty said the trip is off due to negative social media posts about it.
“I’m not going to put an 8-year-old in danger to make a point,” Rafferty told NJ Advance Media. “This decision was made out of an abundance of caution to ensure the well-being of everyone involved and is not related to the curriculum or educational content of the trip.
“These are second-grade teachers,” he later added. “They’re working with 8-year-olds and trying to give them a good learning experience.”
Rafferty clarified the school never received any threats, just negative online reactions and unhappy emails.
For example, the X account Gays Against Groomers brought attention to the trip, noting that no parents would be present.
“NEW JERSEY: Elementary school students are going on a second-grade class trip to the Center for Gender Justice, where they will be taken off school grounds and exposed to gender ideology propaganda during school hours,” the account posted. “The form specifies that no parent chaperones will be allowed on this trip.”
Rhode Island parental rights activist Nicole Solas added, “Everyone running the Gender Justice Center has gender ideology pronouns. It’s the gender ideology center.”
And a user named Zeek Arkham wrote, “No parental chaperones is a huge red flag. This is a teacher with an agenda. My kid wouldn’t be going on this trip. I’d take the day off and spend the day giving my kid the best day ever. It’s worth more than ‘gender justice.’”
The center’s website says its 2nd-grade field trip curriculum “combines educational games and art to help students engage concepts of civic engagement and leadership, and to identify themselves as leaders who can create positive social change.”
The center is named for suffragist Alice Paul, who later advocated for the Equal Rights Amendment, which is pushed by liberal politicians who want to codify abortion rights nationwide and make so-called gender identity a protected class.
The Center still supports the so-called Equal Rights Amendment, according to its website.
