Granby parents to meet with school leaders over controversial pride video

GRANBY, CT (WFSB) - Parents in Granby will get a chance to voice concerns about a controversial gender identity video that was shown to students.

Wednesday night in Granby, they plan to speak with school leaders from the Wells Road Intermediate School.

Parents argued that they should have been told that their children were going to see it.

They said the video discussed Pride Month.

The students who watched the video were in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.

The outspoken parents said they were unhappy for a couple of reasons.

First, they said they were never told the video was going to be shown.

Some parents felt their children were too young to learn about the topic and. They said it should be on them to have discussions about gender identity, not the school.

The video showed children describing what pride meant to them.

“Pride means you should be able to be free. All my life I never really felt like a boy and I don’t really feel like a girl. So I’d rather be both,” a participant in the video said.

The video had a few examples with preferred pronouns by the kids’ names.

After school the day the video was show, parents said the kids got home and told them about it.

Channel 3 showed the video to a mother who was in the school pickup line on Monday.

“They needed to get parents’ permissions to show their children that,” the mother said. “We should’ve been told so we can have a conversation at home and not be thrown off guard this way.”

Stephen Davis said he was picking up his 8-year-old granddaughter when he spoke to Eyewitness News.

“There was nothing warning us,” Davis said. “They don’t have to worry about being an adult when they’re 8 years old.

The superintendent’s office said it is handling concerns from parents internally. It said the video was designed for 2-to-12-year-old students.

Channel 3 obtained a letter the Wells Road principal sent to parents.

“Parents are starting to come out of the woodwork and it’s time to start fighting back,” Reyes said.

Many parents said they had concerns and said they will be attending the meeting with officials on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

They said they plan to speak up about their concerns and discuss how to handle sensitive conversations in the future.

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