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A transgender student, her crusading mom -- and an English teacher caught in the middle
U.S. NEWS
A transgender student, her crusading mom — and an English teacher caught in the middle
A mother said an educator “infected” her teenager with lies about gender. “I lost my son,” she told the school board. Her child tells a different story.
Oct. 11, 2023, 9:00 AM EDT
By Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton
This article is adapted from “Grapevine,” a six-part NBC News podcast about faith and power — and what it means to protect children — in an American suburb.
GRAPEVINE, Texas — High school teacher Em Ramser felt her stomach drop when she noticed an empty seat in her second-period English class one morning in January 2021. .. “You know you get that sudden feeling,” she said, “where you know something is really wrong?” ... The missing 14-year-old student reminded Ramser of herself when she was that age — unhappy to be at school most days and wrestling with her identity.
At the start of the school year, Ramser had asked every student to fill out a form answering questions about themselves, including how they wanted to be addressed. The absent student, listed as a boy in district records, had asked to be called by female pronouns, and by an alternative name: Ren.
Ramser, 25 at the time, was in her first year at Grapevine High School, in the conservative, sprawling suburbs northwest of Dallas. She had set out to make her classroom the safe space for LGBTQ teens that she wished she’d had while growing up queer in North Carolina. So, she said, she was happy to accommodate Ren’s request.
But Ramser had no idea what was going on between Ren and her mother — or that the three of them would soon become entangled in an emerging nationwide clash over religion, politics and transgender acceptance in public education.
After her class that day in January 2021, Ramser went down to the school’s office to ask if anyone had heard from Ren or her mother. ... A call home confirmed Ramser’s gut feeling: Ren was missing.
{snip}
A transgender student, her crusading mom — and an English teacher caught in the middle
A mother said an educator “infected” her teenager with lies about gender. “I lost my son,” she told the school board. Her child tells a different story.
Oct. 11, 2023, 9:00 AM EDT
By Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton
This article is adapted from “Grapevine,” a six-part NBC News podcast about faith and power — and what it means to protect children — in an American suburb.
GRAPEVINE, Texas — High school teacher Em Ramser felt her stomach drop when she noticed an empty seat in her second-period English class one morning in January 2021. .. “You know you get that sudden feeling,” she said, “where you know something is really wrong?” ... The missing 14-year-old student reminded Ramser of herself when she was that age — unhappy to be at school most days and wrestling with her identity.
At the start of the school year, Ramser had asked every student to fill out a form answering questions about themselves, including how they wanted to be addressed. The absent student, listed as a boy in district records, had asked to be called by female pronouns, and by an alternative name: Ren.
Ramser, 25 at the time, was in her first year at Grapevine High School, in the conservative, sprawling suburbs northwest of Dallas. She had set out to make her classroom the safe space for LGBTQ teens that she wished she’d had while growing up queer in North Carolina. So, she said, she was happy to accommodate Ren’s request.
But Ramser had no idea what was going on between Ren and her mother — or that the three of them would soon become entangled in an emerging nationwide clash over religion, politics and transgender acceptance in public education.
After her class that day in January 2021, Ramser went down to the school’s office to ask if anyone had heard from Ren or her mother. ... A call home confirmed Ramser’s gut feeling: Ren was missing.
{snip}
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