National Talk Show Exposes CVUSD’s Secret ‘Gender Transition’ Agenda

CVUSD’s sexualization of K-12 children continues drawing national attention as the Conejo Valley school district has recently forced teachers and staff to secretly “transition” pre-teen kids who decide to “change genders” — while hiding this fact from parents.

Recently, Maple Elementary parent Steve Schneider appeared on the popular internet program, The HighWire with Del Bigtree, to speak about the situation in the Conejo Valley, where parents are pushing back against the district’s sexual agenda. Since The Conejo Guardian broke the story of Schneider’s 3rd-grade daughter’s class being shown a pro-gender dysphoria video at Maple last year (“Third-grade Teacher Promotes Gender Confusion in Classroom,” May 24, 2022), Schneider has become a national spokesman for parental rights in public schools.

“You’re villainized immediately if you speak out against their narrative,” Schneider told Bigtree’s audience of millions in describing how he and like-minded parents, teachers and staff are treated by CVUSD leaders. “That’s out of fear on their side.”

He told what had happened to his daughter when a teacher and principal decided to show a pro-gender dysphoria video in a 3rd-grade classroom in January 2022 without consulting or alerting parents.

“Unless my daughter had said something, we would never have known that this was read to the classroom,” Schneider said. “Everything that fell in line from that day forward was one extreme to the next, to the point where myself and other parents involved were saying, ‘How is this going from a simple discussion to a protest?’”

Bigtree asked Schneider, “As a father, I keep questioning, and you start wondering about grooming — is there grooming going on? These are such susceptible minds to any thought you give them.”

In his answer, Schneider pointed to CVUSD’s sex education program, which he called “horrifying,” and explained why he and another Newbury Park parent are suing the district for not notifying parents properly about what is in the sex-ed curriculum.

“It [sex-ed] has kind of taken a turn that’s so inappropriate. It’s definitely not age-appropriate, and the school district seems to believe that this is the path that should be taught. That this is what our children should be learning,” Schneider said. “You’re generally supposed to be given the opportunity to pull your child out and opt out, and in most cases, you are. In the instance that happened last year, we weren’t even given the proper notifications ahead of time. The links that were provided by the school district didn’t work. When one parent spoke up about it, the superintendent of the school — his name is Mark McLaughlin — said she had ‘clicking problems.’ If you’re at the top of a school district and a parent approaches you with a legitimate concern, the last thing you should try to do is call them out and try to make them seem unintelligent or like they’re in the wrong. Leaders accept responsibility for their actions, admit to their faults and find a way to fix things.”

“Why the lawsuit?” Bigtree asked. “Why go that far?”

“We were left with no choice,” Schneider said. “In the beginning of this, when that book was shown to my daughter in the classroom, there was a lot of pressure on my daughter. In fact, some of the kids in her classroom really pushed the narrative that was extremely hard on my child socially. They wanted her to shave her head; they wanted to all dress like boys. This is something that’s not leaving our schools. It’s here, and a lot of groups are pushing into the schools with their idea of what’s best for my children. Well, my kids are going to stay in public schools. … This lawsuit is the one way that I could hold to my oath as a father to my children to make sure that I can protect them.”

Schneider described how he tried to have a civil discussion with CVUSD leaders in multiple ways — but was snubbed each time.

“What it really comes down to is parents being involved and communities standing up. At this point, it’s all or nothing. Parents need to get involved.”

“The first time I went to the school board [meeting], I made it very clear to the school board, as well as to Mark McLaughlin, that I raised the concern of what happened at Maple Elementary School and that I would like a phone call and we could talk this out,” Schneider told Bigtree’s nationwide audience. “It fell on deaf ears. I never received a call. Nothing happened, and ultimately that’s what led to a local newspaper running the first article — because there was no communication with the schools.”

Bigtree asked if Schneider had advice for parents, saying, “You’re getting to be sort of a face of this discussion. … What do you see are the solutions for parents who are watching this around the world?”

Schneider told viewers to dig into PERK’s (Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids) “fantastic resources” on parental rights and ways to push back against the sexualization of children. Then he recommended people discover who is making policy in their own localities.

“If you believe this isn’t happening in your school district, pick up your phone and Google ‘Indivisible’ and then keyword your city on there,” he said. “Look up ‘Unity’ along with your city. If you put those keywords in, you’re going to see groups in your schools. Those are the ones in my community that are trying to affect what’s happening with our children.”

He continued, “One person, in particular, I would actually like to point out, and her name is Megan Goebel. She’s part of the school district on the LGBTQ district advisory council, and she helps write policies for the transgender/LGBTQ whatever-you-want-to-call-it within my community. Now, this is a woman who has a transgender 6-year-old, and I don’t believe her values coincide with mine, but yet she’s the one sitting at the top, unwilling to have a conversation with parents, and it’s going to be her way and no one else’s way. So these are problems that are affecting everyone in the United States, and in your own communities, you will find that these people are there.”

Bigtree asked if secrecy laws — in which districts like CVUSD insist they may keep critical student information from parents — are a direct attack on family structures.

“I can’t argue it because there’s no other logical reason why this would be happening,” said Schneider. “If you have somebody on the other side of an issue that’s unwilling to hear you, they’re not there for a conversation — they’re there to push whatever it is they want. … What it really comes down to is parents being involved and communities standing up. At this point, it’s all or nothing. Parents need to get involved. We need to look further into what’s going on in our schools, and we need to show up to school boards, and we need to ask the difficult questions. We need to force the difficult conversations, and we need to do it with an open mind and an open heart.”