Catalina Foothills School District drew public criticism, a spokeswoman says, after a principal’s September 2021 email — which the district says didn’t reflect its policies — recently began circulating on social media and was picked up this week by Fox News.
Principal Mark Rubin-Toles of Orange Grove Middle School provided his staff, through the email, with a “confidential” list of students who had expressed different preferred pronouns and names than those stated in school records.
He wrote that some students on the list were not comfortable with staff sharing the information with their parents or guardians. “It is our responsibility to protect student privacy in these matters,” Rubin-Toles wrote.
But district spokeswoman Julie Farbarik said Wednesday the instructions in the email do not conform with district practices at any of its schools.
“We respect any student’s preference regarding how they are addressed in school, be it a nickname or a pronoun request,” Farbarik said. “However, as students are informed, if a parent were to inquire, our staff do not keep this information from parents. Further, we encourage students to discuss these matters with their parents.”
Farbarik would not respond to questions about whether Rubin-Toles or other employees had been disciplined in relation to the email.
The controversy erupted about the same time as the Arizona Senate was passing a measure to bar school employees from referring to a student by a pronoun that does not align with their birth sex, unless their parents first provide written permission.
Details in the email
A photo of the Orange Grove Middle School email began circulating on Twitter earlier this month after it was posted by Nicole Solas, a senior fellow at Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative nonprofit group that says it is “dedicated to developing and advancing policies that ... enhance people’s freedom, opportunities, and well-being.”
In her tweet, Solas said she obtained a copy of the email by submitting a public records request. “More schools keeping secrets from parents,” she said in her tweet.
In a separate tweet, Solas stated that the district did not provide the file, titled, “CONFIDENTIAL: pronouns, preferred names ...,” that was attached to Rubin-Toles’ original email.
The district confirmed Wednesday that the subject line in the email read, “CONFIDENTIAL: list of students with pronouns & preferred names different than in Synergy.” Synergy is a student information system that teachers, parents and students can access through their personal accounts.
In his email, Rubin-Toles wrote, “If you are like me, you may have been challenged recently to keep some of our kids’ pronouns and preferred names straight — and to remember what can and can’t be shared with families.”
“Our goal is to be able to respect these students’ pronouns, names and privacy consistently across campus,” he wrote.
Said Farbarik this week: “The practice outlined in his 2021 email was wrong, and (Mr. Rubin-Toles) has expressed regret about that. Unfortunately, media coverage of this incident has stoked a firestorm of hateful messages and comments, mostly from organized critics of public education.”
Commenters react
Some Twitter users replied to Solas’ tweet in agreement, shaming the district for withholding information from parents and accusing the district of “grooming” the students. “Schools should never ever ever be allowed to keep secrets from parents. That’s groomer behavior,” one Twitter user commented.
But Farbarik said the district has also received some positive feedback about the email. Some of that has come from current Orange Grove parents thanking Rubin-Toles for creating a safe space as students explore their identities, she said.
“We’re very sorry to know that the current political environment in our country has resulted in remarkable educators like you being targeted,” parents Violeta Dominguez and Matthias Mehl wrote to Rubin-Toles in a statement provided to the Arizona Daily Star by the district. “Your outstanding commitment to the wellbeing of all students is one of the main reasons why we chose OG as the middle school for (our child.)”
Farbarik referred to Rubin-Toles as a “thoughtful and compassionate administrator.”
“We need gifted people like Mr. Rubin-Toles to work in our schools. We also need our schools and our parents to work together constructively as partners,” Farbarik said. “To make that happen, we have to model the mindset that we teach our students, where we grow by learning from our mistakes.”
Legislature moves to restrict students’ pronouns
The bill passed earlier this month by the Arizona Senate is now up for consideration by the House of Representatives. Both chambers are led by Republicans.
Introduced by Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, the bill also says teachers and school employees with religious objections can’t be forced to use a student’s preferred pronoun, including in situations where the parents have given permission.
Kavanagh’s bill also would put into law that teachers and other school employees may refer to a student by only his or her given name or a nickname “commonly associated with the student’s name of record.’’ He said it would be OK to refer to someone named John as Jack. “You just can’t call ‘John’ ‘Jane,’” he said.
The Senate approval came after a debate between Republican lawmakers, who said the measure is about ensuring student safety and parental rights, and Democrats, who countered that it violates children’s rights and would negatively affect students’ mental health.
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