California High School Could Test Trump's ‘Anti-Indoctrination Order'
CARLSBAD, Calif. - Parents are demanding answers after a self-described "science of BDSM" expert from a clinic providing trans surgeries and representatives from organizations that help facilitate gender transitions were scheduled to speak at a California high school during a recent week of events supporting LGBTQ students.
In late March, parents started speaking out against a decision to allow Mita Beach, a self-described BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism) expert, and representative of DAP Health, a medical clinic that provides gender transition surgeries, to deliver remarks at Sage Creek High School in Carlsbad, California. during a lunchtime event in the cafeteria open to all students.
Parents learned that Beach, who lists his pronouns as "they/them" on his LinkedIn account, planned to speak as part of the Gender Sexuality Alliance clubs "Ally Week" of events promoting the LGBTQ community and anti-bullying messaging.
After looking into his business websites and social media accounts, which contained at least one photo of Beach engaged in BDSM and listed workshops hes led on "Kink 101" and "Examining Self-Injurious Behavior, Erotic Play, and Body Modification," several concerned parents contacted the high school and district superintendents office.
A photo of Beach, appearing to hold up a much smaller person who is grasping his bare back as whips and chains are displayed in the background, along with screenshots of his LinkedIn resume, quickly circulated on Instagram. Within 24 hours of those social media posts, the GSA club canceled Beachs appearance but moved forward with at least two other speakers from organizations that help facilitate gender transitions and surgeries. At least one of the organizations also works with other LGBTQ groups to provide "unicorn homes," or "transitional housing" for LGBTQ youth who claim to be homeless because their parents arent supportive of their sexual orientation or gender transitions.
Over the last several weeks, parents of students who attend the high school have leveled a flurry of formal complaints about the schools decision to allow the speakers on campus and the educators responses defending the clubs invitations. Each side is digging in and each cites California and federal law. Parents and other concerned citizens also voiced concerns about the Ally Week speakers during a recent school board meeting.
The uproar is taking place amid a series of high-profile legal battles over the promotion of gender ideology in schools and questions over how far President Trump and his administration will go to stop it. The controversy also comes amid a nationwide debate over local school districts allowing, and at times facilitating, students gender transitions while intentionally keeping that information from childrens parents.
Trump issued three executive orders in late January directing federal agencies to end "radical indoctrination" in K-12 schools across the country, with one specifically deriding some schools practice of "deliberately blocking parental oversight." One of the executive orders demands an end to gender ideology instruction and activities in public schools, as well as what the White House describes as "discriminatory equity ideology," a term used to describe the practice of teaching awareness of race and privilege-based oppression.
The executive orders direct Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in consultation with Attorney General Pam Bondi, to provide an "ending indoctrination strategy" to the White House within 90 days. The agencies have yet to publicly disclose the details of the strategy and whether the Department of Education will move forward with Trumps demand to withhold federal education funds from states they find in violation of the order.
In late March, the Trump administration also launched an investigation into the California Department of Education over school districts withholding information from parents about their childrens gender transitions.
The U.S. Department of Education announced the investigation, citing concerns that state education officials "played a role" in violating federal law by "socially transition[ing] children at school while hiding minors gender identity from parents."
Any punitive action against schools by the Trump administration will undoubtedly face resistance from judges and courts. But an upcoming Supreme Court decision could reset the legal playing field - at least when it comes to allowing parents choices when their children are being taught gender-ideology curriculum at public schools.
The high court is set to rule in a Maryland case in which parents sued the Montgomery County Board of Education for the right to opt out of instruction that includes storybooks featuring gender identity and sexual orientation.
LGBTQ advocates and their allies are warning that Trumps executive order limiting gender-ideology activities and instruction on K-12 campuses could be creating a chilling effect on teachers and administrators willingness to embrace discussions or curriculum about sexual orientation and anti-bullying lessons on campuses across the country.
The American Civil Liberties Union, and other civil rights organizations, have long supported annual "Ally Week" events on college and high school campuses across the country as a way for students to "identify, support and celebrate" allies to LGBTQ students. The leaders of the clubs hosting the events often ask students, teachers, and staff to sign a pledge supporting efforts to end bullying and harassment of LGBTQ students.
But here in this seaside Southern California city, the GSA clubs Ally Week is going beyond rallying around an anti-bullying message in hosting speakers who have worked with students and even adult military servicemen and women to help facilitate gender transitions.
In response to parent complaints, school officials at Sage Creek High School and its school district argue they have no obligation or even a role in providing an opt-out opportunity for students whose parents disagree with the content on religious or moral grounds. School and district officials also are standing by a decision not to alert parents about the speakers or allow parents on campus to hear the content of these speakers remarks.
Two days before Ally Week was scheduled to begin, Josh Way, Sage Creeks principal, informed parents via email about the GSA clubs week of events promoting support for the LGBTQ+ community. Most parents were already aware of Ally Weeks anti-bullying messaging. For the past six years, the week-long series of events, most of which are held in the cafeteria at lunchtime, had taken place featuring speakers that included local elected officials and the school districts superintendent.
In a March 22 email to parents, the principal laid out the federal and state laws that he said support and encourage GSAs activities. But Way notably did not disclose the identities and backgrounds of the speakers the club had invited.
Way asserted in the same email that California law "emphasizes creating safe school environments and does not require notification about specific clubs or their meetings." He also stressed the "importance of student privacy and the right to form supportive communities within the school setting."
When a concerned parent asked to attend Beachs remarks, Way rejected the parents request. According to email correspondence reviewed by RealClearPolitics, Way acknowledged the state law allowing parents to observe their students instruction and activities on campus. But he argued that the parents student wasnt a member of the GSA club and hadnt attended any of its events, so likely wouldnt attend this weeks event.
The parent countered that he believed his child was planning to participate because the speeches were occurring in the cafeteria at lunchtime with no requirement that only members of the GSA club can attend or that students are required to sign up before attending. He also noted that several parents planned to show up at the school to hear Beachs and other speakers remarks.
Way wrote back informing the parent that Beachs appearance had been canceled and that he and other staffers planned to deny parents access to the lunchtime activities if the GSA had not invited them onto the campus that day.
Neither Way nor Carlsbad Unified School District Superintendent Rick Schmitt returned RealClearPolitics inquiries. RCP also reached out to DAP Health and San Diegos Trans Family Support Services, the organizations employing two of the originally planned speakers, but did not receive a response.
On May 8, Assistant Superintendent Megan Arias responded to a parents complaints with a six-page denial. The letter claimed that the district cannot restrict a student clubs guest speakers because of their "affiliation with or membership in an organization absent reasonable support that the guest speakers presentation will result in substantial interference with the operations of the school site."
The GSAs decision to cancel Beachs appearance, Arias claimed, was made by club members alone and was "not due to any influence from district or school site administration."
The letter also cited "First Amendment implications," and asserted that case law recognizes that "though the state education system has the awesome responsibility of inculcating moral and political values, that does not permit educators to act as 'thought police inhibiting all discussion that is not approved by, and in accord with the official position of, that state."
The positions expressed in Arias letter reflect a broader push in public schools in California and elsewhere to keep information about students gender transitions from parents.
California last year became the first state in the U.S. to bar school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their gender identification change under legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The new law prohibits school rules requiring teachers and other staff to disclose a students gender identity or sexual orientation to any other person without the students permission.
In the case of Sage Creeks Ally Week speakers, parents found out about the speakers bios from the GSAs Instagram posts promoting the names of the "special guest" speakers and events including a "Ga(y)me Day" that promised "games, treats and swag" and a joint "Celebration of Pride & Unity" event with another public high school on Friday after school. The speakers listed on the Instagram post included Mita Beach of DAP Health, a medical clinic in Palm Springs that provides gender-altering surgeries "as part of its mission," its website states.
Beach serves as the clinics director of operations for specialty and gender health and wellness and previously served as a "trans healthcare navigator" at a different medical clinic. His LinkedIn.com resume notes that he serves as a "subject matter expert" on a team dealing with bondage, discipline, and sadomasochism.
"Scientific research focuses on alternative sexualities, particularly BDSM, with special interests in the motivations for the voluntary experience of pain, altered states of consciousness, extreme rituals, and sadism," Beach states on his LinkedIn profile.
Parents then uncovered the graphic photos of Beach on his social media displaying large pentagram tattoos on his chest and back along with memes and cartoons with Satanic or anti-Christian themes. Beach also posted flyers promoting Virtual Trans Peer Support Groups on topics such as "surgery intervention & pathways" that he marketed as open to "trans/nonbinary folks and their families ages 16+."
Melissa OConnor, who calls herself a "citizen journalist," posted the photos of Beach and several of his Instagram and LinkedIn pages on her own Instagram account the day before Beach was scheduled to speak. OConnors post included a warning to local parents that he would be speaking to Sage Creek High School students that Thursday and questioned whether the GSA club advisor, an English teacher at the school, had vetted and approved his invitation.
The Instagram post began circulating among Sage Creek High School parents and other Carlsbad residents, several of whom contacted Principal Way with their concerns.
By the time Beachs scheduled talk was canceled, Mondays and Tuesdays speakers had already visited the school and made their remarks. Those speakers were: Joscelyn Inton-Campbell, a manager at Trans Family Support Services in San Diego, a nonprofit that provides "family coaching, assistance with healthcare and insurance issues, help navigating the legal system, and support at schools," according to its website.
In 2022, the group hosted what it described as "a family-friendly" queer Halloween party with a Disney villain-themed drag show, an event that made national news after parents objected to a flyer promoting attendance being included in a weekly digital newsletter sent to all public elementary school parents in Encinitas Unified School District. The event was sponsored by Richs San Diego, a popular gay nightclub in downtown San Diego, and Align Surgical Associates, a gender-reassignment surgery program.
The other speaker was Dr. Karl Pongyingpis, a psychologist affiliated with the Navy Medical Center in San Diego who assisted servicemembers with their gender transitions before the Trump administration banned trans individuals from serving in the military and put a halt to all military-assisted gender transition surgeries and other gender-transition medical care. In early May the Supreme Court upheld the ban on trans individuals in the military.
A source who attended Pongyingpis remarks to the high school students said he coached them on buzzwords to use with doctors and psychologists to attain a gender dysphoria diagnosis and receive gender-transitioning care. Pongyingpis also complained about the Trump administrations ban on trans people serving in the military and gave his cell phone number to the students, suggesting they call him directly with any questions.
Efforts to reach Pongyingpis were unsuccessful.
So far, the Trump administration has focused many of its fights over woke activities in public schools on higher education. In early May, McMahon launched an investigation into Washington state Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdals office for allowing biologically male trans athletes on girls sports teams.
Its unclear when or if the Department of Education, in conjunction with the Justice Department, will investigate so-called "indoctrination" activities taking place in elementary and secondary public schools as Trumps late January executive order pledges to do.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group, this year has filed two complaints against public high schools with the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education calling for investigations. In one of the complaints, ADF attorneys are representing two female high school track-and-field athletes in Spokane who have been forced to compete against a biological male who previously competed in the high school boys team.
In that case, ADF contends that Washington state officials are violating Title IXs guarantee that students receive equal opportunity to enjoy education benefits regardless of sex.
In the other, ADF joined the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and Parents Defending Education in urging the Department of Education to investigate Milwaukee Public Schools "gender transition" policy. The policy allows school staff to create a "Gender Support Plan" and "Gender Communications Plan" for minor students without notifying parents and then hides the plans from the students records to prevent parents from accessing them.
The organizations allege that Milwaukee public schools are directly violating federal law.
"Parents ought to be in the drivers seat when it comes to their own childs education," ADF attorney Vincent Wagner told RCP. "Theyre the ones who have the fundamental right to make decisions about how their kids are educated."
Wagner cited the pending Maryland case before the Supreme Court in which parents are objecting on religious grounds to their children receiving instruction about gender and sexuality instruction that was integrated throughout the day. He argues that the same sort of legal issues could be at play in Sage Creek High Schools Ally Week, in which parents didnt know about the speakers bios so didnt have a chance to prevent their children from participating.
Wagner cited a long legal precedent for respecting parents religious liberty and objections in public schools. In a famous 1948 case, the high court sided with a Jehovahs Witness student whose parents objected to him saluting and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
"The same principle would apply when were talking about these novel ideas about gender and sexuality that so many religions have problems with," he said.
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' national political correspondent.
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