Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to Dr. Ansbro as a psychologist, rather than a psychiatrist.
After a high school in Boerne Independent School District hosted a licensed psychiatrist without parental consent, a student told school board members they must take action and accountability for the event.
Last week, a CHS student’s mom provided investigative journalist Sarah Fields with the information about CHS’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Club inviting licensed psychiatrist Dr. Sarah Ansbro to speak at Champion High School to students during three separate lunch periods. The event was co-sponsored by the school’s student council.
Ansbro discussed topics including gender reassignment surgery, cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers, and the lack of support for the LGBTQ community among Christians.
Parents were not informed of the speaker and the topics she planned to discuss. In a statement from BISD, neither the district nor school officials claimed to be aware of the club’s speaker or her discussion topics.
BISD officials have said the GSA Club did not go through the proper approval procedures. They also claimed they have taken “corrective action with the staff member regarding the matter.”
Citizens expressed their concerns about the event at BISD’s board meeting earlier this week.
During the meeting, the aforementioned mom and her son provided their testimonies. (Texas Scorecard is withholding their names to protect the student from further bullying.)
The CHS student’s mom said she could not wrap her head around the fact that a medical professional was allowed to come and speak to children without parental knowledge or consent.
She emailed the district and said the response she received—noted above—was “disturbing, to say the least.”
Later, the mom said she discovered the district only emailed its statement to parents whose children attended one of Ansbro’s presentations. Other parents attempted to reach out to school and district officials for answers, but the mom said they were left with no reply.
“BISD has a job to do to protect all students and make sure everyone is safe,” she testified.
The mom said her concerns were disregarded during a “recent meeting with some higher-ups,” where they claimed the issue “was blown way out of proportion.”
“I tend to disagree,” she concluded.
The mom’s CHS freshman son then testified.
“Dr. Sarah Ansbro talked about hormone therapy and sex changes,” he testified. “She also talked about where and how to get sex change surgery, hormone shots, and Christians not supporting the [LGBTQ] community.”
The freshman, who is a Christian, told Ansbro not all Christian people are bad and some are even openly supportive of the LGBTQ community. According to the student, she responded by saying, “Name ten priests that are gay or openly support the [LGBTQ] community.”
Defeated, the teen said he just sat back down, unsure of how to respond.
“I actively support the Gay-Alliance Club and I attend the meetings,” said the freshman. “However, I feel that since my own views are more on the conservative side and I identify as a Christian, my views are not actively supported in this club. The views presented to you are very one-sided and teach you only to think one way and ignore the other side.”
The teen also discussed the GSA Club’s lack of parental participation. He explained that parents are completely unaware of the club’s existence, what is taught, or even if their child participates (unless the child chooses to inform their parents).
“I also attend the Esports Club at Champion,” he explained. “In order to join the club, my parents had to sign a permission slip; this was to make sure I was always safe while attending the after-school club. The GSA Club has no permission slip to have parents sign, and basically, parents wouldn’t know that you were going unless you told them.”
The student said he was speaking out to encourage “the school district to take action and accountability for these issues.”
“Our future and safety as students depends on it.”
Both the student and his mom have been labeled as “bigots” and “transphobes” for speaking out, and the student has been bullied. Just a day after speaking out about the event, the 16-year-old student was approached by five students who told him he was “spreading misinformation” and attempted to “gaslight” him by asking if he was being “held hostage by his mother or if he was forced to speak.” Though this took place directly in front of the assistant principal, she did not intervene.
Fields, who serves as president of the Texas Freedom Coalition, said she hopes awareness about the situation will “effect positive change.”
“My hopes in this is that the board decides to hold themselves accountable and act accordingly. Either that, or vote the bad ones out. Not every board member is bad. Replace the woke,” Fields wrote on Twitter.
Since Boerne is in U.S. Rep. Chip Roy’s congressional district, he is also actively involved in resolving the issue.
“My staff and I have engaged with Boerne ISD leadership directly,” Roy told Texas Scorecard. “We shared our concerns and requested they implement controls to prevent rogue behavior in the future, and that was well received. I’ve spoken with other state and local elected officials to make sure we work together to protect students and empower parents.”
