Wendell and Maria Perez sent their 12-year-old child to elementary school like they would on any other day and went about their business as usual. Only for Wendell to get a call from his child’s school that she had attempted to commit suicide in the bathroom.

Her motivation?

The child went so far because she was “frustrated” that she wasn’t a boy. She wanted to be a boy, have a male name, and all the pronouns that come attached to that.

Wendell was beyond flabbergasted. He and Maria had seen no signs of this from the child at home. As devout Catholics, they had given her a biblical and scientific understanding of what they believed gender and sex to be. So, where the agitation and ultimate desperation to go so far came from was lost on the parents.

However, further digging would bring some crucial and unfortunate details to light.

It turns out that, several months prior to that time, the girl had gone to her teachers and the school authorities to request that she be treated and addressed as a boy. The school management acquiesced to those wishes and willfully decided to keep that crucial bit of information from her parents.

They cited “confidentiality issues” as the reasons for their actions.

As any loving and well-meaning parent would be, Wendell and Maria were furious. The Florida parents didn’t waste a breath dragging the school to court.

As painful as the above must’ve been for any parent to read, the truth is that it would’ve been so much better if what happened to the Perez family was an isolated incident. Unfortunately, the above story is becoming increasingly common as the days go by.

At this point, we have to start asking the difficult questions, starting with the big doozy; should schools be required to notify parents if a student wishes to change their pronouns?

The above is a tough question to answer, there is no doubt about that. But if society is to be preserved, the answer to it must be a “Yes,’’ at every turn.

There are several important reasons for this.

Let’s start with the most obvious ones.

The relationship between school administrators and parents has always been a strained one. And recent events have only done much to put even more pressure on that. Regardless, one thing that every school owes a parent is information on the mental and physical well-being of their child.

This isn’t just entitlement talking either.

The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution emphatically states that a parent is predominantly responsible for their child’s welfare, health, and upbringing. Now, it is because of this right and responsibility that most parents send their wards to school in the first place. The belief is that education is key to knowledge and success.

So, what could possibly be the justification for deliberately choosing to not disclose relevant information about a child’s gender to their parents?

This stance makes no sense from every perspective.

Let’s take the perspective of the school for example.

They have information that a child wishes to change their name and gender pronouns.

Okay.

They make conscious efforts to encourage this decision under the guise of creating a “safe space” for the child without informing the parents. It’s not, but let’s assume that this is okay as well.

Now, the question is, will the school management take responsibility for that child’s actions, no matter how it turns out? Or, like in the case of the Perez family, will they assume that the child can take full responsibility for themselves?

Answer the above questions keeping in mind that, according to research conducted by the #American Academy of Pediatrics, as much as 95% of children and adolescents end up outgrowing gender dysphoria and accepting their biological sex, provided they are allowed to undergo puberty naturally instead of being affirmed in any transgender identity.

Let’s consider things from the perspective of the child or adolescent too.

In a setting where schools don’t inform parents about the gender decisions of their child, that individual is essentially forced into a position where they have to lead a double life. They’ll have to appear to be one thing to their parents while they are another thing entirely when in school.

It’s not too difficult to imagine how prolonged exposure to such a lifestyle can put intense pressure on a child, leading to incidents of depression or even suicide attempts. As Dr. Stephen B. Levine, an expert on gender dysphoria rightly points out, “Social transition has a critical effect on the persistence of gender dysphoria. Social transition before or during puberty … is a psychotherapeutic intervention that dramatically changes outcomes.”

So, while the school might be thinking they’re “helping” the child, what they’re really doing is inflicting serious and undue harm to that individual.

Things aren’t much better from the perspective of the parents affected either.

Imagine sending your ward to school, thinking that you’re giving them the very best education that you can afford. Only for the school to find out something that can be potentially life-changing about your child and purposely keep that from you.

That’s a betrayal on the highest level.

But more than that, the school has shirked its duties and painted you in a bad light to your child.

Most children and young adults tend to believe that their parents don’t understand them. Such notions are hard to break when schools foster an environment that actively encourages lies between parent and child.

Gender identity is the core of an individual’s being. As such, it’s a journey that the child will have to go on their own, for the most part. However, the least schools can do is let parents know what is happening so they don’t inadvertently make things worse.

Schools have a duty to let parents know if and when a student wishes to change their pronouns. Keeping the people who the child spends the most time with in the dark is just ridiculous.