Texas School Superintendent Fights Back Against AG’s Demand to Cancel Pride Week

After Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent out and publicized a letter to Dr. Stephanie S. Elizalde, a superintendent of the Austin Independent School District, asking her to cancel the school’s Pride Week celebration, Elizalde wasn’t about to back down.

“I want all our LGBTQIA+ students to know that we are proud of them and that we will protect them against political attacks,” she writes on Twitter.

Paxton’s letter says that the Texas legislature “had made it clear” that, when it comes to sex education, “parents—not school districts are in charge.” He says that, because the district is hosting a Pride Week, it has “undertaken a weeklong instrumental effort in human sexuality without parental consent.”

Paxton goes on, “Or worse, your district is cynically pushing a week-long indoctrination of your students that not only fails to obtain parental consent, but subtly cuts parents out of the loop.”

He also accuses Elizalde of breaking state law and says that parents will be able to file complaints with the school board against her.

A spokesperson for the school district, James Stanford, says that Paxton’s response is politically motivated: “This is not a parental rights issue. This is a Ken Paxton trying to score political points issue,” Stanford tells The Washington Post.

Stanford adds that in no way was Pride Week looking to cut parents out.

“Never in a million years are we telling these kids not to tell things to their parents,” Stanford says.

As he revealed his letter, Paxton also wrote on Twitter, “Liberal school districts are aggressively pushing LGBTQ+ views on Texas Kids! All behind parents’ backs! This is immoral and illegal,” before adding that LGBTQ people are “sexual propagandists and predators,” demanding they be held “accountable.”

Paxton has made headlines recently for leveraging his position to issue a formal attorney general opinion that providing gender-affirming care to trans youth is “child abuse” under Texas law. This prompted Governor Greg Abbott to send a letter to the Department of Family and Protective Services demanding they investigate parents who provide gender-affirming care to their transgender children.