Recently we were contacted by concerned parents who had discovered that Pius X had assigned anti-trans homework to students. This “homework” appears to be nothing but a printout of an interview by Tom Ritchie of TFP Student Action (the TFP stands for “Tradition, Family, and Property”, barf), a group that “defends traditional moral values on college campuses”. This group was founded in 1960 by Brazilian antisemite Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira whose articles in the 1930’s “expressed views that Jews had amassed “vast wealth and, therefore, decisive influence on business affairs,” and that Jews were among the founders of Communism. Corrêa de Oliveira wrote that the Jews, who unlike the Communists were not under surveillance by Brazilian security forces, were thus much more dangerous.” (citation from the World Holocaust Remembrance Center)
We are not sure why this hateful “college” group is pushing their bullshit in high schools, but we are fairly certain their gatherings have about as many young people as the cancelled TPUSA event at Creighton had. And speaking of TPUSA, grown-ass woman and white supremacist of color Malia Shirley, who spouts conspiracy theories about “groomers” daily, is now trolling high schools for recruits.
But I digress.
Among their “victories”, TFP Student Action counts getting links to Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Organization for Women (NOW), and Access Women’s Health Justice removed from the websites of various Catholic colleges, holding a shitload of “rosary rallies”, and demanding the removal of a public piece of art that was “a satanic-looking image mocking the Resurrection of Our Lord, portraying a risen Christ with the head of an alien” at a community college in Maryland (lol 100% would buy that).
The “paper” handed out to the students at Pius X is called “Dr. Cretella on Transgenderism: A Mental Illness Is Not a Civil Right” which goes to show Ms. Cretella is very uninformed on several levels about transgenderism, mental illness, and what constitutes a civil right. Dr. Cretella is the President of the American College of Pediatricians, which, as David Winter (they/them) pointed out on our previous post about this on instagram, ” … sounds like a professional medical organization. It’s not. They are an activist organization that exists to advocate against abortion and against LGBTQ rights and to promote conversion therapy. The name is clearly meant to make them sound like the American Academy of Pediatricians, an entirely different organization that actually focuses on pediatric healthcare”.
Indeed, the American College of Pediatricians is recognized as a fringe, anti-LGBTQ hate group by the SPLC. Why is Pius assigning homework penned by the leader of a known hate group, and pushed by an anti-queer college organization founded by an antisemite?
You can see the paper, which appears to be lifted verbatim from the TFP Student Action website at the end of this article. CW: anti-trans ideology and absolute ignorance.
Of course this is nowhere near the first time the Catholics at Pius X have waded in the swamp of ignorant, hateful ideology. Remember when Pius students waved Trump flags and turned their backs on the diverse cheerleaders of Lincoln High? Or when a Pius student published a racist “opinion” piece full of inaccuracies in the school paper and the school blamed readers for finding it racist instead of themselves for putting racist ideology in their students heads? After both of those incidents, we were contacted by many Pius students who told us of the harassment and abuse they endure there because they don’t fit the Pius mold. We also got many private messages from other Pius students who certainly do fit the mold, in which they demanded we explain to them how waving a Trump flag is racist, called us cunts, and wished death on us.
We reached out for comments from Pius X regarding this but as of this publishing we have not received a response.
The longer we turn a blind eye to the hateful indoctrination happening at this school and many other religious schools across the country, the worse off our kids are going to be. And it’s not just the religious schools we have to worry about. Four members of Protect Nebraska Children (Kirk Penner, Sherry Jones, Elizabeth Tegtmeier, and Marni Hodgen) have successfully moved forward to the primaries and will potentially win seats on the State Board of Education. These conspiracy theorists are getting friendly interviews from the local press with absolutely no mention that they are indeed conspiracy theorists who pose a huge danger to Nebraskas children.
We know Pius X is a Catholic school and not a public school, but most of those kids don’t have a choice of what school their parents make them go to. There are certainly queer and trans kids at Pius. Parents should have a reasonable expectation that their kids are not being indoctrinated with hateful ideology at their school. No school should be pushing conspiracy theories, bunk “science”, or ignorant, hateful opinions presented as fact. What happens in that school, and in every school, doesn’t affect just the kids at that school, it affects our entire community.
