A formerly “woke” Latina mother has been embroiled in a nearly six-month battle with a Texas public school after a teacher asked her students to treat her as a “persuasive prostitute.”
On September 2, 2022, a Social-Emotional Learning class teacher at KIPP Poder Academy, a public charter school, taught students a role-playing game called Bear-Hunter-Hooker, an adult drinking game version of Rock, Paper, Scissors. .
Seventh graders, standing in front of the class with one hand on their hip and one behind their ear, a hunter, an imaginary weapon and a scary bear with their legs up, were asked to pose as a “seductive prostitute.” The aim of the game is to show control over the attitude made by its members.
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Laura María Gruber revealed that she “woke up a committed liberal” until the September 2, 2022 event at KIPP: Poder Middle School. (Laura Maria Gruber)
For example, when hooker and hunter pair up, the seducing hooker wins over the hunter by “seducing”. The students were said to be organized to participate, from the youngest to the most mature. Students in one class were motivated to participate with the promise of sweets.
Laura María Gruber, who is from Puerto Rico, complained that prostitution and sexualized violence were normalized at school because of this “group cultivation activity”. He was also concerned about a student pointing an imaginary gun at another member, three months after the Uvalde shooting.
Gruber says the game was also played in a second classroom, but KIPP denies the allegation.
“I woke up a committed liberal until this game and school came into my life… seeing how KIPP was exploiting Latino kids, and then how I sought support from every progressive politician and organization that didn’t give this issue the time of day… that really. moment it gave me an insight into who is actually doing the work needed to stop the sexualization of children,” Gruber said.
In the complaint process paperwork, the school admitted that the game happened as described; however, four levels of KIPP administration, school principal Stephanie Lee, deputy superintendent Jeremy Gray, regional superintendent Allen Smith, and KIPP: Texas CEO Sehba Ali denied sexualized child play.
KIPP Poder Academy did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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A KIPP administrator responded to Laura María Gruber’s complaint about the Bear, Hunter, Hooker game. (Laura Maria Gruber)
During the complaint process, Gruber asserted that the game violates the KIPP handbook rule that prohibits discrimination and harassment, including but not limited to the following conduct.
Verbal behavior such as jokes or derogatory comments, epithets, comments, or unwanted sexual advances, invitations, or comments. Visual behaviors such as e-mails, posters, photographs, cartoons, drawings or gestures. (1) limited to inappropriate conduct that has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or learning environment (20 unreasonably interfering with an employee’s job performance or student performance).
Gruber also said the game violates Texas Education Code Local School Health Advisory Council and Health Education Instruction, Section 28.004gj, Texas Penal Code, Texas Administrative Code of Educator Ethics and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. That he violated numerous aspects of the title.
He also lied at the first level of the complaint process and said that the parents had been contacted about the game. Instead, the letter, sent in English and Spanish, said parental counseling was available, but did not go into specifics.
Parents didn’t hear about what happened for five and a half months after Gruber went through all the levels of the complaint process and spoke with the KIPP Texas Board of Public Schools.
On January 18, Gruber spoke to the council. When they heard about the incident, they were clearly angry, but still, they gave the school an extra month to “correct their story” and “give a more appropriate response”.
The board approved a motion Feb. 6 to hire a child abuse nonprofit to teach children and address their trauma. The teacher in question was not fired but the school said he would be retrained.
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Chief Academic Officer Deedrah Harp tells Laura María Grube about her IX. That the title complaint has been dismissed. (Laura Maria Gruber)
In a Feb. 16 letter to parents, sent in English and Spanish and approved by the board, Lee said the incident did not meet the academy’s “bar of excellence” and acknowledged the game was played.
“This game was not part of any curriculum at KIPP, and it was not appropriate for students. Any activity with actions or words like ‘hooker’ or ‘seduced’ should never have a place in our schools. The intent was never to sexualize. baby, I recognize the impacts that it can make students feel uncomfortable or traumatized. This disrespects the respect we want to teach our students at all times — it’s actually degrading,” Lee said.
Lee said the incident was immediately addressed with the teacher “deeply regretting” playing the game. He also said the school had scheduled additional staff-wide training for all teachers on appropriate and inappropriate behavior with students.
“I apologize for not communicating sooner; after working with a concerned parent, we recognize that we should have shared the incident with you immediately, reviewed how we handled this matter, and made resources available to parents to talk to their children. We promise to be more transparent in the future.” “, he added.
The letter also provided parents with talking points on how to engage in discussion with them about the incident.
But Gruber says the damage was already done and that KIIP’s initial response cut off parents and blocked key adult voices from contacting their children while the incident lingered on their minds for months.
He explained several anecdotes about the students in the play class.
One female student, who said she had already been sexually assaulted, said the game “took its toll”.
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KIPP Poder Academy sends a letter to parents on February 16, 2023, almost six months after the incident. (Laura Maria Gruber)
A parent, after hearing about the game, reportedly told the child not to cause drama at school and to respect the teachers.
He said this response was representative of many disadvantaged parents, who often try to stay off the “authoritarian radar” because of immigration issues and instead want to focus on getting out of poverty or navigating the legal system. He said this makes them a prime demographic to take advantage of and that KIPP deliberately exploits that fact.
KIPP is the face of progressive education in the United States and is known for providing equitable education to Black, Latino, and LGBTQIA children.
“His claim to fame is to provide equality in education for black and Latino children in education is particularly catchy and this game applies to all of us, no matter where we are on the moral or political spectrum,” Gruber. he said
Gruber added that it was important for his Latino community to see a Latino “against awakening.”
“I think it’s important to see that my Latino community has a moment about waking up a Latina and what’s really going on with us, and that it’s conservatives who are really doing the work, and that our faith is inseparable from our language and parentage and that. Wake up trying to dilute our culture with political conservatives. what we do with the movements they are,” he said.
In a March 6 letter, KIPP Texas Public Schools Administration Board President Gene Austin confirmed the board’s apology at the hearing, saying the lengthy process may have felt “lengthy” for him and Gruber’s child’s experience at the school. .
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KIPP Texas Public Schools President and Board of Trustees Gene Austin apologized to Laura María Grube on March 6, 2023. (Laura Maria Gruber)
“After examining the arguments and the minutes, the Council decided to accept the appeals presented by the Administration at the meeting of February 27, 2023; however, seeing that the Council did not have a reasonable justification for the delay in the process, the Council requested that the Administration present to the Council, at the next regular meeting of the Council, the response to the events at the national level a complete overhaul of the process,” Austin said.
Gruber also pushed his concerns to other agencies. The Texas Education Agency says it closed the investigation because it is “focusing more on inappropriate teacher-student relationships.”
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The Texas attorney general reportedly dismissed the case. Meanwhile, the US Department of Education dismissed the case after an in-depth interview with Gruber. He said that no reason was given for his dismissal.
Gruber hopes her words will encourage other parents to speak up. At first she put her daughter in school to help her catch up on schoolwork. Her daughter developed a bone infection in her spine, a life-threatening condition that left her hospitalized for half a year. But after just four weeks, she pulled her daughter out of KIPP.
“I think it’s ground zero for grooming,” Gruber said. “They just have zero limits.”
Nikolas Lanum is an associate editor at Fox News Digital.