Who is teaching elementary kids what?
By Mark Alexander
web posted November 6, 2023
Occasionally, even here in Tennessee with our deep conservative roots, local issues can be so egregiously offensive that they headline national and international news platforms.
That would include several crimes I have covered over the last year, which are typical of those in crime-infested Democrat-controlled cities across the nation.
I wrote in "Memphis Murder and Mayhem" about Liza Fletcher, a white kindergarten teacher and mother of two, who was abducted, tortured, and murdered by a black man in Demo-controlled Memphis. I have argued that all murders are hate crimes, not just those that fit Joe Biden's fake "white supremacy" narrative, a canard to distract from the epidemic of black-on-black murder and violence nationwide.
I wrote about the recent murder of a prominent local white businessman, Chris Wright, by a career criminal thug in Demo-controlled Chattanooga. To avoid any racial implications, the local mayor categorized that murder as "gun violence" in order to use it as fodder for Democrats' gun control agenda.
I wrote about the gender-confused assailant who murdered six people in Demo-controlled Nashville, which was, by informed accounts, a hate crime against Christians. But to avoid that label, Demos are rallying wealthy white suburban women across the state, and using them as pawns for Biden's "assault weapon" ban.
While my topic today, another issue in Tennessee, does not involve violence, it certainly is a case study of the Demos' nationwide assault on children. Like the aforementioned cases, it was so egregious and offensive that it made national and international media platform headlines.
Many public school teachers are dedicated folks who work hard in difficult districts because they are devoted to their students.
However, I was surprised recently when researching professions with the highest per capita incidence of child sexual predation — given all the recent focus on the religious institutions — that in fact most abuse occurs in K-12 schools, and is the result of failed school administrators. In many cases, those administrators have attempted to conceal the abuse.
You won't hear about this from the teacher unions, but the U.S. Department of Education estimates that as many as one in 10 children has been subjected to sexual misconduct by school employees. I suppose that follows, given that schools are full of child victims for predators to target.
In addition to physical abuse by predators, most children are now being subjected to deviant gender-confused indoctrination at ever-younger ages, "grooming" activities that are sanctioned by leftist school administrators and unions. While this indoctrination is common in public school classrooms in states under Democrat control, it is a growing problem in Tennessee urban centers and other conservative states where cities are under Demo control.
Last April, a school administrator brought to my attention an incident where a man claiming to be a woman showed up in a dress and florescent pink hair to teach first graders ... FIRST GRADERS ... at a Chattanooga public elementary school,. Much to the concern of other teachers and to the distraction of the children, that individual, Ezra Fry, reportedly insisted on being called female pronouns by the children.
As I wrote in a local op-ed at the time, the difference between this situation and another local controversy where gender-confused women took their children to bars for drag queen "entertainment" is that the parents of these first graders did not consent to their children being exposed to what amounts to gender-dysphoric indoctrination. They had no chance to opt out.
Responding to outraged parents, Fry insisted: "I'm a non-binary person, and I keep my gender out of my job." Right. He added, "Obviously this whole thing has blown up because people think I am [promoting my gender ideology]." The dress, pink hair, and female pronouns might have been a clue.
But Fry conceded: "Parents have a right to know who's teaching their students."
Indeed they do.
I also noted at the time that I believe how an adult wants to "identify" privately is his or her personal business, but it becomes public business when a teacher takes his gender-confused pathology into a classroom of first graders.
Local school officials responded to the outrage with a statement noting the administration "believes its schools should be safe, welcoming and inclusive spaces for all." To be clear, "welcoming and inclusive" is code for woke so-called "diversity, equity and inclusion" policies, and many parents concluded this situation was not "safe."
For the record, I realize school administrators nationwide are constrained by an errant 2020 Supreme Court decision classifying deviant sexual pathology as a "protected civil right," on par with race and ethnicity. That court decision set into motion a litany of contortionist efforts by government bureaucracies (including schools) and private sector business to "accommodate" this gender diktat.
That notwithstanding, there are members of school boards and administrations who fully support this deviant indoctrination.
As a reminder, it was the leftist indoctrination of students in Virginia two years ago that culture-bombed Hillary Clinton's crony, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, resulting in the election of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
So, why recount the April incident again?
Fast-forward four months to August of this year, and a prostitution sting operation that led police to the home of Fry and his "husband," David Acevedo. Chattanooga Police narcotics and vice detectives made contact with Fry and others "via an illicit prostitution website" to set up an "encounter." Notably, such prostitution websites are also responsible for a significant amount of child sex trafficking.
The police report noted, "Both parties advised officers that they are special education teachers" in two local elementary schools — teachers of the most vulnerable children. That's some "special education" all right.
As a result of the sting operation, Fry and Acevedo were charged with prostitution, promoting prostitution, possession of unlawful drugs and paraphernalia, and unlawful possession of a firearm.
According to reports, Acevedo has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the criminal investigation — and not a minute too soon. School officials I contacted were not able to comment on the case because of the ongoing criminal investigation — but some would like to comment loudly.
It is not clear what action has been taken to protect children from Fry, whose Instagram bio, according to media reports, notes he is a "Rabid Queer, Gender Anarchist, College Dropout." Fry is a contract teacher with Employee Self Service, which notes it "specializes in placing qualified staff" in "K-12 school district positions." The ESS "diversity statement" notes, "We have embraced diversity to ensure further that we are empowered to make sure that 'Everyday Counts' for our employees, the students, and the schools we serve nationwide."
Parents are most concerned about what Fry told police at the time of the sting: "I've been doing this for years." In other words, while given a stewardship role with elementary school children, he was actively involved in prostitution and drug use.
Thanks to the Chattanooga Police Department for making these arrests, and to local station WTVC for confirming that the August charges were associated with the same individual who showed up to teach first graders in a dress last April.
However, it is not clear why it took almost two months to make this connection public, or if there was any effort to slow-walk the criminal report. But it is clear that Chattanooga's inept police chief is sympathetic with the gender-confusion cult — having posed for photos with drag queen "entertainers" to show her support and unity.
Moreover, it is not clear, after the April incident, if there were additional background checks to determine whether these two men were a threat to schoolchildren.
Pretending to be the victims, Fry and Acevedo lamented that they will "starve" because their extra income stream has been interrupted.
Sorry, but the victimization of elementary school children, who are increasingly at risk from gender-dysphoric grooming and predatory sexual assault, is our priority.
This issue is, at its core, about the institutional failures propagated by leftist teacher unions and administrators, ultimately to their shame and disgrace, and the detriment of our young people.
And it is why, as The Washington Post notes this week, "Home schooling has become — by a wide margin — America's fastest-growing form of education [embraced by] families from Upper Manhattan to Eastern Kentucky."
Some would suggest a modicum of compassion for Fry and Acevedo because it's apparent that something went badly awry in their early lives.
To be clear, I don't believe that most people ensnared by gender-confusion culture or pathology are evil. Most are, themselves, victims of prior sexual abuse or have grown up with ineffectual/absentee fathers. They deserve our compassion.
However, those "enlightened" Demos who want to "normalize" gender-confusion pathology are endeavoring to abandon people in their degraded state of suffering, and it is they who deserve our condemnation, much more so than the afflicted, for having abandoned them enslaved in their darkness and depression.
That is evil.
Finally, coming full circle to those being used as pawns for Biden's gun control agenda, I've seen a few virtue-signaling yard signs in front of suburban homes occupied by affluent "white-privilege" liberals with the message: "Protect Kids, Not Guns." We all want to protect kids, and the first line of protection in schools, given the rise of sociopathic assailants, is resource officers with guns.
However, a more fitting yard sign would be, "Protect Kids, Not Groomers." 
Mark Alexander is the executive editor of the Patriot Post.
