EXCLUSIVE: Mother details how a university affiliated school taught four-year-olds pronouns, gender identities

Texas mom Jennifer Cains told Campus Reform that she unenrolled her daughter from the University of North Texas (UNT) College of Education’s Center for Young Children (CYC) after learning that teachers were allegedly pushing gender theory and pronouns in a classroom full of four-year-olds.

The CYC is an “early childhood program within the College of Education” at UNT. The center describes itself as a “research-based, high-quality preschool program” used to give UNT’s college trainees experience and provide “care and education” for its young students. 

Cains told Campus Reform her four-year-old daughter had recently been talking a lot about gender, “She’s really taken this firm stand on, Mama, I am a girl, my friends are girls, and I only want to play with girls.” 

Cains continued, “And I’m like that’s fine, you know, we can have lots of friends… It’s just like [I’m] not understanding why she is always like constantly drilling me about it…letting you know she’s a girl…defending it almost.”

She said her daughter later revealed she was learning pronouns in school. One day she came home and asked, “Mom, what is non-binary?”

[RELATED: Yale’s Pediatric Gender Program treats toddlers: viral video]

In an audio recording obtained by Campus Reform, Cains confronted former CYC Director Ranita Cheruvu on Aug. 8 regarding a conversation Maggie Harvey, one of the teachers at the center, had with students during their lunch break. 

Cains’ daughter was in attendance when Harvey told students that she uses “they/them” pronouns and identifies as nonbinary. 

Cheruvu confirmed with Cains that the conversation had taken place and stated, “we should respect people and call them the way they want to be called.” 

Director Cheruvu also informed Cains during the call that “the other assistant teachers were there” during Harvey’s conversation with the preschool students.  

Cains’ daughter had described another conversation with Harvey leading up to the comments about being nonbinary. 

A student asked about another male student’s long hair and whether that made him a girl or a boy. Harvey allegedly replied that they needed to ask the student, “what are you?” The student in question said he didn’t know, and Harvey claimed that this might be because he wasn’t ready to choose his gender.

Cains told Cheruvu that she wanted the school to inform parents their children are being taught this “agenda” in school. Cheruvu did not reply to the comment.  

[RELATED: New transgender academic journal advocates for child transition]

On Aug. 25, Cains met with UNT’s College of Education Dean Randy Bomer to discuss the conversations regarding gender in the classroom. Cains described the meeting as “pretty disappointing.”

“[M]y meeting with the dean was really pretty disappointing. He actually told me that he thought it could be my imagination that this all was going on,” she wrote in an email. 

Cains told Campus Reform that Bomer disclosed Cheruvu was no longer the Director of the CYC. He did not provide a reason for her stepping down. 

Research elementary schools affiliated with universities like UNT’s Center for Young Children are not uncommon. It is also not uncommon to see these schools promoting a radical sexual agenda, similar to the ones seen in higher education. 

P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School is affiliated with the University of Florida and provides the university’s College of Education students ample opportunity to work in a K-12 classroom before they graduate. 

During the spring 2022 semester, slideshows were presented to sixth-grade students with phrases like “people with a penis” and people with a vagina.” One YouTube video included in the material discussed a family with a nonbinary friend named “Alex.” 

[RELATED: Yale’s Pediatric Gender Program treats toddlers: viral video]

Cains withdrew her daughter from CYC on Aug. 8 and enrolled her in another school. She told Campus Reform, “We started her in a Christian school. If that’s where she needs to go to not be having all this shoved in our face, then that’s what we’ll do.”

Cains stated she knew taking a stand was the right thing to do, “I haven’t felt like up until now, I needed to take a stand and say, ‘No, I’m not okay with this,’ or ‘yes, I am okay with this.’ But when it came down to it, and I had to make a stand. I’m not okay with it. I know now how I feel.”

Campus Reform contacted UNT, CYC, Dean Bomer, Cheruvu, and Harvey for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

Follow @kliseanderson on Twitter.