Challenge of Conscience – When My Catholic Beliefs Led Me to Depart From Teaching in a NYC Public School

As I reflect on the several years spent as a practicing Catholic teacher in the hustle and bustle of the New York City public school system, I reached a crossroads where I needed to choose between my Catholic Faith and my profession in the public sector.  There was never any question of which I would choose; it was always going to be without a doubt my Catholic Faith. The path that led me away from the classroom was in no way, shape, or form the result of a hasty decision, but rather deep contemplations rooted in the clash between the truth and the fabrication of lies being promoted by the “woke” culture of New York City.

As a special education science teacher I was very much in favor of supporting the diversity of our children; after all diversity is the heartbeat of NYC’s public school system, a place where children from all different backgrounds with all different abilities converge together as one in the classroom. I taught in an Integrated Classroom Teaching environment alongside the general education teacher and I loved seeing our students come together to work alongside one another in the classroom; a judgment free zone. All students despite their differences should always be accepted in the classroom setting and by all of their teachers, but a major issue is when teachers are expected to lie to students and reject the truth; that same truth that has been the truth since the beginning of time.

How could I as a science teacher who actively practices her Catholic Faith now all of a sudden reject the fact that a biological male and a biological female cannot seize to identify as the sex determined at the moment of fertilization? When egg and sperm come together the biological sex is determined by either the offspring having a “Y” chromosome or not having a “Y” chromosome. A male is defined on biological terms as having “XY” chromosomes and a female is defined as having “XX” chromosomes. There are anomalies, such as Turner Syndrome, where a female has a single “X” chromosome instead of two “X” chromosomes, but again without a “Y” she is biologically a female.

Sex cells do not change after a man or woman removes their genitalia. It is these chromosomes that give a human being their sexual identity. Teaching a child that they can identify as the opposite sex different from that at fertilization, and that it is possible they were born in the wrong body is an outright and outrageous lie. God does not make mistakes.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church with regards to gender-ideology reads:

Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out.” (2333)

Teaching against the truth was never an option for me. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

By creating the human being man and woman, God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other. Each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.  (2393)

Although the pay and benefits are much better in a NYC public school in comparison to a NYC Catholic school I knew that the sanctification of my soul and the soul of the littlest ones among us was of much greater significance than receiving a bigger paycheck and better benefits. It is well worth the sacrifice. Teaching made up biology that promotes a false ideology and outlandish lies was never an option for me. How could I purposely lead children away from the truth?

A child who believes he or she was born in the wrong body should receive help from his or her parents to understand that he or she was created in the “image and likeness” of God and has a special human dignity that is reserved for God’s children alone as either a male or a female, that which he or she was conceived at the moment of fertilization. Parents should not be promoting the genital mutilation of children that is permanent, and surely teachers should not be promoting such an irreversible procedure.

Chloe Cole, a teenager, who de-transitioned after having a double mastectomy and taking puberty blockers has become a strong advocate speaking out against gender transition surgeries that forever change the life of the child. When Chloe was interviewed by Catholic News Agency she stated how the “beauty of motherhood” was taken away from her before she even thought about parenthood. “At 15, I wasn’t really thinking. I was a kid, just trying to fit in — not thinking about the possibility of becoming a parent,” she said. Chloe most recently spoke out against the atrocities being committed against children in her testimony on Capitol Hill in July 2023.

Another significant issue that now faces NYC public school teachers is the new guidance from the New York State Education Department that teachers are responsible to keep parents in the dark if their child is transgender and does not wish their parents to know of their gender identity. As a teacher one is not only expected to lie to students that it is indeed possible for them to identify as the opposite sex from that which they were conceived, but also to lie to parents or withhold information about the child’s chosen gender identity.

Children who struggle with “gender dysphoria” need help and support from their teachers and parents to get them the proper guidance that they need to better understand why they are having the feelings that they do, and provide them with necessary counseling to know that it is not possible to be “born in the wrong body” Mental illness is real, and instead of mutilating the anatomy of otherwise healthy children in a way that there is no turning back there should be the teaching of the truth to them instead of using their innocence to promote the “woke” agenda at their expense.

There is the argument today that biological sex and gender are two separate components and one can identify as a gender that is not the same as his or her biological sex. The Human Rights Campaign defines “gender dysphoria” as “clinically significant distress caused when a person’s assigned birth gender is not the same as the one with which they identify.” However, when we look at the present website we read:

Contrasting transgender people with “real” or “biological” men and women is a false comparison. Transgender people’s gender identities are real, and using this framing can contribute to the inaccurate perception that transgender people are being deceptive or less than equal, when, in fact, they are being authentic and courageous.

There seems to be a contradiction because if there is no difference between “real” or “biological” men and women and transgendered men and women then there is no difference between sex and gender. According to such a statement a biological man should not be compared to transgendered man because they are one in the same identity, which is “male.” And if there is no difference between sex and gender then that illustrates the truth that there are in fact only two sexes/genders that human beings receive at the moment of their conception. “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Gen. 1:27)

As a teacher I have an obligation to not only live the truth, but also to teach children the truth, and I refuse to take part in a movement that harms and mutilates innocent children. We believe as Catholics that “Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons, directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law.” (CCC, 2297)

According to the journal JAMA Surgery findings from a small study published in August 2023 indicates:

low patient-reported long-term rates of regret and high satisfaction with the decision to undergo gender-affirming mastectomy, although the need exists for condition-specific instruments to assess satisfaction with decision and decisional regret for gender-affirming surgery.

This study is deeply flawed with regards to transgender and non-binary patients having no regret about top surgery since only 139 people responded for the study out of 235 total patients asked to participate who were deemed eligible for the study. The findings of the study cannot be seriously considered when nearly 40% of those asked to participate in the study did not take part in it. Yet this study will be used to continuously promote the acceptance of transgenderism in children because its findings make it seem that biological females who identify as male or non-binary who have had top surgery are highly satisfied with the mutilation of their breasts, and that none in the study have had reversal procedures. Again, less than half of those asked to participate in the study actually took part in it, and the results are highly misleading.

I have no regrets walking away from the NYC public school system, and leaving to become an educator in a NYC Catholic school. Now I am free to teach the truth to my students without penalty or attacks by the “woke” crowd who believe that by using fear tactics and intimidation they can stop teachers in their own classrooms from teaching the truth to their students. The Italian philosopher and poet, Giordano Bruno once said, “Truth does not change because it is, or is not believed by the majority of the people.”

Photo: Public Domain