A teacher at an elementary school in Long Island is accused of pressuring a 9-year-old girl to question her gender identity and sexuality to the point that the girl was openly discussing suicide. Her parents have now sued the school district and the teacher claiming that she pressured their daughter toward a trans identity as a boy.

Debra Rosenquist — a 5th-grade teacher at Terryville Road Elementary School in Port Jefferson Station — started calling the 9-year-old Leo and using opposite gender pronouns toward the beginning of the 2021-’22 school year, according to a lawsuit filed in Suffolk County Court by the child’s parents last month.

The parents say they were only clued in about what was happening in January 2022, when the school principal called them telling them their child – referred to in court papers as A.V. – had drawn a picture of a girl, writing “I wanna kill myself” and “I feel sad like a lot,” the filing claims.

The principal also informed the parents that A.V. had even met with the school psychologist telling the mental health worker that she “was confused about her gender identity,” the court papers say.

Despite Rosenquist, 62, having referred to the student “for months at that point” as Leo, it was only during the Jan. 27, 2022 call that the parents were asked for the first time if this name was okay, the suit claims.

Fox News has more on the lawsuit.

“Rosenquist pursued her own agenda outside the curriculum, which included persuading her 5th-grade students to try ‘being gay’ or being another gender even when they were not. To further her agenda, Rosenquist read and provided her students graphic books about gender and sexuality which were not on the curriculum,” the suit said.

The district admitted in a meeting with the parents “that they had no idea Rosenquist taught from a book about LGBTQ+ individuals that was not part of the curriculum and how detailed the book was about transitioning, surgery, and hormones.” One of the books Rosenquist used was “When Aidan Became a Brother,” the lawsuit said…

“Debra Rosenquist manipulated a pre-teen female into changing her gender identity when the child did not feel any inclination to do so,” the parents’ attorney, Debra L. Wabnik, Esq., told Fox News. “The parents did not learn about what Rosenquist was forcing upon their daughter until it was discovered that the child had suicidal ideations.”

“The psychological and social damage Rosenquist caused this child and her family was immense. Incredibly, the District still has Rosenquist in the classroom where she can similarly harm other innocent children,” Wabnik added.

So, to sum that up, she started referring to a 9-year-old girl as Leo for months to the point that the girl drew a picture (of herself) as a girl and wrote “I wanna kill myself” next to it. Only then did the administrators, who knew this had been going on, contact the parents. And it sounds like Rosenquist was saying this to all of her students, not just one girl. According to the lawsuit, the school administrators knew she was doing it but did nothing to stop it.

Superintendent Jennifer J. Quinn and the school’s principal Annemarie V. Sciove both admitted to the parents in a meeting in February 2022 that they knew Rosenquist was peddling this mentality in the classroom, the lawsuit claims.

The suit states: ‘Parents of Rosenquist’s former students stated that Rosenquist went beyond the District’s curriculum and taught her students about transgender individuals and suggested that the kids ‘try being gay’ or try being a boy (if they were a girl) or a girl (if they were a boy.)

After the parents complained, their daughter was removed form the class and then got bullied in her new class.

According to the suit, other children started a group chat without her, where they purposely excluded her and wrote messages including: ‘Bro I would kill myself if you add that b***hing girl or boy.’

Others included: ‘Literally tho what is she??? girl??? boy??? one day her name is leo and one day her name is A LIKE WHAT IS IT??!!!!!’ ‘Idk what to call “it.”‘

Meanwhile, Rosenquist has been moved to a first grade classroom. For those who think Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill was a terrible idea, this is why it’s necessary. Because without it some bored 62-year-old who wants to play culture war politics with other people’s children will do something like this and the administration will wink and ignore it.

The entire thing is a parent’s nightmare and makes me very glad that my kids are in high school/college now and safely out of reach of people like this. Rosenquist should absolutely be fired if these allegations are true. If your teaching leads a 9-year-old to become suicidal you clearly don’t belong in the classroom. Hopefully a substantial settlement will convince the school not to allow this to happen to any other kids and also help the parents pay for whatever long-term counseling is necessary as a result.

NY teacher forced girl, 9, to use male pronouns — causing suicidal thoughts: suit https://t.co/3ROnX4ohsa pic.twitter.com/BhlGtCDErs

— New York Post (@nypost) February 28, 2023