National charter schools group praises teacher who admits to sexual misconduct with kindergarteners

The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) network is a group of 270 public charter schools with a controversial history of removing their own co-founder over allegations of sexual abuse. His ouster came after he had been cleared of wrongdoing, with KIPP saying that the co-founder had behaved in ways that called his conduct into question.

Yet KIPP has seen no problem with retaining the services of a kindergarten teacher who speaks proudly of discussing adult sexual matters and relationships with young students.

They were put in the spotlight on Thursday by critics who think KIPP has become more sexually suggestive in what they condone teaching minors over recent months.

The piece by the Chalkboard Review points out the apparent double-standard of the KIPP charter network to oust their cofounder Mike Feinberg in 2018, over an allegation that he physically abused a 5th grade student in 1994.

Despite investigations largely clearing Feinberg of wrongdoing in the traditional sense of the word, KIPP decided to oust him anyway on the grounds that the alleged victim and allegations were "credible."

Their stated reasoning? "The evidence shows that, at a minimum, you put yourself in situations in which your conduct could be misconstrued," wrote KIPP Houston board chair Bill Boyar at that time.

In contrast, here’s what KIPP Public Schools tweeted out on Thursday.

The blog post itself was first published during Pride Month 2021. In it, Kris Sanchez is identified as a Kindergarten teacher who works for KIPP’s Los Angeles Charter School, KIPP Comienza Community Prep.

This teacher of 5-year-olds calls themselves a "proud queer Asian-Latinx educator" who teaches his students about "intersectionality." Sanchez realizes it’s a heavy topic to teach young people, but in the blog post he boasts about how he used "A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo" by John Oliver for the discussion.

"Do you know anyone else who is in a loving relationship like the boy bunnies in this book?" asked the kindergarten teacher to a class of 5-year-olds. Sanchez says they smiled when he heard one kindergartener acknowledge the fact the bunny characters were in a gay relationship.

"Talking about loving relationships between adults is, in fact, highly developmentally appropriate. Not only that, it is highly validating for those students who may grow up to hold these identities in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning/queer, intersex, agender/asexual/ally, and other non heterosexual community (LGBTQIA+)," the kindergarten teacher argued.

These sorts of classroom lesson situations were banned in Florida by a parental rights bill earlier this year, which forbade teachers from teaching about sex and gender identity to classrooms in the pre-K through third grade age range.

Last month, parents on social media were outraged over the graphic depictions of sex aimed at an audience of 4 to 8-year-olds within the book titled "My Body is Growing."