A VERY PUBLIC EDUCATION: Parents feel ‘villainized’ by teachers who think they know best. “Jessica Bradshaw’s daughter — now a son — was diagnosed as on the autism spectrum, as well as with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, PTSD and anxiety, the California mother told Baker. Her teenager ‘had struggled with loneliness during the pandemic’ and ‘repeatedly changed his name and sexual orientation.’ School officials had put her child ‘on a path the school wasn’t qualified to oversee,’ rather than let the family decide what was best, Bradshaw said. She resents being made to feel like a bad parent.”

Plus: “As several autism experts have explained to me, those on the spectrum tend to fixate, and when a contagious idea is introduced to them — such as the notion that they might be a ‘girl in a boy’s body’ — they are particularly susceptible to it.”