GOP contestant Karoline Leavitt blasts school’s transgender policy and defends parents’ rights

New Hampshire congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt blew up the Manchester school district’s transgender policy on Thursday morning and vowed to protect parents’ rights if they are elected to Congress.

The 25-year-old Republican nominee for New Hampshire’s first congressional district held a news conference Thursday morning to “call attention to the radical school policies in the city of Manchester that prevent teachers from informing parents of their child’s transgender status.” , Leavitt said.

“I think bureaucrats and politicians absolutely mislead children,” she told reporters while standing outside the Manchester School District offices.

Leavitt had problems with a Manchester School Board Guidelines which prohibits school staff from “disclosing information that reveals a student’s transgender status or gender-unconventional portrayal to others, unless required by law or unless the student has authorized such disclosure.”

A Manchester mother earlier this year sued the school district claims that depriving her child of “transgender status” at school violated her rights as a parent. This was announced by the school district legal filings that it has no “duty” to inform parents if their children identify as transgender or gender non-conforming at school without their knowledge. A judge last week one-sided with the school district and dismissed the lawsuit, although parents may still appeal.

Manchester school officials declined to comment on Leavitt’s press conference due to pending litigation.

Leavitt said the transgender school’s privacy policy “pitches good teachers against good parents, and that shouldn’t be the government’s role.”

“We should not allow bureaucrats and politicians to stand in the way of family unity,” she added. “This is the foundation of our society”

The candidate said voters should “vote up and down” Republican because the GOP supports school choice, raises academic standards and ensures parents “have a voice and a say in their child’s education.”

She slammed Democrats for representing teachers’ unions and slammed the COVID-19 lockdown policy that closed schools and required masking and social distancing.

Leavitt is up against two-year incumbent Rep. Chris Pappas (DN.H.) in a district Democrats have held since 2016. She emerged victorious in a contentious Republican primary earlier this month was endorsed of New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) on Wednesday.

Pappas has been in Congress since 2019 and most recently defeated Republican Matt Mowers 51% to 46% to win re-election in 2020.

If she wins, Leavitt would become one of the youngest people ever elected to Congress, having just turned 25 in August. New Hampshire conservative commentator Howie Carr compared her favorably to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.), who took office after the 2018 midterm elections at the age of 29.