By Tamra Farah |

Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) provides just one more example of the radical transformation in school counselors. Once known as the go-to for college and career decisions, the woke movement has leveraged the influence and presence of counselors as tools of indoctrination. I’m sure that sounds harsh and judgmental. And I wish it weren’t true, but it is. Many school counselors include in their approach the sexualization of kids, effectively driving a wedge in families between parent and child by introducing alternative values and morality.

In PUSD, let’s look at Ironwood High School counselors. Ironwoodcounselors is an account on Instagram. These are counselors talking to PUSD kids who attend Ironwood High School. The pictures and related posts are included here, too, unless they get taken down after this is published. If those who impose this stuff on your kids don’t want you to know about it, that is a tell.

Counselors, along with teachers and other school officials, have a decisive influence on students. Parents generally encourage their kids to trust them. Kids typically believe that these people have important things to teach them. This is a blatant abuse of influence and power in the lives of other people’s children.

Take note of the American School Counselor Association logo in the graphic above. Yep. This is not just happening in a few one-off schools. It is a national agenda.

One of these counselors at Ironwood is Paige Carpenter-Swaim. The image below is a screenshot from Instagram; though I cannot find this account now, it is a real picture of a reel.

On February 13, 2024, Ms. Heien, a high school library paraprofessional, emailed Ms. Carpenter-Swaim asking about the Rainbow Library and whether it has been approved for counselors or can be added to the “actual library.” She was told she could apply.

Paige received the email below while procuring the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) Rainbow Library. GLSEN has an agenda to get these books in the hands – and hearts – of your kids in public school.

In another email, we find not only another school counselor expressing an interest in getting the GLSEN books, but also an English Literature and Language Arts Teacher from Peoria High school.

So, what is in this Rainbow Library created by GLSEN? Their stated mission is to “ensure that LGBTQ students are able to learn and grow in a school environment free from bullying and harassment.” Doesn’t that language seem inflammatory and defensive? I think so.

Over 6,700 schools in 33 states participate in GLSEN’s Rainbow Library, reaching over 5 million students. Deep in the GLSEN site, you can find the Rainbow Library “bookstore,”  including “The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School”, which is described here:

Sixteen-year-old Yamilet Flores prefers to be known for her killer eyeliner, not for being one of the only Mexican kids at her new, mostly white, very rich Catholic school. But at least here no one knows she’s gay, and Yami intends to keep it that way.

After being outed by her crush and ex-best friend before transferring to Slayton Catholic, Yami has new priorities: keep her brother out of trouble, make her mom proud, and, most importantly, don’t fall in love. Granted, she’s never been great at any of those things, but that’s a problem for Future Yami.

The thing is, it’s hard to fake being straight when Bo, the only openly queer girl at school, is so annoyingly perfect. And smart. And talented. And cute. So cute. Either way, Yami isn’t going to make the same mistake again. If word got back to her mom, she could face a lot worse than rejection. So, she’ll have to start asking, WWSGD: What would a straight girl do?

Told in a captivating voice that is by turns hilarious, vulnerable, and searingly honest, The “Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School” explores the joys and heartaches of living your full truth out loud.

And then there is “Beyond the Gender Binary”.

In “Beyond the Gender Binary,” poet, artist, and LGBTQIA+ rights advocate Alok Vaid-Menon deconstructs, demystifies, and reimagines the gender binary. Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today’s leading activists and artists. In this installment, “Beyond the Gender Binary,” Alok Vaid-Menon challenges the world to see gender not in black and white but in full color. Taking from their own experiences as a gender-nonconforming artist, they show us that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression. The only limit is your imagination.

These are merely a few examples among hundreds of books.

So, what is the impact of the GLSEN Pride Library in Arizona schools? Just last year, Fox News reported that its “Rainbow Library program has encouraged kids to ‘come out’ to teachers: ‘They trust’ them.” That is spin, plain and simple. Consider the dynamics here. Trusted adults are encouraging kids – directly or indirectly – by providing the Rainbow Library. Kids are naturally curious, and the books look enticing, so why not read them, correct? Presto. Kids are trying out the things in the books with the same sex, etc. Any run-of-the-mill psychologist can explain these grooming dynamics. Then, when a student tells their teacher about their “newfound gender” identity, and that teacher affirms them, they are potentially afraid to say to their parents, yeah “they trust” their complicit teachers.

This suggestive agenda to introduce impressionable minds to sexualized information that can lead them down a path that is not in line with their family’s values is unacceptable. Taxpayers pay for public education.

To my point, the Fox News report states that the Rainbow Library program intro on YouTube asserts that they “have the guidance from the safe space kit on what to do when a student comes out to you. We hear time and time again, especially in places where there really are not that many LGBTQ+ supports for youth already, including more rural locations and more conservative areas that, when a teacher or a librarian rolls out the rainbow library in their location, students start coming out to them because they see that adult as someone that they can trust,” Michael Rady, a GLSEN member and educator, said in the video.

Public education aims for kids to become proficient in core academics, not to be indoctrinated in woke cultural ideologies. These books do not belong in schools, and these discussions do not belong in front of the proverbial chalkboard but rather around the family dinner table.

Correction: A previous version of this op-ed stated that another school counselor got the GLSEN books, but this school counselor simply expressed an interest in getting the books. The article has been updated.

Tamra Farah has twenty years of experience in public policy and politics, focusing on protecting individual liberty and promoting limited government. She has worked at the senior director and advisor level for Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, Moms for America, and pregnancy centers. Tamra currently directs the SMART Families Network at Arizona Women of Action.