GENDER IDENTITY
Mom Blames LGBT Club for Teen’s Suicide A Califonia mom says continued ‘brainwashing’ took her daughter's life BY BRAD JONES
30 I N S I G H T April 8–14, 2022
severely depressed teen daughter was encouraged to leave her family, go into foster care, and begin taking cross-sex hormones, after which she developed unbearable pain and killed herself by lying down across the tracks in front of a train. Abigail Martinez, 53, alleged that school staff at Arcadia High School—without her knowledge or consent—encouraged her daughter Yaeli to join an LGBT club that met at the school during lunchtime. She blames a school psychologist and other school staff, as well as the Los Angeles County’s Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS), an older transgender student and her mother, and the LGBT club, for "brainwashing" and coaching Yaeli on how to get hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery instead of recommending treatment for her depression. “They were doing all this secretly,” Martinez said. “I didn’t even realize that my daughter was going to this club because they don’t report to you what they’re doing at school, to keep them ‘safe’ from their parents, according to them.” Martinez is not alone in her allegations. Parents at other school districts
in California and other states have made similar accusations, which have led to legal battles over parental rights. In Spreckels Union School District in Salinas, California, parent Jessica Konen accused staff at Buena Vista Middle School of indoctrinating her daughter through an LGBT club. The two teachers allegedly involved have been suspended, after an audio recording revealed them talking about how they had subverted parents and spied on middle-school students to help recruit them into the club.
Bullied at School When Yaeli was 14, she was bullied by girls at Foothills Middle School. They tormented her about her looks and made fun of her eyes, Martinez said. “Her eyes were beautiful to me,” she said. Since Yaeli was a baby, “everybody used to say, ‘Oh, you have beautiful eyes.’ In school, the girls were not even friends—just classmates. I told her, ‘They’re just jealous, sweetie.’” But the bullying got worse, and Yaeli became depressed, so severely that one night she tried to overdose by ingesting an entire bottle of allergy pills. The next morning, Martinez noticed something was wrong. Yaeli wasn’t herself. She
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF ABIGAIL MARTINEZ
As a child, Yaeli was a “girly girl” who liked to wear dresses. But by age 15, she told her mom she felt like she was trapped in the wrong body.
A GRIEVING CALIFORNIA mom says her
