A public middle school in New Jersey forced its 12-year-old students to learn about transgender hormone therapy without obtaining parental consent first, upsetting many parents whose children haven’t even learned about the “actual biologies of males and females.”

The school made the children watch a video called “Ten Years on Testosterone” and it is about a biological female who began injecting testosterone ten years ago. The video describes Aydian Dowling’s transition through hormone injections. “You can build up the courage to stand up for yourself in a way that this is what you want to do with your life,” says Dowling in the video.

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The transgender lesson also included slideshows about the definitions of different gender ideologies.

While the school gave the parents a heads up about Dowling coming in as a guest speaker for the school, they did not inform the parents about the lesson on sexuality and gender identity. For the school-wide assembly, the school gave parents the opportunity to opt their children out of Dowling’s talk.

At a board meeting following the incident, upset parents voiced their frustrations with the school withholding this information from them regarding their children’s education. “I felt as if I was blindsided,” said Loren Malfitano, who has two sons at the middle school that were both shown the video. “They’re learning about this ideology of gender before they even have classes on the actual biologies of males and females.”

The school superintendent has not yet commented on this matter.