An enterprising reporter at the New York Post never believed the FBI when it said that Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old young man who shot President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, didn’t have a social media footprint. She kept digging and found that Crooks was hanging out in some dark corners of the Internet and had a very weird and sometimes awful presence online.
Among other things, Crooks described himself using they/them, as gender-confused people sometimes do. His social media postings feature transgender flags, colors and themes, although it’s not clear how he viewed himself.
He posted photos of himself shooting guns and was included in chats with so-called “furries.” He also downloaded lots of photos of very muscular women.
It is clear Crooks was disconnected and deeply troubled, which raises questions about how he was treated in school. Did his teachers call him they/them and if so, do they think it helped him?
It is an important question because recently, the Texas Tribune reported that some Texas teachers believe that the worst thing you can do to a child is call him “him” or her “her” if he or she says they are a they/them.
These teachers also say it is even worse if teachers call a child by the actual name they were given at birth but which they no longer use because they have declared themselves to be the other gender. They say to refer to a child by their given name is “dead-naming.” That is why some teachers are pushing back against Senate Bill 12, passed earlier this year.
Senate Bill 12—the Parents’ Bill of Rights—prohibits public schools from assisting children who try to present themselves as the opposite sex. The legislation was necessary because too many teachers seem to believe it is their job to help students hide their gender confusion from their parents.
SB 12 is designed to prevent schools from enabling the delusion of students who say they are the opposite sex, including calling a boy Susan if his name is Bill.
According to the teachers who spoke to the Texas Tribune, gender-confused students across Texas will suffer from “dead-naming” if SB 12 is implemented.
Over the past decade, DEI infused curriculums have normalized the idea that kids can transition from one gender to the other, by teaching that the sex that is recorded on birth certificates is arbitrary. According to DEI, every individual chooses what sex they are—male, female or other—and there are lots in that third category.
My guess is that most teachers are happy that SB 12 put an end to this madness, but the ones who talked with the Texas Tribune are deeply concerned that they will no longer be able to teach kids that there are dozens of genders and they just need to pick one. These teachers say they pride themselves on openness—except when it applies to parents. They believe the Parents’ Bill of Rights is interfering with their ability to push this stuff on kids in classrooms across Texas, while keeping it from their parents. Hopefully, no one but the Texas Tribune will take them seriously.
Officials are continuing to study the clues Thomas Crooks left behind, particularly since it has become clear that President Joe Biden’s FBI blew the investigation. The feds stopped asking questions at a point in time in 2020, when Crooks was a strong Trump supporter, before he become such a violent Trump hater that he ultimately tried to shoot him.
We don’t know what went wrong, but investigators should examine what happened to him at school. Was he taught that he could simply declare himself they/them? What do his teachers say?
Finally, if you think this story is vaguely reminiscent of stories you have heard about other shooters over the last few years, that’s because it is.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
You can also listen to the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple or Spotify.