The parents of a 12-year-old Florida girl who tried to hang herself twice at her school after ‘months of secret meetings about her gender identity’ are slamming the district staff who allegedly went behind their backs and ‘created a double life’ for their daughter.

Wendell Perez, and his wife Maria Perez, allege the staff at at Paterson Elementary School – where their daughter was enrolled – violated their parental rights by failing to inform them of the alleged gender identity crisis and developing a plan to help her address it without their consent.

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‘We’re talking about the staff from school this information and developing a plan of several sessions with my daughter, for months, talking about issues that are related and that the parents need to be involved,’ Wendell Perez told DailyMail.com on Thursday. ‘They basically created a double life for my daughter…

He also likened the staff’s behavior to that of sex offenders, saying: ‘If we allow this to happen, we are admitting that the sex offenders – the models operating of the sex offenders – is correct, because that is actually what they do. They take advantage of a child, they try to keep things in secret and make them do things that they are not supposed to do.’

He added: ‘There should be no secrets. That’s a red flag. When there are secrets, that’s a red flag.’

The complaint alleges that school counselor Destiney Washington held secret weekly meetings with Wendell Perez’s daughter about her alleged ‘gender identity crisis’ but neglected to alert her parents. It also claims school leaders encouraged other students and staff to refer to the young girl as a boy and even gave her a new name.

It remains unclear why the 12-year-old was seeing the counselor or how the gender identity meetings come of fruition…

According to the complaint, the changes to the girl’s identity increased bullying on campus, which resulted in a level of ‘distress escalated to the point of attempting suicide at school,’ and the girl attempted to take her life on both January 4 and 5, according to the lawsuit.

The family said Thursday that after they were notified of their daughter’s attempted suicide, she was taken by police to a nearby hospital for mental health treatment.

Perez said they had limited contact with her and ‘were not able to comfort her’ during that hard time. About a week later, she was later released into their and is receiving proper treatment by medical professionals. He said his daughter is ‘fragile’ but ‘happy…’

‘Unlike many other parents we’re hearing from, this child did not have a history of mental health issues. There were not other signs of gender dysphoria before this, there was not depression, anxiety. This was generally speaking, a mentally healthy, happy, child,’ Broyles told DailyMail.com on Thursday.

‘One of the things that’s so distressing and makes so clear the school’s liability and fault here is they took a healthy child and after months of meeting with her, in secret, they caused her distressed and in conflict with herself that she felt the desire to end her life…’

There is currently active legislation in the state of Florida, addressing concerns similar to that of the Perez family.

House Bill 1557, also known as the Parental Rights in Education bill, would require school boards to notify parents about specific information regarding a child’s emotional, physical and mental well-being. It would also limit classroom conversation on sexual orientation and gender identity.

How are you praying for these schools?

(Excerpt from The Daily Mail. Photo Credit: Getty Images)