New Jersey Schools Report More Than 4,200 Percent Increase in Nonbinary Students in 4 Years

Experts blame pandemic chaos, LGBT curriculum, and trend of 'normalizing' alternative gender identities for spike that includes pre-kindergarteners

A school bus in Washington on May 22, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The number of “nonbinary” students in New Jersey public schools rose by 4,218 percent in just four years, figures from the state’s Department of Education (NJDOE) show.

People who identify as nonbinary say their “gender identity” doesn’t conform to exclusively male or female.

This massive increase in students identifying as nonheterosexual isn’t “business as usual,” according to New Jersey parental rights activist Nik Stouffer. She said she believes that the jump in nonbinary cases springs from COVID-19 restrictions and also a new education program starting in 2020 that normalizes sex changes, she told The Epoch Times.

“This isn’t even changing your gender—we don’t have a number on that,” Stouffer said of the state statistics. “They’re only collecting the number of nonbinary students because they collect ’male‘ and they collect ’female.'”

She wonders how many New Jersey students now identify as transgender or homosexual. The state doesn’t provide those numbers in the report.

An Exponential Rise

The NJDOE figures show that in just four years, the number of nonbinary students in New Jersey schools jumped to 675 from 16, state student surveys show.

In the 2019–2020 school year, of those 16 nonbinary students, 10 were in high school. The youngest was in second grade, state records show.

In the 2020–2021 school year, there were 85 nonbinary students; the two youngest two were in pre-kindergarten classes. By the 2021–2022 school year, that number had soared to 376 nonbinary students, with eight in pre-kindergarten.

And in the 2022–2023 school year, there were 675 nonbinary students reported. Of those, 41 were in fifth grade or below.

Nonbinary students currently make up less than 1 percent of the state’s 1,371,921 public school students.

Among the state’s 406,120 high school students, 497 identify as nonbinary; that’s about 1 per 1,000.

While the percentage is low, the jump in the numbers is what alarms Stouffer.

NJDOE officials didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Children Are Sexually, Socially Malleable

During COVID-19, government protocols shattered normal child development, Stouffer said.

Child development psychologist Leonard Sax supports her concerns. Research suggests that children are far more sexually and socially malleable than previously thought, he told The Epoch Times.

“Almost every culture of which we have any record has taught girls to be women and boys to be men,” Sax said. “We don’t do that. Instead, we undermine that. And the results are not good. And we’re seeing an explosion in anxiety and depression among American kids.”

If children grow up being shown that a transgender or nonbinary identity is normal, it will seem normal to them, he said.

“Kids are not born knowing what normal is, and they need to be taught,” he said. “It’s not hardwired.”

If schools emphasize to children that gender is fluid, more children will get gender dysphoria, Sax predicted. Meanwhile, the ones who do will experience more anxiety and depression, he said.

“Problematizing gender identity is child abuse,” he said. “It’s causing kids to be uncertain where they should be constant. And it clearly leads to a greatly increased risk of anxiety and depression.”

Pandemic Confusion for Children

Masks shut down normal conversation, while isolation forced children to interact almost entirely on the internet. Schools made surprising decisions, such as leaving windows open on 20-degree days to circulate air and prevent COVID-19, Stouffer said.

“We made them live their lives online,” she said. “They were subjected to torturous conditions where they were unable to interact with other kids. They weren’t allowed. They had no facial expressions. There’s no whispering to a friend in a mask. You can’t even give them looks.”

In this abnormal environment, children developed abnormally, she said.

“A lot of relationships fell apart,” Stouffer said. “Kids don’t know how to interact with each other. And then you lose a sense of self. Because you’re hiding your authentic self from other people.”

She also blames New Jersey’s new “Comprehensive Health and Physical Education” sex education standards released in 2020 for the sharp rise in nonbinary students. She asserts that the standards encourage students into non-straight sexualities.

Children as young as second grade should “discuss the range of ways people express their gender and how gender-role stereotypes may limit behavior,” the standards read. And by fifth grade, students should “differentiate between sexual orientation and gender identity.”

By eighth grade, the standards instruct, schools should “develop a plan for the school to promote dignity and respect for people of all genders, gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations in the school community.”

The guide also includes an expansive glossary of words, such as “cisgender,” “gender assigned at birth,” “gender binary,” “gender nonconforming,” and “gender transition.”

Stouffer said, “They’re just playing all these games with biology based on preferences that are meaningless and have nothing to do with gender.”