Pre-kindergarten teacher slammed for saying ‘childhood innocence’ is ‘mythology’

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A pre-kindergarten teacher in California is under fire for claiming toddlers are not too young to discuss sexuality and that “childhood innocence” does not exist.

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William “Willy” Villalpando taught children in pre-kindergarten in Rialto, Calif., from 2016 through 2021, but now works at Santa Ana College teaching early child development, Fox News reported.

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“There is a common mythology that children live in this world of pure innocence, and that by introducing or exposing them to the real-world adults are somehow shattering this illusion for them,” Villalpando previously wrote in a 2020 Instagram post, according to the outlet.

“Therefore, there is a banning of topics and issues that children should not be exposed to, as if they are not experiencing them already.”

In another instance, he wrote, “I’m tired of the ‘Childhood Innocence’ argument … Stop blaming a phenomenon that doesn’t exist.”

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Villalpando, who has since scrubbed his social media in which he had gone by @mrwilly_prek, has previously spoken out about the idea of “childhood innocence” and the idea that children should not be exposed to sexuality, claiming the viewpoint is “very white, Christian, upper-class, cis-gendered, and hetero-centric.”

In 2021, he accused adults who protect children from sex education and lessons on gender should “deconstruct” their attitudes.

“Not talking about Queerness in the Classroom, is NOT Letting Children be Children,” he said at the time. “It’s Telling Those people They Do Not Deserve to Exist. Kids are never too young.”

Villalpando believes children can “have a sense of their gender identity” when they are still babies.

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“Around 3 to 4 months old, infants show a sex and gender preference in who they look at,” he wrote.

“At 3 years old, a child can label their perceived gender identity,” Villalpando continued. “By 4 years old, children have a stable sense of their gender identity and have assumptions and beliefs of what they can and cannot do based on their gender (i.e. dolls are for girls, cars are for boys).”

Villalpando insisted that keeping kids from discussing gender identity can lead them to becoming confused about their own sexuality.

“Parents haven’t already had conversations about these things with their kids, that kids don’t know, that they might be intersex, that they might be a gender… non-binary,” he argued.

“And really, children have a right to see themselves in our classrooms,” he said. “It’s not okay to just forget about them or push them out just because it might make us uncomfortable or may make others uncomfortable.”