School Board Gets Earful on Proposed Transgender Student Policy

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By Stefanie Jackson – The Accomack school board did not discuss its proposed policy on the treatment of transgender students at its Oct. 19 meeting, but parents and concerned citizens spoke during the public comment period in opposition to the policy that allows students to use the restrooms and locker rooms designated for the gender with which they identify.

Virginia law allows transgender students to use the school restrooms and locker rooms of their choice, and it requires school boards to adopt related policies, making public opposition to those policies problematic.

Jo Lynn Hart said, “Do not compromise and kowtow before Richmond. Find a way to do this thing if you must, but do it without compromising the integrity and innocence of our children.”

Sam Sellard said the law already ensures equal rights – possibly referring to the Virginia Human Rights Act, which safeguards against unlawful discrimination based on such things as race, religion, age, disability, sex, and gender identity. Virginia code 22.1-23.3, which directs school boards to adopt policies on the treatment of transgender students, is “redundant” and “overreach,” he asserted.

Sellard also quoted Virginia code 1-240.1, which states, “A parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.”

Several parents referenced an incident in Loudoun County, Va., in which a female student at Stone Bridge High School allegedly was sexually assaulted in a school restroom in May by a biological male student wearing a skirt, who may have identified as transgender or gender fluid (shifting between at least two different gender identities.) The accused was found guilty on Monday in a Loudoun County district court.

A former Nandua High School student, whose brother is transgender, responded to reports of the incident.

“Clothing does not define whether a person is trans or not, him wearing a skirt does not mean he is trans. … If he hadn’t been wearing a skirt he still would have pushed that victim in the bathroom and assaulted her, but then we wouldn’t be talking about it either because if it doesn’t support transphobic bias then it isn’t worth mentioning,” wrote Sierra Mitchell (not her real name) in an Oct.19 email to the Eastern Shore Post.

“That is not a bathroom issue that is a student who is taking advantage of an unsupervised space. Had there been others in the bathroom it surely wouldn’t have happened,” Mitchell wrote.

“There will always be ‘bad apples’ that abuse/ignore policies or don’t have the policy apply to them because of (favoritism). And I think its disgusting that that (Loudoun County) school tried to brush that assault under the rug and keep it quiet, victims deserve to be heard and protected, but that doesn’t mean we get to punish or disregard the safety of trans” students, she said.

A study published in 2014 by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime states 12% of transgender youth report being sexually assaulted in K-12 settings by fellow students or school staff, but “No one wants to protect our trans students,” Mitchell wrote.

One of the real problems may not be Accomack’s proposed transgender student policy but its policies on bullying, she suggested.

When Mitchell attended NHS, the bullying policy was “rarely” enforced, especially for “jocks. If you were a wrestler, football, baseball, basketball, softball, or soccer player you got a free pass to say and do whatever you wanted. The athletes of Nandua have always been put on pedestals and above any policy,” she said.

“Too often my brother or myself were told by the administration to ignore (bullies) and stay away from them rather than those kids ever getting any kind of consequence for their bullying.”

Both Mitchell and her brother have had things thrown at them in school. An athlete threw food at Mitchell in the cafeteria, and “I was told by administration to not sit at the table near him and that he ‘probably didn’t mean to hit me specifically’ even after I had explained he had hit me with food about 4 or 5 times.”

As for her brother, “classmates had thrown pencils, pens, pencil cases, sharpeners, highlighters, and other school supplies at him because he was different. We only found out that happened because he had a ton of new school things and we had asked where they came from, to which he replied, ‘they threw it at me so I kept it.’

“This was a regular occurrence, if he wasn’t having stuff thrown at him it was insults. He was never safe to be who he truly was and couldn’t accept himself as he was for a long time because of the ridicule and abuse he’d endured before even coming out as gay, let alone trans,” Mitchell wrote. 

“It is not safe to be openly a part of the LGBT community at (Accomack County Public Schools) because those that are are ridiculed, threatened, and pleas of help ignored,” she said.

“But since I’ve graduated I’ve looked up previous classmates who I had no idea were queer or trans that finally came out because they had graduated and moved and were finally safe to do so, my brother included. … When he told me, I was elated. I was so happy and proud for him to finally be at peace to allow himself to be who he had really been his entire life and finally safe enough to live the lifestyle he had always wanted to. … I am so proud of him overcoming all the obstacles he’s faced and I couldn’t ask for a better brother.”

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