Parents Defending Education is a grassroots parent rights group that obtained and released a North Carolina school district presentation. It detailed the district’s Transgender Policy. This explained how teachers should conceal a student’s gender identity.
On August 17, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District Board of Education met to view an 84-slide presentation that covered a wide range of topics, including student discipline, teacher salaries, and the district’s transgender policy.
The presentation used CDC statistics for an estimate of how many students in the district identified as transgender. It was approximately 43 or 2%. According to the school board, 15 of those 43 transgender students had probably attempted suicide.
District policy allows children to request that their names or pronouns be changed without parental consent. Without the express consent of the student, teachers are not allowed to reveal a child’s gender identity to their parents or other children.
The presentation stated that the preferred name can be changed upon request by the student – parental/guardian consent is not required.
The policy required educators to be aware that students’ parents might not approve of their gender identity. This could lead to neglect, dependence, depression, anxiety, and self-harm.
Erika Sanzi from Parents Defending Education’s outreach department stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation that there is no justification for a policy calling for parents to deliberately withhold or conceal information about their child. “This policy is based upon an ideology, it has no place in schools.”
Although the policy states that educators must refer to students using their preferred names and pronouns (although inadvertent slips and mistakes are acceptable), Teachers are required to refer to students by their legal names when speaking with parents, unless the child requests otherwise.
The policy stated that students are allowed to use locker rooms and bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
Teachers are required to consider the privacy and comfort of transgender students when taking part in field trips. They also need to decide if sex segregation should be implemented. Teachers are also asked to consider what they would do if confronted with sex stereotyping.
District policy states that school staff must respect students’ privacy regarding their gender identity.
The policy states that school staff must work closely with students to determine whether parents or guardians should be involved in creating a plan. They also need to consider safety and health. The school has no obligation to inform parents about their transgender status.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District Board of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
