New Jersey Department of Education guidance intended to protect transgender students is still in place at the Central Regional School District after the school board deadlocked March 4 on a vote on whether to continue to follow that guidance.
The 4-4 vote by the Board of Education for the 7-12th grade school district serving the communities of Berkely Township, Island Heights, Ocean Gate, Seaside Heights and Seaside Park in Ocean County leaves Policy 5756 in effect for now.
“First, I’d like to say that I’m so proud and glad that our community turned out, spoke their minds,” said Lauren Albrecht, the director of advocacy and organizing for LGBTQ civil rights organization Garden State Equality. “I think we still have to do some education to the board, and we’re going to offer that to them because clearly there are four members of the board who still don’t understand why we need these protections.”
The policy, among other things, allows school faculty and staff not to disclose to parents or guardians information about their child’s gender identity or expression. According to Transgender Rights Coalition of New Jersey member Kathleen Gallinaro, the policy also protects trans students’ rights to use facilities such as restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity or expression and she said, “[it] basically just gives them the ability to exist in that school with the same human rights as anybody else.”
An excerpt of the policy, which is posted on the district’s website, reads as follows:
“The school district shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity; parental consent is not required. A student need not meet any threshold diagnosis or treatment requirements to have his or her gender identity recognized and respected by the school district, school, or school staff members. In addition, a legal or court-ordered name change is not required. There is no affirmative duty for any school district staff member to notify a student’s parent of the student’s gender identity or expression.” The full policy can be found here: ELANOnline District Policies.
Similar actions by some school boards in the state aimed at rescinding the policy have been met with legal challenges brought by the attorney general at the time, Matthew J. Platkin.
At the March 4 meeting, 40 people were in attendance, including 12 representing GSE. “I’m glad that the LGBTQ students at Central Regional saw that their community turned out for them and that we’re paying attention and standing up for them,” said Albrect.
Gallinaro said that the coalition sent a letter to the district and encouraged others to do the same, and also sent a letter to the gay-straight alliance to offer support.
“This group (the trans coalition) is absolutely wonderful with their ability to extend advocacy into school districts who are needing it right now and legislation at the state level, so, you know, it’s been a pleasure to be able to at least reach out to districts that we’re concerned about because I’m sure that’s going to be something that continues,” said Gallinaro.
Among those who addressed the board during the public comment portion of the meeting were the advisers of the high school’s gay-straight alliance — called PRSIM, formerly known as the Gender & Sexuality Alliance — Maria Foukarakis and Matt Solomon. They provided the remarks they had prepared and delivered to the board.
Solomon said in his remarks that he was at the meeting as a citizen because the board was considering revoking the policy, which exists for one reason — to keep students safe.
“This policy does not give special treatment. It gives protection. And I want to ask a very simple question: Who does revoking this policy serve? Who does it serve to deny a student the name they ask to be called? Who does it serve to ignore the pronouns that reflect who they are? Who does it serve to remove a policy that explicitly pushes back against harassment and bullying? It does not serve our students,” Solomon said.
He continued by saying that transgender students are already one of the most vulnerable populations in any school, and the policy tells them that they belong, they are protected and adults will step in when harm happens. Removing it, he said, sends the opposite message.
“I say this not just as a teacher, but as someone who grew up as a queer kid in this community. I know what it feels like to walk school hallways wondering if today is the day you’re targeted, ignored, or erased. I also know how life-changing it is when even one adult says, ‘I see you and you’re safe here,’” Solomon said.
He asked board members if they had spoken to a single transgender student about what the policy means to them, to a guidance counselor or school psychologist about what safety and affirmation do for a student’s mental health, or to a teacher who sees every day how protections such as these help students stay in school, stay engaged, and “sometimes simply stay alive.”
Foukarakis directed board members’ attention to the first line of the policy, which states that the board is committed to providing a safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment for all students. She then cited the district’s mission statement, focus areas, and goals and objectives, and said revoking the policy would be “completely” contradictory.
“Some of you may not personally agree with the policy but as a society we have an obligation to think about the students and I mean ALL students. We as a society should be accepting of everyone. It is our responsibility as human beings to be kind, and to love one another!
“In the words of the black lesbian poet Audre Lorde. ‘It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences,’” Foukarakis said.
Lily Dalconzo, who is a trans woman, said on March 6 that she came to the meeting after learning from GSE what action the board was considering in regard to the policy. Dalconzo said she’s a member of Barnegat Pride, which also was represented at the meeting, and volunteers for GSE, but was there independently.
“These policies are important because there is a lot of backlash against our community at the moment. It’s always been very dangerous for queer people of any sort to come out in general,” Dalconzo said, adding that it is a “faux pas” in the queer community to out someone without them knowing.
“So having a system in which teachers are incentivized to out students to their parents is irresponsible and cruel in addition to being unsafe for the students because there’s no way of knowing what kind of parent” a student might have, she said. Dalconzo explained that she knows a “tremendous amount of people” who have been “displaced” from their homes and have suffered physical and psychological abuse and that she thinks it’s important for a student to have privacy to explore their identity.
She characterized the atmosphere at the meeting as not being hostile and said that while she was aware of only three people there in favor of revoking the policy — two of whom spoke publicly — support for trans kids was “definitely” the more pervasive opinion in the room.
“Even the people who voted in favor of repealing the protections, during their statements, I didn’t read them as being hateful; I just read them as people who are probably just genuinely ignorant to the facts and who in their minds are making … what they feel to be the right choice,” Dalconzo said.
The superintendent, board president, and board attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the district’s website, the next board meeting is scheduled for March 25. The closed session is expected to take place at 6 p.m., and the public session is set for 7 p.m. at the high school, 509 Forest Hills Parkway in the Bayville section of Berkeley Township, Ocean County.
