Seeks transgender policy change, wants parents in lower-grade classrooms
OCEAN CITY — At multiple points during the Ocean City Board of Education meeting Thursday night, members and interim Superintendent Scott McCarthy talked about getting input from the community and from parents on different school programs.
One parent wants to put that to the test.
Laura Wheeler, who has a parent involvement group called Families United for Sensible Education, addressed the school board during public comment, asking members to include parents in different phases of the children’s education. Although her concerns went beyond that, her initial focus is on the school policy regarding transgender students.
More to the point, she wants the board to repeal the policy that lets students dictate their gender identity without parental consent.
“Many parents have come out to learn about how they can fight to be more involved in their child’s education and their rights when it comes to policy 5756,” she said. “As a parent of any child — gay, straight, bi, trans, Black, white, Hispanic — we deserve to be informed if our child is thinking about a life-altering decision. Not so we can deter them, but so we can support and love them as a parent should.
“I understand that there are some parents who are not supportive, but we cannot put a blanket policy over the entire district and shut the parents out,” Wheeler said.
Policy 5756
School board policy 5756 has proved controversial in a number of school districts across New Jersey. The general aim — to protect transgender students from discrimination — is not the sticking point; it’s the implementation.
It reads, “The Board of Education is committed to providing a safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment for all students. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination … generally makes it unlawful for schools to subject individuals to differential treatment based on gender identity or expression.”
It then focuses on direction for districts establishing policies “that ensure a supportive and nondiscriminatory environment for transgender students.”
It goes on to list terms and descriptions for faculty and staff to understand, terms such as gender identity, gender expression (which includes terms students want used to describe them), gender assigned at birth, sexual orientation and transgender.
The sticking point comes in the section titled “Student-Centered Approach” because it does not require parental consent to accept a student’s asserted gender identity.
A student does not have to show a diagnosis or treatment to have their gender identity recognized by the school district regarding their choice of name or pronoun. A transgender student will be addressed that way, have identification and have a student identification card with that name, and be allowed to dress in accordance with their gender identity.
There is no obligation of a staff member to notify that student’s parent.
The policy states that when a parent disagrees with a minor student’s choice of name or pronoun (he/him, she/her, they/them), the superintendent has to consult the school attorney about the student’s civil rights and protections and staff “should continue to” use that student’s choice of name and pronouns.
Policy 5756 goes on at length and includes the fact students “are entitled to have access to restrooms, locker rooms and changing facilities in accordance with their gender identity to allow for involvement in various school programs and activities.”
(To see the full policy, go the the district’s website, oceancityschools.org, go the “District” pull-down list and click on “Board of Education.” Then click on the red bar that reads “Click Here to View Board of Education Policies and Regulations.”
Additional concerns
Wheeler also addressed other concerns and offered suggestions to the school board.
She said she and other parents would like more involvement, at least for the younger grades. She noted Ocean City Intermediate School is one of the few districts where fourth- and fifth-graders are in the same building as sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.
“Just because they are in the same building does not mean our 9-, 10- and 11-year-old children need to be treated like 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds,” she said.
“Studies have shown that when a parent is more involved with their child’s eduction, the child performs better in school,” Wheeler said, adding the fourth- and fifth-graders deserve to have room parents and parents in attendance.
“It makes a child’s day when they know their parent is going to be in their classroom. You are separating them from their family way too soon and maybe this is contributing to the anxiety and stress that is causing them to need the Zen Den,” she said, referring to a quiet place set aside in the building where children can go when they are anxious or stressed.
“I want to know what we can do as parents and the PTA to have room parents in these classrooms. A simple no from the principal is not acceptable,” Wheeler said.
She said at other schools, students and teachers celebrate family members who are veterans by inviting them to the school for breakfast and asked that be done at the Intermediate School. That should also be the case for Grandparents Day and Mother’s Day.
“If you say you want to be inclusive of everyone, this is a good way to show that,” she said.
Wheeler asserted that “a staggering number” of families in Ocean City are pulling their children out of the public school to put them into private schools that “involve parents and respect their rights.
“I know Ocean City doesn’t rely on the student population to receive their funding, so maybe it is easier to say good riddance,” she said, “but it is important that you know the decrease in our schools’ population is not because of the real estate market …. People are removing their children from this district because they feel excluded. Please include us more and listen to what we have to say if you truly believe that we all belong.”
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff