School board votes down attempt to move to rescind policy
OCEAN CITY — After multiple impassioned pleas during public comment to rescind a policy on support and privacy for transgender students, and then combative outbursts from the audience during discussions about procedures, the Ocean City Board of Education voted down an attempt to bring that policy up for a vote March 13.
At the heart of what has been an ongoing effort to change the policy in Ocean City is a state Department of Education directive known as policy 5756. There are more than 3,000 words in the “Transgender Student Guidance for School Districts,” detailing how districts should treat transgender students.
The guidance is for districts to ensure a non-discriminatory environment for transgender students. It includes more than 500 words explaining terminology on gender and gender identity, and then goes into the “student-centered approach.” That is largely from where much of the parents’ rights outrage stems.
“A school district shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity; parental consent is not required. Further, a student need not meet any threshold diagnosis or treatment requirements to have his or her gender identity recognized and respected by the district, school or school personnel. Nor is a legal or court-ordered name change required. There is no affirmative duty for any school district personnel to notify a student’s parent or guardian of the student’s gender identity or expression,” that approach reads.
That means the parents don’t need to be notified when a student asks to be referred to by a different name or gender. The guidance does note students should be aware their status could be inadvertently disclosed, possibly by other students. It also says schools can provide professionals including counselors and psychologists to support the students.
It also notes that the district may have to reveal the student’s status in certain instances because of the health or safety of a student, such as an act of harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB).
Students would get the chance to reveal that to the parents on their own first, and counseling could be provided for both the student and the student’s family “to facilitate the family’s acceptance and support of the student’s transgender status.”
Ocean City resident Jay Reimer, community pastor of Landmark Church of Ocean City, was among the eight speakers during public comment. He referred not only to policy 5756, but also to the health and sex education curriculum that was adopted a few years ago.
Reimer said it seemed the district was intentionally discouraging the legal rights of parents to opt-out their children from “objectionable sex-ed teaching in the health-ed curriculum” because of the lack of transparency in the process.
The opt-out process is included on the school’s website, ocsdnj.org. There is a section under the heading “Students & Parents.” Under that heading is a section called “Academics & Curriculum” that lists various topics. One is “Excusal from Class or program.” It explains the opt-out procedure, which states:
“any child whose parent or guardian presents to the school a signed statement that any part of instruction in health, family life education, or sex education is in conflict with his or her conscience or sincerely held moral or religious beliefs shall be excused from that portion of the course (not the entire health course, only that portion or any part of instruction). Requests must be presented in a signed statement, include the specific standard for excusal, and submitted to the building principal.”
Reimer said the transparency issues go beyond that because the board has refused over several meetings to have a policy by which the curriculum, textbooks and classroom videos for all classes are included on the website. He said Assemblymen Antwan McClellan and Erik Simonsen (R-1) have sponsored a bill to that effect.
“Cape May County and Ocean City residents vote two-thirds conservatively,” he said. “Why is the O.C. school board not aligned with our conservative community?”
Reimer said the “most disturbing” lack of transparency is with the policy of not informing parents about their minor children’s “consideration of gender transition or mutilation or pronoun change.”
He asked the board to rescind the policy, asserting although it was initially considered mandatory, that it is optional.
Parent Kelly Johnson asked the board to immediately repeal the policy.
She said if her child were sick or in trouble, the school would call her and if her child had a headache would ask her permission to give her Tylenol.
“So how is it if my child is suffering a mental health crisis or is confused because of the lie that has rapidly spread across our society, that says he or she was born a mistake and is in the wrong body, that I or any other parents would not be notified?” Johnson said.
She alleged a school could “secretly help and encourage our minor children to have life-altering and body-mutilating drugs and surgeries without ever telling their mom or dad.”
“This policy is pure evil,” she said.
Charlie Martin, who identified himself as the father of three children in the district, said according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the second-leading cause of death for children between 15 and 19 years old and the leading cause for children ages 14 and 15.
“This concern is only heightened by this idea that children should be acting on their emotions because they are being told that their feelings are the truth,” he said, adding the policy to keep gender issues a secret from parents is “extremely misguided.”
“How is allowing children to keep secrets from their parents helping them cope with their feelings?” he asked. “How are parents able to give their children support for issues they have not been informed about?” Martin added the CDC reported 26.3 percent of LGBTQ+ students attempted suicide, five times the rate of heterosexual students.
“What we need are parents and teachers working together to make sure our children are safe,” he said. “That they are focusing on a self image they don’t feel the need to hide from anyone.”
Attempt to rescind
Under new business, board member Catherine Panico repeatedly tried to make a motion to repeal the policy, with support from fellow board member Liz Nicoletti. Those two initially ran for the school board trying to overturn the health and sex education curriculum because of sections they found objectionable. They were endorsed by the national conservative group Moms for Liberty.
Panico said she has repeatedly told the board the policy was not in the best interest of students.
They were cautioned by solicitor Michael Stanton that Robert’s Rules of Order dictated a different path because of the committee form under which the board operates. He said Panico would have to make a motion to discharge the topic from committee and if that were approved, she could bring the motion to rescind the policy before the whole board.
Panico and Nicoletti disagreed and members of the audience, who had spoken about rescinding the policy, shouted at Stanton and board members, promping school board President Kevin Barnes to threaten to end the meeting if they did not stop interrupting, though that had little effect.
After considerable back and forth, Panico made a motion, seconded by Nicoletti, to discharge the issue from committee.
The vote failed, 5-2.
Nicoletti and Panico voted yes. Board members Barnes, Michael Allegretto, Kristie Chisholm, Charles Roche and Jocelyn Palaganas voted no. Members Chris Halliday, Jacqueline McAlister, Corey Niemiec, Rebecca Holden and Kelly Ann Emberger were absent.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
