Holmdel School Board considers scrapping transgender policy over parental notification

HOLMDEL – The Board of Education may repeal its policy offering protections to transgender students, the latest district to weigh into a fray that has riled parents statewide.

In Monmouth County, the Middletown, Marlboro and Manalapan-Englishtown school districts have amended their transgender policies to require school officials to alert parents when their children change their pronouns or gender identity. The school districts are currently being sued by the state Attorney General’s office arguing that the new policies violate the state’s Law Against Discrimination.

In Morris County, the Hanover Township school board changed their transgender policy and were sued by the Attorney General’s office in May. According to the Daily Record, the school board repealed their transgender policy on Sept. 11, arguing that the old policy was not mandatory, but existed to provide guidance with regard to transgender students.

On Wednesday Holmdel discussed removing its policy altogether, in hopes of sidestepping a legal fight. But doing so would ultimately remove certain existing protections for transgender students.

Policy 5756 

Holmdel’s transgender policy was adopted in May 2019. It delves into how the school district should create a “safe and supportive environment” for transgender students. It establishes guidelines for the correct terminology to be used regarding gender identity and outlines specific ways to guard against harassment, intimidation or bully of transgender students. For example, the policy states that “student dress codes should not be enforced more strictly for transgender and gender nonconforming students than for other students.”

It also allows transgender students to use participate in sports and use restrooms in accordance with their gender identity.

It states, “While some transgender students will want this arrangement, others may be uncomfortable with it. Transgender students who are uncomfortable using a sex-segregated restroom should be provided with a safe and adequate alternative, such as a single “unisex” restroom or the nurse’s restroom. Similarly, some transgender students may be uncomfortable using the changing facilities that correspond to the student’s gender identity. Non-transgender students should also be afforded the option to use a private facility, such as a unisex facility or the nurse’s restroom, should they feel uncomfortable.”

Monmouth County: Home prices fell in August; see the new median price and how we compare

The issue at the crux of Holmdel’s school board’s debate is on parental notification. According to the policy, “The school district shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity; parental consent 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.”

It states that there could be instances in which a parent and the student disagree on what names and pronouns to use.

Holmdel’s School Board

During Wednesday’s meeting, superintendent Dr. J. Scott Cascone said that there are transgender students in the school district and in most cases, parents were the ones contacting their children's schools to seek support and accommodations.

He said the transgender student policy was brought up because the schools’ counseling staff wanted to know what the procedure would be in the case of transgender students who have not come out to their parents and are expressing thoughts of self-harm or harm to others.

Cascone said the school district is obliged by law to notify parents in cases of self-harm or harm to others, but the schools’ counselors were questioning, in those cases, what would they do in regards to notifying the parents of the student’s changing gender identity.

Cascone said currently the schools’ staff is directed to steer students who are questioning their gender identity to the counselling center because many staff members are not “certified for the engagement of that conversation.”

He said the schools’ counselors would then allow the students to discuss any issues without judgment.

“It is the goal of the counselors, if in fact the student is expressing trepidation or fear of telling their parents, (to discuss) how to bridge that gap,” Cascone said. “We try to resolve that concern, to bridge that gap, and sometimes that can be quick. Sometimes that can turn around in 12 hours, 48 hours, maybe a week, might be several visits to the counselors before that happens. That’s typically the way it occurs now.”

Members of the school board had a range of opinions.

Surekha Collur said she wanted to see the litigation play out in other towns before voting on the matter. She said since repealing the policy would not default into a policy of automatically notifying the parents, she said she would want to see what school policy could replace the repealed policy.

Lawsuit: Hazlet theater booted teen boy with autism for going into women's bathroom with mom

Christian DiMare argued that because the board of education is not amending but repealing their transgender policy, the school board is not at risk of litigation from the Attorney General’s office. He pointed to Hanover's actions earlier this month. He argued that the company that wrote the policy and presented it to a number of school boards had “deceitfully” presented the policy as mandatory. He said repealing the policy does not affect the school’s anti-bullying initiative and said he wants to protect “the child that might be confused” and going through a phase without parental involvement.

“We talk about certain homes. I get it, not every home is positive and there’s support systems there,” DiMare said. “Those are the most vulnerable children that actually we need to get their parents more involved.”

School Boards: Howell considers changing transgender student policy as tension grows between parents

Linda Zhang asked that parents reflect on their relationship with their kids.

“Your kid wants to make a big decision about changing their gender (and) they don’t want to talk to you, they talk to strangers,” she said. “Now, we’re talking about parent’s rights. We should ask ourselves what’s wrong with our relationship with our kids (that) do they not tell us.”

Terence Wall called the current policy a “disenfranchising parent’s policy” and “a war on women, a war on young girls, biological girls and their sports.” He argued that the policy is cleaving students from their parents and made a comparison to communism’s restructuring of family life.

Eileen Briamonte said, the schools appear to have open lines of communication with its transgender students, parents and schools’ staff.

“It’s working, it seems to be working really well,” she said.

Kimberly Tuccillo said, “I don’t feel that anything about this is black or white.”

She said she agrees with some parts of the current policy’s parent notification policy and disagrees with other parts. She questioned whether there could be an age at which point parental notification is not required.

Peter Reddy said he “personally (doesn’t) love this policy” and was in favor of changing policies as times change.

Members of the public in attendance were split between people who are concerned with two possible scenarios on the extremes. On one side, people were concerned about easily persuadable children and the rights of parents to know what’s going on with their children in their schools. On the other side, people were concerned about transgender students whose families would not accept them if they came out.

The board indicated that they could be voting on a resolution to repeal its current transgender policy at its next meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 6 p.m. at Holmdel High School.

Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Holmdel BOE considers scrapping transgender policy