Manchester schools amend transgender policy in wake of lawsuit
Mar. 16—The Manchester school board has approved changes to a school district policy that prevents school officials from informing parents about their child's "transgender status" at school without the student's permission.
The revisions come less than two weeks after a Manchester mother filed a lawsuit against city schools in superior court, asking the court to declare the policy unconstitutional.
The policy originally read, "School personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student's transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation to others, including parents and other school personnel, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure."
The approved change removes the phrase "including parents and other school personnel," and adds a section at the end saying, "Nothing herein shall be construed to change the obligation of the school to take action when student safety is concerned."
Concord-based attorney Richard Lehmann is representing the mother in the lawsuit. He said he doesn't expect the changes made to the policy to impact his client's complaint.
"The proposal goes nowhere near far enough," said Lehmann. "For the very simple reason it encourages school personnel to lie to parents. I can't imagine a context where it's appropriate for school personnel to lie to parents about their children. Parents are better suited than school employees to look after the best interests of their children."
In a memo emailed to school board members, Manchester School District attorney Katie Cox-Pelletier says the changes weren't made in response to the lawsuit, filed March 3.
"These changes were part of a regular review of this policy to address needed language, and were brought forward one year after the implementation of the original policy in response to administrator and community feedback," writes Cox-Pelletier. "The proposed changes were made prior to the filing of a recent complaint regarding this policy, which is currently under review with legal counsel."
The policy was adopted in January 2021 on a 10-2-2 vote "to create a safe learning environment for all students and to ensure that every student has equal access to all school programs and activities."
Lehmann says the change misses the point.
"The language the proposal takes out is a reference to 'including parents and other personnel,' but by taking out that reference it simply leaves everybody in the statement that school personnel should not reveal a student's transgender status to others," said Lehmann.
"That necessarily includes parents. If you are going to do right by the parents of your district, you should exclude them from the group of people who are not told about their student's behaviors at school."
"By encouraging the school to deny parents access to information about their student's outward expression at school — not by some communication with a school counselor or teacher — you are denying that child the privilege of having a parent wrap their arms around them and tell them they love them no matter what," added Lehmann.
In the lawsuit, a Manchester woman identified as Jane Doe said her minor child, identified as M.C., asked teachers and students last fall to address the child by a name typically associated with a gender different from M.C.'s sex at birth.
Jane Doe became aware of this fact through an inadvertent disclosure by one of M.C.'s teachers, according to the lawsuit.
Jane Doe communicated with her child's guidance counselors and others at the school that she would like her child to be treated according to M.C.'s birth gender, to be addressed by the name on the district's mandatory permanent record and to be referred to with pronouns corresponding to the student's biological sex.
According to the filing, Jane Doe received an email from the school principal saying, "while I respect and understand your concern, we are held by the district policy as a staff," which "outlines the fact that we cannot disclose a student's choice to parents if asked not to."
The plaintiff wants a judge to declare the policy unconstitutional, issue an injunction prohibiting the Manchester School District from enforcing or training staff to enforce the policy, set damages and order the district to pay her attorney fees.
A temporary hearing has been scheduled for April 7 at Hillsborough Superior Court North.
