How Modesto, other local school districts’ policies protect and support LGBTQ students

Modesto City Schools and other area districts have policies to protect students who identify as transgender or gender nonconforming. But outside the LGBTQ community, they may not be widely known or understood.

Veronica Ambrose, a community organizer at the Central Valley Pride Center, also known as MoPride, said Modesto City Schools follows California education laws that protect LGBTQ youth and other marginalized groups, but she wants the district to go further to safeguard these students.

Ambrose, who uses she/they pronouns, said she knows it’s difficult to address systemic issues that remain in schools. For districts including Modesto City Schools, she often participates in mental health outreach days and attends family resource events.

Ambrose said there’s often a lot of hesitation to talk about LGBTQ students and the policies that affect them. They’re difficult conversations to have, she said, and too often lead to no change. She believes that because the school district is fairly neutral when it comes to its policies, marginalized groups can feel excluded because they are not directly being communicated with.

In Oakdale, seventh-grader Killian Woods said it’s sometimes difficult identifying as LGBTQ in Stanislaus County. Woods uses they/them pronouns. “You can get made fun over it, bullied about it. So it can definitely be difficult,” they said.

Woods said although they are not bullied for their identity, they’ve seen it happen to their friends. Woods hopes school administration in all districts will keep closer watch on students to ensure bullying doesn’t continue.

“Whether you don’t know the person or whether you do, the person that you don’t like shouldn’t be any less human for just being a little different,” they said.

At Oakdale Joint Unified School District, the superintendent said students found discriminating their LGBT peers may be up for suspension or expulsion under their anti-discrimination and bullying policy.

In Modesto City Schools, if a student comes out to a teacher or school worker as transgender or gender nonconforming, the student will be referred to a school site administrator. The administrator then will work with the student to develop an individual transition plan, or ITP.

“The purpose of the ITP is to have a conversation with the student about facility use, their preferred name and pronouns, as well as identifying someone on site that the student is comfortable talking with, and ensuring the student knows how to report any incidents of harassment or bullying should they occur,” said Linda Mumma Solorio, public information officer at Modesto City Schools.

The Modesto City Schools ITP document has spots for the students’ preferred name and pronouns, preferred timing of transition, an option for adults they’d like to inform and an option to inform their teachers and classmates. It lets students know where they should go in case of bullying and harassment. It tells how to request a class schedule change for PE and asks the students’ preferred locker room and bathroom.

Turlock Unified School District spokesperson Marie Russell said TUSD has a process for responding to AB 1266 (the School Success and Opportunity Act) requests that follows state and federal laws. Counselors are to encourage students to include their parents or guardians in the process.

In the Ceres Unified School District, with student permission, a confidential support plan is developed to specify a student’s preferred name and pronouns, as well as how and with whom the student wishes the information to be shared.

Here’s what a school district to the north did

In a Placer County community, northeast of Sacramento, Rocklin Unified School District trustees voted 4-1 in early September to implement a parental notification policy requiring district staff to inform parents if their student requests to change gender identity.

Ambrose said she does not think the school districts in and around Modesto will follow suit.

She said she does worry about the effect of backlash from conservative parents, noting that schools need to be separate from religion.

“Some of these adults are not even within Modesto City School boundaries. ... They don’t have students that are attending these schools, but they’ll still show up to the meetings to say very transphobic, misogynistic and very painful things at these public board meeting comments,” Ambrose said. “Our LGBTQ youth are paying attention to this and they’re hearing all of that and they’re really scared.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, only 10% of LGBTQ youth in California in 2019 said all of their school staff were supportive, while only 27% felt comfortable talking with their school counselor about questions related to their sexuality.

In addition, only 40% of transgender and nonbinary students always were called by their affirmed names at school, and only 21% said they always were called by their correct pronoun.

“It’s organizations really attacking the youth who are just trying to survive,” Ambrose said. “Just trying to get through their day. It’s difficult and I know it’s not the majority of people. It’s really the minority who are just very loud and they know how to make a big impact.”