P-H-M delays change to student pronoun policy after push back from parents, LGBTQ community

MISHAWAKA — The Penn-Harris-Madison school board tabled a recommendation to modify the district's student handbooks this week after groups on opposite sides of the issue objected to an amendment relating to the use of students' preferred pronouns at school.

In an unexpected decision Monday night, school board members abandoned proposed changes after a group of conservative parents and advocates for LGBTQ youth both spoke up against the policy.

The discussion stems from an addition made in the school district's student handbooks in the spring and reflects growing divisions across the country about how best to address LGBTQ issues in schools.

What changes were proposed?

In April, as a part of a routine annual adoption, the P-H-M school board voted unanimously to approve student handbooks for the 2022-2023 school year.

Within those handbooks was new language outlining how to request name and pronoun changes for elementary, middle and high school students.

For the district's youngest students, in elementary and middle school, the language approved in April states that "the child's parent is asked to contact the school administration to request the change." The high school version of the handbook, however, writes "such inquires can be initiated by the student and/or family."

Months later, a group of conservative parents spoke up against the language. In a July school board meeting, the group accused administrators of using the handbooks to introduce "ideological indoctrination" without parents' knowledge.

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The group, which calls itself Strengthen Our Schools, has regularly attended P-H-M board meetings over the last year and attached itself to a number of right-leaning, hot-button issues such as mask mandates and critical race theory, a high-level academic legal theory not generally taught in K-12 schools.

School board members, after hearing from parents, questioned whether the language approved in April was clear enough to indicate that students alone could request pronoun changes only if emancipated from their legal guardian. The board members, during that July meeting, asked their attorney to propose an addition to the handbooks that cemented parents' role in the process.

New language was put forward in early August and appeared on the board's agenda for a vote Monday night. With the proposed additions, name and pronoun requests were directly tied to "changing said student's gender from that which is listed on the birth certificate."

Parents or legal guardians would be responsible for initiating the request for students of all ages, except if a student is legally emancipated from their guardian.

Why was the language opposed?

Both parents belonging to the Strengthen Our Schools group and LGBTQ advocates urged school board members not to vote for the new language Monday.

H.R. Jung, executive director of The LGBTQ Center, cited statistics from The Trevor Project finding that 40% of all attempted of completed suicides in the United States had been pursued by LGBTQ youth while making up less than 40% of the total youth population. Jung said The Trevor Project, through surveys, found this was due in part to nonacceptance from parents, families, schools and teachers.

P-H-M's proposed policy, requiring parents' approval and directly trying it to a students' change in gender, could further create barriers, Jung said, and open the district up to legal challenges if not applied uniformly for every student requesting a change or nickname be used other than what is listed on their birth certificate.

"A lot of those teens seek out teachers, other staff members at school, for that affirmation," Jung said. "It could create a chilling effect of those students seeking out that help, seeking out that recognition, seeking out a trusted adult they could turn to."

Aron Cox, an openly transgender student at Penn High School, said they fear for friends who are not out and have not found acceptance within their own families.

"Even with a supportive and loving family, I have harmed myself because of the way trans people are treated and received in society," Cox said. "The best case scenario is that my friends are misgendered for seven hours straight for five days a week. The worst case scenario is that they are forcibly outed to their parents and placed in a dangerous situation."

The Strengthen Our Schools parents, while also opposing the language, pushed back for a different reason. Multiple speakers during public comment cast their view that a students' request for use of different pronouns constitutes "gender ideology" that is unfair to students and teachers who do not want to recognize a classmate's request to use a different name or pronoun.

One parent went so far as to say if his daughter came home and asked "what her gender is or any of that crap," he would "call the local sheriff" and have the students' teacher "arrested for inappropriate behavior with a minor."

"Pronoun changes are not reasonable," said another parent, Andy Rutten, who is aligned with the Strengthen Our Schools group and running for school board this fall. "It gets into a slippery slope of politics."

What happens next?

Board President Christopher Riley said he was ultimately moved by Cox and Jung's comments not to vote for the new language.

"The suicidal implications are very, very serious and do require some additional thought," he said Monday.

In a near unanimous decision, the P-H-M board decided to table the proposed changes, meaning this year's handbook will retain the language approved in April. Board members said they will likely take up the conversation again this spring in advance of the 2023-2024 school year.

One board member suggested reverting entirely back to the language of last school year's handbooks, which did not a all address requests for name or pronoun changes, a district spokeswoman told The Tribune. However, as another board member pointed out, parents have already begun signing off that they have read and understand the policies outlined in the current language approved in the spring.

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Board member Clare Roach point out that even with P-H-M's own district policies, a federal education law, known as FERPA, allows parents the right to request and correct student records, which could extend to the name and gender P-H-M keeps in student files.

Only one board member — Angie Gates, who abstained — did not vote to table the discussion.

Riley called the meeting an example of the board listening to parents, even if members voted down the proposed language for different reasons.

"I think we had seven people who showed up tonight knowing exactly how they were going to vote," Riley said, addressing parents. "And, then we heard from you and changed our mind."

Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Parents, LGBTQ community push back against changes to P-H-M policy