Rocklin Unified will vote today on cruel policy that would forcibly out trans children | Opinion

Just a little over one month after the Chino Valley Unified school board in San Bernardino County enacted a cruel policy that would “out” transgender and gender non-conforming students to their parents, Placer County’s Rocklin Unified School Board is gearing up to pull the same stunt.

Today, the Rocklin school board, with its conservative supermajority, will vote on an action item that would revise the district’s nondiscrimination and harassment policy to include new language. The motion stipulates that a student’s transgender or gender identity is private information to be kept confidential “with the exception of parental notification.”

This policy, if passed, would out trans and gender non-conforming students whose parents do not — or might not — accept their gender identity. If a trans or nonbinary teen’s parents do not accept them in their own home, a school campus might be the only safe space where they can present as their most whole and happy selves. These policies could also open the school district up to legal exposure if a student were ever harmed as a consequence of being outed by this misguided policy.

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“Not only is this policy illegal, it is a direct threat to student safety, staff and student relationships, (it) is divisive and targets a specific student or student group on our campuses,” said Rocklin Teachers Professional Association President Travis Mougeotte in a press release issued Tuesday. “This is discriminatory and puts our students’ safety and well-being at risk.”

Rocklin school board members would be sending a message to queer and trans students that their personal safety and well-being come second to politics. It’s a nationwide trend.

In Hanover County, Virginia, students must now submit multiple documents to school administration to use a school bathroom that aligns with their gender identity — including disciplinary or criminal records, and/or signed statements from a doctor or therapist. Florida’s Orange County Public Schools system has gone so far as to require written parental notification if a student asks to be called by a nickname.

In California, in late July, the Chino Valley Unified school board approved a policy that alerts parents via the school-wide notification system if a student changes their gender identification, name or pronouns. The policy also notifies parents if a student is using a bathroom that does not conform to the gender listed on their birth certificate.

In early August, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit against the Chino Valley Unified School District, saying the district’s “forced outing” of trans students “tramples” on their civil rights.

“The district’s policy will force (students) to make a choice: either ‘walk back’ their constitutionally and statutorily protected rights to gender identity and gender expression, or face the risk of emotional, physical and psychological harm from non-affirming or unaccepting parents or guardians,” the lawsuit states.

“The (Chino Valley) board’s policy thus unlawfully discriminates against transgender and gender nonbinary students, subjecting them to disparate treatment and harassment, including mental, emotional and even physical abuse.”

Last month, the Murrieta Valley Unified School District board in Riverside County voted to approve the same policy as the Chino Valley Unified School District, “as-is.” Bonta said he was “disturbed” to hear another school district had adopted “a forced outing policy,” but it is not clear yet if the attorney general’s office will pursue a lawsuit against the school board.

Placer County parents, teachers and students would be protecting their community’s queer and trans youth and ensuring that they feel safe while at school by opposing efforts by the Rocklin Unified School Board to mimic the cruelty visited on kids in Murrieta Valley, Chino Valley and nationwide.

Show up for them by showing up to tonight’s school board meeting, which starts at 6:30 p.m. and will take place at the Rocklin Unified District Office at 2615 Sierra Meadows Drive. Placer’s trans and queer students deserve to know that they are loved and supported by their community.