Will Roxbury be next to join fight over transgender students and parental notification?
ROXBURY — The township school district, already at the center of a lawsuit involving LGBTQ-themed library books, will further discuss its policies regarding transgender students amid concerns about the rights of parents.
Three members of the Roxbury Board of Education urged the board to review Policy 5756, which states that the district must accept a student's preferred gender identity without parental consent, after a member of the public brought up the issue at Monday's meeting.
The policy follows wording recommended by the state Education Department. But board member Christopher Milde said that the state's language is not mandatory and merely provides guidance for districts relating to transgender students. Allowing children to make these decisions without parents' knowledge, he said, is "potentially dangerous" and contradictory to the overarching message schools try to send to families.
"Throughout pretty much every other area, we're focusing on parental involvement and how important it is for parents to be participating and aware of what's happening at schools - and in their (children's) lives, really - but this one particular aspect, it's silence," Milde said. "This policy makes the assumption that if parents find out about this, it's all negative. It completely removes the opportunity for a parent to have a healthy discussion, potentially of support, with their child."
Milde suggested bringing the matter to the board's policy and governance committee "to review and revise accordingly." Committee Chairwoman Heather Champagne accepted Milde's suggestion, saying the group is always willing to listen to comments and concerns about district guidelines.
Parental notification mandates have become another culture-war front in New Jersey schools in recent months. Hanover, another Morris County district, adopted a policy in May requiring teachers to inform parents of changes to their child's gender identity. State Attorney General Matthew Platkin has sued Hanover and three other districts, saying the policies threaten the privacy of LGBTQ+ kids and violate New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination.
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Other districts, including Westwood in Bergen County, have adopted or discussed similar policies in recent months.
Milde's remarks Monday came after Victoria Surgent, New Jersey chapter leader of the right-wing group Gays Against Groomers, referenced the policy while also criticizing the board for failing to remove books criticized as sexually explicit from the school library. The transgender policy, she said, "aims to keep secrets from parents."
The state has defended such policies as a way to prevent discrimination and the "outing" of gay and transgender students without their permission. In most districts, such guidelines have been in place for years with no issue, Platkin said in statement earlier this month.
"Until just a few months ago, these policies were uncontroversial and widely accepted," he said in a defense of the state's legal campaign. "All our lawsuits seek to do is reinstate the same policies these districts found acceptable with little protest for years.”
Hanover later revised its policy to state that parents cannot be notified based solely on characteristics protected under the state's anti-discrimination laws, but Platkin said the revision still unlawfully discriminates against LGBTQ+ children. The lawsuit is still pending.
Roxbury board member Kathy Purcell shared Milde's concerns about potential ramifications from the transgender policy. She raised the possibility of a parent finding out about their child's new gender identity from another student, a prospect she said would be "very traumatic."
"There's just so many problems with this, to me," Purcell said. "Let's have this discussion about this policy because that's one of my biggest concerns, is how a parent is actually going to find out if we don't share that information."
Anne Collucci was the other board member to voice support for revisiting the policy, saying, "I think the parents need to know about their children."
Roxbury garnered national attention earlier this year, after high school librarian Roxana Russo Caivano filed a lawsuit against four residents in town who had pushed for some books to be removed from school libraries. Russo Caivano alleged the four defamed her by labeling her a pornographer online and in public.
Kyle Morel is a local reporter covering Morris and Sussex counties.
Email: kmorel@njherald.com; Twitter: @KMorelNJH
This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Roxbury NJ schools discuss transgender parent notification policy
