Virginia wants schools to adopt policies to protect transgender students. Will school boards go along?

By the start of the school year, school boards are required to pass policies that protect transgender students under a law passed by the General Assembly in 2020. They’re required to base them on a set of model policies the Virginia Department of Education finalized in March.

Vee Lamneck, executive of Equality Virginia, which helped push for the legislation and policies, said it will help ensure the well-being of thousands of students across the state who don’t identify with the gender they were assigned at birth and who report higher rates of bullying and mental health issues than their peers.

“It creates a baseline expectation that these families can have, knowing how they can expect their child to be treated,” Lamneck said.

But with just more than a month until the start of the school year, the clock is ticking. In some districts, policy changes happened with little fanfare. Portsmouth’s school board adopted them in late June.

Disputes have erupted in others, often going hand-in-hand with activists denouncing how schools talk about race. They’ve set their sights on policies about trans children as a threat to their safety and values.

Legally, boards are required to pass policies consistent with the model policies — not the model policies themselves. The legislation that requires the policies doesn’t include any mechanism to punish boards for not following.

Some boards have announced plans to deviate. In the southwest part of the state, the Russell County School Board unanimously voted to reject the model policies altogether.

There have also been pushes at the state level, including a lawsuit filed by the Christian Action Network, the Family Foundation of Virginia and several families, to stop the policies.

The suit, filed in Lynchburg Circuit Court, is ongoing, according to online court records. At a hearing Wednesday, a judge questioned their standing to file a lawsuit, Courthouse News Service reported. A lawyer for the VDOE told a judge that the state won’t seek to punish a board if it doesn’t pass policies.

Earlier this month, Equality Virginia, the Virginia ACLU and 50 other community organizations and leaders filed a brief in support of the policies with the court. The brief includes stories from several transgender families.

One girl, identified only as L, started describing herself as a girl while going to a private preschool. Her family, who lived in York County, recognized early on that she might be transgender — she kept asking her parents, “When do boys become girls? When do you get to switch?”

Her preschool supported L, but things got more complicated for her and her family when it was time for kindergarten.

Administrators in York County informed L’s mother, Joanna, that they followed similar policies to Gloucester County — which required trans students to use a separate bathroom. Joanna was familiar with the ongoing lawsuit against that district from Gavin Grimm, a trans man who sued over the policy.

Grimm had gotten permission to use the boy’s restroom from Gloucester High School in 2014 when he was a sophomore, but after parents objected, the school board passed the policy. The lawsuit came to an end in June after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case — letting a federal judge’s 2018 ruling that the board violated Grimm’s constitutional rights and federal law stand.

Joanna decided to go to Newport News Public Schools instead of staying in York, talking to two principals before settling on one that already had policies in place. The family moved so L could go to the school.

Affirming and supporting students is critical to their wellbeing, according to Lamneck and research cited by the state in explanation for the model policy.

“Every student should have the ability to do well in school, to graduate with their peers,” Lamneck said. “At the end of the day, this guidance affords transgender students that same opportunity as their peers.”

The model policies touch on a number of different topics, from prohibiting discrimination to preventing staff from revealing that a student is transgender to others. They call for districts to use students’ names and pronouns, update their records to reflect the student’s name and gender, update dress codes and limit separating students by gender in extracurricular activities.

The policies also say that schools should let students use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender and provide gender-neutral or other alternatives on request. Critics have latched onto this in particular as a threat to the safety of other students.

Past research has found no link between trans-inclusive bathroom policies and sexual assault. On the contrary, in a 2019 Harvard study, researchers found trans kids are more likely to be sexually assaulted if they aren’t allowed to use a bathroom matching their gender.

A survey by GLSEN, a national educational LGBT advocacy group, found 84% of trans kids feel unsafe at school. They’re more likely to miss out on activities and have lower GPAs, often in fear of bullying. One study cited in the model policies found children who have their transition and gender affirmed by those around them found that they have similar rates of depression and anxiety as their peers. Lamneck said policies making trans kids feel safe is more than a political issue — it’s about saving lives.

“Having at least one supportive environment where that transgender student is able to feel safe, is able to feel seen and is able to be authentic — that is one of the biggest protective factors in preventing suicidal ideation and attempts,” Lamneck said.

Multiple districts in southeastern Virginia don’t have a formal policy like Gloucester, but have mostly allowed trans students to use separate restrooms. In Isle of Wight County, Superintendent Jim Thornton told the school board in May that to date, every family with a trans student in the district had opted to use single-occupant bathrooms after conversations with their principal.

Thornton said in subsequent meetings that following the end of the Gloucester case and changes in state law, students have a right to use a bathroom and facilities matching their gender.

The board is considering a number of policy changes to align itself with the model policies, though it isn’t necessarily keeping the exact language. They’re set to go over all of the policy changes at a work session on Wednesday.

In meetings since Thornton first brought up the policy, the board and district has been derided in public comment sessions by speakers for its stance on transgender students.

Some people who have been the most vocal against the model policies in meetings and rallies also are against “critical race theory,” a theoretical legal framework developed in the 1970s that seeks to explain the persistence of inequity even after the end of formal, legal racial segregation.

In a speech at the board’s last meeting on July 12, Isle of Wight Board Chair Jackie Carr simultaneously defended the district’s equity efforts and said she doesn’t support CRT. Teachers in Loudoun and New Kent County who have been suspended or fired for not using a student’s name and pronouns have used religious freedom as their defense. But Carr said the district has a duty to all of its students.

“While one may not agree with someone’s life choices, and while these lifestyle choices may go against one’s faith or religion or personal beliefs, we all must respect everyone, value everyone,” Carr said. “That can’t be an option, and it’s the school’s responsibility to see that everyone is treated with respect and see that everyone feels safe.”

Opposition to the model policies has popped up in other districts that have seen organized opposition to critical race theory, including at a rally before a Virginia Beach School Board meeting last Tuesday about the district’s mask policy. Amid signs that said, “Masking kids equals child abuse” and, “Remember Hitler loved critical race theory” were signs that said things like ‘Stop gendercide.”

In Chesapeake, which has also seen organized opposition to CRT and masks at school board meetings, speakers have said the model policies promote a “far left transgender policy and agenda” and “a misguided effort to help a few.” The Chesapeake School Board is set to vote Monday on a policy on transgender students in line with the model policies.

Lamneck suggests that similar veins of misinformation with CRT have an impact. Critical race theory only became a household phrase in recent months, following a push from conservative figures to broaden its definition beyond the particular legal theory.

Many people haven’t knowingly interacted with a trans person, Lamneck says, making the conversations about trans children more difficult. Outside of their organization’s legislative and legal advocacy, Equality Virginia also has been setting up speaking events with trans people across the state.

The goal is to familiarize people with trans people, beyond what might be portrayed in media. The new guidelines present an opportunity for people to talk and learn more about transgender people, they say.

“Understanding what it means to be transgender and understanding these new requirements can be confusing, especially if you’ve never met a transgender person before,” Lamneck said. “But at the end of the day, this guidance is about, bottom line, just respect — respect of transgender students.”

Matt Jones, 757-247-4729, mjones@dailypress.com