An anonymous group of parents from Hanover, New Hampshire is bringing a legal challenge against their school district’s policy that ensures the privacy of transgender students who don’t feel comfortable sharing their gender identity with their parents or guardians.
Further complicating the situation, the school district (School Administrative Unit 70) straddles the border between New Hampshire and Vermont.
Reports VT Digger:
The goal [of the school policy] is to give students a safe place: Some kids may hide their gender identity at home, but be openly transgender or gender nonconforming — meaning they do not adhere to stereotypical gender norms — at school. Others may be confiding in a trusted teacher or staff member.
Under a district policy known as JBAB — a student gender policy used in New Hampshire school districts — school staff cannot tell parents, family members or other school employees about a child’s gender identity “unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure.”
But now, that policy is facing a legal threat.
This school year, a group of anonymous parents in Hanover, New Hampshire, is seeking to strike down those protections, according to communications obtained by VTDigger through a public records request.
Richard Lehmann, a Concord-based attorney, told district officials in an October letter that he was hired by parents to “demand that the (school) Board repeal or substantially amend” the policy.
The schools’ requirements “interfere in the constitutional rights of parents to raise their children without undue interference from the government” and “violate federal educational privacy laws which guarantee parental access to educational records,” Lehmann wrote.
The parents’ children attend the Bernice A. Ray School in Hanover, which is the focus of their legal threat.
That school serves only New Hampshire elementary school students. But it’s possible that other schools in the district — all of which have identical JBAB policies — could be impacted too. …
LGBTQ+ advocacy groups say that, if successful, the proposed changes would be harmful to children who don’t follow stereotypical gender norms.
In essence, advocates say, the change could mean that transgender or gender nonconforming students would be outed to their parents — a situation that could put them in danger.
“Oftentimes, youth face intense rejection at home,” said Dana Kaplan, the executive director of Outright Vermont, which advocates for LGBTQ+ youth. “And sometimes that can look like violence.”
Many young people exploring their gender see school as a safe place, or have teachers that they can confide in without fear of being outed, Kaplan said. Requiring school staff to inform parents could force students to keep their identity hidden — which carries its own costs.
Read the complete VT Digger story here.
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