North Haven Pride is calling out public comments at a recent school board meeting as “hateful and a direct assault on the dignity and humanity of the LGBTQ+ community,” according to the New Haven Register. The comments at the contentious school-board meeting targeted a gender-nonconforming substitute teacher who used a student girls bathroom instead of a facility bathroom.
Reports the Register:
The meeting, attended by dozens of parents, was the second straight Board of Education meeting at which the issue was discussed.
The substitute, who used the gender-neutral “Mx” as an honoric before their name, has since been terminated for allegedly violating a school rule prohibiting substitute teachers from using student restrooms, Board of Education Chairman Ronald Bathrick said.
“That individual is gone” because they “broke the most obvious of rules,” said Bathrick, who angered some in attendance by repeatedly referring to the teacher with male pronouns.
“The fact remains that that teacher was qualified to teach in that classroom,” Bathrick said. “I’m not going to call out a colored teacher, a Black teacher, a Puerto Rican teacher, a trans teacher — no,” he said. “Teachers are teachers … They have a guideline to follow. If they do not follow the guideline, they are disciplined — and he was … I cannot discriminate against the teacher.”
Bathrick did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
Jamie Krzmarzick, co-chair of North Haven Pride, which supports LGBTQ+ residents, said the town has a way to go in the way it treats queer people.
“What transpired last night serves as a painful reminder that our community is not yet a safe or welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ people,” Krzmarzick said in a release last week. “While we work tirelessly to create safe spaces, the continued misgendering of a substitute teacher highlights the urgent need for comprehensive professional development for the entire Board of Education and all school personnel.”
Krzmarzick said Monday that the substitute teacher “had a microscope on them” from the day they arrived at school.
She said the “hateful language and dangerous rhetoric” can cause mental health issues in students, including “depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidal ideation, especially among LGBTQ+ youth.”
Krzmarzick urged school leadership to send a written response to the entire school community correcting factual errors shared with the public at the meeting and demonstrate “unapologetic support” for queer students, faculty and staff.
“I think communicating unequivocal support for the queer community is really important right now,” Krzmarzick said Monday.
She also urged school administrators to implement professional development for all school personnel on safe educational environments for LGBTQ+ students, faculty and staff.
Read the complete New Haven Register here.
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