The national controversy continues over treatment of students who say they would like to be considered a member of the opposite sex, or who are “transgender.” And there are questions as to what rights a parent has to direct that treatment.
In Virginia, at the Virginia General Assembly’s instruction in 2020, state schools are now implementing policies to require certain treatment of boys who wish to be referred to as girls, and vice versa.
There’s a brewing debate as to whether the law allows or, perhaps even requires schools to keep a student’s wishes secret from his parents. There is also controversy over some schools taking steps to take over the lead and treat a child in a way that’s contrary to a parent’s or guardian’s direction.
According to Virginia legislation, school staff are required to refer to a student by his chosen name and by whatever gender he wishes to be called.
What happens when parents want their son or daughter to be referred to by their actual gender?
The state legislation is not specific, but indicates it is the school’s job to “address the student’s emotional needs” and that those “needs” should “be affirmed at school.”
Some parents, as well as critics of the idea that children can change their gender, argue the school does not have the right to assume the role of parenting or override parental judgement on their own child’s needs. They also say that social advocates in the school system may confuse or mentally harm children by leading or encouraging them to question their identity, as if their gender can be chosen.
According to Loudoun County Public Schools in Northern Virginia, the School Board has made “minor amendments” to a policies concerning the “rights of transgender and gender-expansive students” and will be releasing those to the public in the near future.
The controversies continue as people also debate whether boys and men should be allowed to compete on girls’ or women’s sports teams.
Read more information below, as provided by Loudoun County Public Schools.
Read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Read the final Policy 8040.
Read Regulation 8040.
From the regulation, Section B: Student Identification – Names and Pronouns.
Transgender and gender-expansive students have the right to affirming learning environments. School staff shall, at the request of a student or parent/legal guardian, use a student’s chosen name and gender pronouns. However, in the situation when a parent/legal guardian of a minor student does not agree with a student’s request to use their chosen name and gender pronouns that reflect their consistently asserted gender identity, staff will discuss and may develop an alternative that respects both the student and the parent/legal guardian. This process will require consideration of solutions to address the student’s emotional needs to be affirmed at school as well as the goal of assisting the family in developing solutions in their student’s best interest.”
From the regulation, Section C: Student Privacy and Confidentiality.
“Staff shall follow and adhere to legal standards of confidentiality relating to information about a student’s gender identity, transgender status, legal name, or sex assigned at birth. Staff must support student privacy and safety and not disclose a student’s gender identity or transgender status to other students or other parents. A student’s gender identity or transgender status should not be shared without the student’s consent, even internally among school personnel except to those with a legitimate educational interest or need to know.”
You don’t choose a sex as a minor. Schools should use the biological birth sex throughout age 18. After that the adult can do anything they want.
Transgender is a complicated issue and no matter what a parent does it has strong potential to be problematic later in life for some children. There is some evidence that gender/sexual identity is genetically encoded and that body of evidence is growing.
I highly recommend a book “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” by Abigail Shrier for some insight on the current hysteria. I do have concerns about a couple of the things she says, but overall very informative and a good read.
That said, the parents (except under very rare circumstances) have the right to control their child(ren)s lives. Schools can’t give a child a tylenol or motrin without parents knowledge and permission. A store can’t pierce a childs ears without parents consent and except in cases of life threatening emergencies hospitals and doctors can’t treat a child without parents consent As it should be. But a school can circumvent a parent when it comes to quick decisions with lifelong consequences?
Schools have tried to take over childrens (and parents) lives over the years. Lots of social engineering, like refusing to let kids off the bus unless certain conditions are met. Requiring health insurance information for the kids to attend school. Parents for the most part have been silent, encouraging the usurpation of parental rights. All while schools are failing in their basic function of teaching the children to read, write, do math and be able to function at a semi-proficient level in society on graduation.
This issue seems to have awakened some parents, time will tell if that awakening will be lasting.
Your comment was wonderfully put.
It’s really not “complicated”,,,,,,,because it does not exist in anatomical or biological reality.. It is a leftist ploy to sexualize kids. They are evil and they want your kids plain and simple………Home schooling is the solution. Read “Weapons of Mass Instruction” by John Taylor Gatto
Very well done. My mom and dad were public school teachers and, while they were great teachers, I’m pretty sure they were not trained to help kids who want to change their gender. Not sure it’s taught in every graduate educate school today either. I’m not sure I’d want my kids teachers advising my kids. And now Disney’s wants to do it. I’ve got some more thoughts on the matter.
https://mikeboyd.substack.com/p/wokeness-takes-a-sinister-turn?s=w
Where are the conservatives with the guts to be honest and forthright enough to say : 1. there is no such thing as “transgender”, 2. A man cannot be a woman or a woman a man……and ask the question “how do you change your chromosomes?”…………………….I’m not biologist either (Ms. Jackson) but I did take biology in high school. STOP letting the left define the terms of conversation! Speak truth and don’t apologize for it. Call them to task EVERY time…………… and thank you Sharyl for all you do.
The last part of this axiom on the Democrats and Republicans answers your question.
“What is more difficult to find in Washington DC, a Democrat with a conscience or a Republican with a spine”?
You are absolutely correct, we must stop allowing the Left/Democrats change the definitions of words.
I use word sex as a noun and we have 2 sexes, male and female.
Gender is an infinite term, 85 at the last count.
The problem with defining a woman is that the Democrats want to change the definition so it includes the likes of Reuben (wannabe Rachel) Levine that has a tallywacker down to his knees.
This national controversy that you referenced is just another chapter in the story on the dividing of America and as with the previous controversies, it originated with the Liberals, the Left, aka Democrat party.,
In the 1920s, the Left began taking over the colleges of education and social studies at the prestigious universities were the future leaders would attend. By the 1960s, the left had control of most universities and made inroads into the high schools. The riots beginning in the 1960s bear out my claim.
I have a series of statements, quotes that explain what has happened since the 1920s.
– Outlawed Home Schooling: Lenin – 1919, Hitler – 1938, Mao – 1949.
– “Give me 4 years to to teach your children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted”. – Lenin.
– “Give us a child for 8 years and he will be a Bolshevik forever”. – Lenin,
– “America is like a healthy body and resistance is 3-fold: It’s Patriotism, its Morality, and its Spiritual Life. If we can undermine these 3 areas, America will collapse from within”. – Stalin.
– “He alone who owns the children, gains the future”. – Hitler.
– “Give me the children and I will change society in 10 years”. – Hitler.
– “To create a new people: the agent of our cultural revolution must first create a new history: and that project is well advanced”. – “The Death of the West” page 173. This is someone’s quote cited in the book and not the author.
Gramsci’s theory on the ‘long march’ through the institutions. The Marxists must cooperate with the Progressives to capture the institutions that shape the souls of the young.
The goal of the Left is the complete destruction of the United States and therefore Western Civilization. Western Civilization was created by a combination of Christianity, Capitalism, Democracy*, and the Middle Class. All 4 have been under attack for the past 50 to 60 years.
* The traditional definition of Democracy, not the one being tossed around by our Leftist leadership.
Who knew Monty Python would predict the future?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBOQzSk14c