A New Jersey parent is suing her local school district for adopting a policy that fails to notify parents when a student identifies as transgender and changes their preferred name or pronoun, calling the protocol “out of control.”
Frederick Short argued in the lawsuit filed earlier this month in federal court that Cherry Hill Public Schools is violating parents’ Fourteenth Amendment rights with its transgender policy.
“I don’t agree with the policy,” Short, who still has three children in the school district, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“To me, it’s so out of character that a parent doesn’t have the right to know what’s going on in their child’s life,” she said.
“I just want to know.”
Short and her attorneys maintain that the policy violates her and other parents’ rights to determine their children’s health care, and they are seeking to rescind the policy or at least add a provision that would allow parental involvement.
The lawsuit also names state Board of Education officials as defendants for issuing guidance to school districts suggesting that officials conceal the identity of a transgender student from his parents.
Frederick Short filed a federal lawsuit against Cherry Hill Public Schools for violating his and other parents’ Fourteenth Amendment rights with its transgender policy.Rick Short/Facebook
According to Cherry Hill’s policy, which was adopted in 2019, “a transgender student will be addressed at school by the student’s chosen name and pronoun, regardless of whether a legal name change or a change in school records has occurred. officers.”
If a parent or guardian objects to the change of the student’s name or the pronoun used to describe the student in school records, staff will consult with the board’s attorney regarding the student’s civil rights.
But, he says, the student’s chosen name and pronoun should continue to be used at school.
The policy is modeled on one that the New Jersey Department of Education recommended school districts implement, which says: “School personnel may not disclose information that could reveal a student’s transgender status, except as permitted by law.” .
“The guide actively promotes deception, in which confidential conversations (about the very serious topic of gender identity) are conducted outside the realm of the family circle, where such conversations should legitimately take place,” the lawsuit says.
Short said he doesn’t believe any of his children at Cherry Hill West High School are transgender, but if they were he would be “mad at the school for hiding all this stuff.”
Attorney Thomas Stavola Jr. also pointed to a similar case in the Kettle Moraine School District in Wisconsin, where a judge declared that schools violated parents’ rights by adopting a policy to honor a minor student’s request to change his or her identity. gender at school without parental consent.
He also noted that several mental health professionals cited in that case spoke of the benefits of parental involvement in providing health care to transgender children and the dangers of children living a double life between home and school. school.
“It’s just not right,” Short told the Inquirer. “Technically they can live a double life and their parents wouldn’t know it.
“I would be mad at the school for hiding all this stuff,” she said, noting that she doesn’t believe any of her three children at Cherry Hill High School West identify as transgender.
Short is represented by attorney Thomas Stavola Jr. in the case.Tom Stavola/Facebook
Short said he hopes the school can reach a “middle ground” that includes parents, counselors and social workers when deciding whether to use a student’s preferred gender or name.
Stavola also said that parents should be presumed fit to raise their children unless there is clear evidence to the contrary, according to NJ.com.
The school district has 21 days to respond to the lawsuit, which could pave the way for a possible case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Post contacted Cherry Hill Public Schools and the state Department of Education for comment.
The New Jersey Department of Education encouraged local school districts to adopt transgender policies that would exclude parental involvement.AP
Meanwhile, several school districts around the state have already reversed their policies that allow school officials to use a student’s preferred name or pronoun without first communicating with parents.
In municipalities such as Hanover, Middletown and Marlboro, as well as the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional Board of Education, officials ruled that staff must notify parents when gender nonconforming students want to change their names or be called by new pronouns.
Three districts in Monmouth County and one in Morris County also adopted policies requiring educators to notify the parent or guardian of a transgender student.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn