Last week, the Princeton Joint Unified School District unanimously passed a new policy regarding transgender and “gender non-conforming” students’ rights.
The policy “establishes a unified protocol for staff members and students that allows choice in pronoun preference and use of bathroom, locker room and other public facilities.”
In addition, staff may not reveal a student’s “gender identity” unless given permission by the student.
The Daily Princetonian reports:
[Vice President of the Board of Education Patrick] Sullivan explained that impetus for change first originated at a board meeting when members of the Gay Straight Alliance, a student advocacy group at Princeton High School, delivered compelling testimonies and suggestions regarding these policies. Several suggestions were then reviewed and recommended by the board’s Policy Committee, he noted.
Sullivan noted that there may have been past instances of ambiguity when it came to accommodating gender non-conforming students. Individual schools and administrators previously had discretion in setting school-wide policies.
“Our policy wasn’t very clear, and we were handling these instances on a case-by-case basis, mainly at the high school,” Sullivan said. “We wanted to codify practices that we had in place and also to make sure they weren’t just ad hoc, but part of the policy.”
Nonetheless, the policy change does not alter any existing practices regarding gender non-conforming students, according to Sullivan.
Lambda Legal attorney Omar Gonzalez-Pagan said that “the new policy makes explicit what Title IX and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination already require — that transgender students be treated in accordance with their gender identity when it comes to single-sex classes, activities and facilities.”
Back in November, the federal Department of Education ordered a high school in Illinois to allow a transgender student (born male) full use of the girls’ locker room. The two parties reached an accord earlier this month to (hopefully) meets the needs of not only the student in question, but those of other (female) pupils with whom the student shares facilities.
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