I hope this does not go to PARF. I sincerely do. I'd like some reasoned input from people on this issue and I'm not sure that happens in PARF. Here goes.
My school board is considering a policy change to their anti-discrimination/anti-bullying policy. The policy as written seems very robust and covers all students. The reason for the change is that a local high school student who is a lesbian alleged discrimination based on her sexual preference because she was not allowed to do her "prom-posal" on school grounds. I had no idea what "prom-posals" were until a few weeks ago. Apparently it's not enough to just ask a girl to prom anymore, you have to have this huge production with balloons and music and skydivers or something. Ridiculous but there you go. Anyhow, this student wanted to have her prom-posal to her girlfriend in the school cafeteria during school hours and had enlisted several teachers to help. The problem is there is already a school policy in place which prohibits prom-posals on campus because they are elaborate and distracting. It may be that this policy was variably enforced in the past, I'm not sure. When this student was told she could not do her prom-posal on campus she began a social media campaign which reached some elements of the LGBT activist community. These people then exerted pressure onto the school board which then formed a task force to look at the issue and made a recommendation to change the existing policy.
Basically the change is to add LGBT as a specific class to the existing policy which already covers all students. In addition, the language they propose to add covers not only students but faculty as well. This policy is in effect for all grades K-12. I have four kids in the school system in various grades, including one starting kindergarten this year. My concern stems from the unintended consequences that this exact change has caused in other school systems around the country. First, LGBT students have made an issue of gender specific bathrooms in other school systems. This has caused these schools to build single stall, gender neutral bathrooms for those who do not feel comfortable using the restroom assigned to their biological sex. Apparently this also has not been good enough as there have been two lawsuits filed in the last year by transgendered students who want to be able to use the bathroom of their gender identity, whether or not it matches their biological sex. There is an ongoing lawsuit in Norfolk, VA over this issue, link:
Transgender student files lawsuit over school bathroom policy | WAVY-TV
In this lawsuit, the student is alleging discrimination based on his gender identity because he (a biological female) is not allowed to use the boys restroom at school. The school built three gender neutral restrooms on campus and have allowed him to use the restroom at the nurses office if he chooses but this is not enough for him. He states that being restricted from using the boys restroom is interfering with his transition.
Secondly, this proposed policy applies to staff as well as students. Thus, if a kindergarten teacher decided to go through a gender reassignment during the school year there would be nothing the parents or school administrators could do to prevent Mr. Smith from becoming Ms. Smith over the course of the year in front of a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds. The only option for a parent who does not think their 5 or 6 year old is ready to understand or confront these kinds of issues is to remove them from the school system at that point.
It seems that the current policy which covers all students is reasonable and should simply be enforced. Adding a specific class for LGBT students in the policy singles them out and can lead to the unintended consequences noted above. My initial feeling is that the current policy should stay as is and simply be enforced.
There was a school board meeting earlier this month and this policy was on the schedule for vote. The school superintendent announced that due to the concerns voiced by citizens in the community they were going to table this issue so they could "provide more education on the policy and its proposed effects". Multiple parents and other citizens (on both sides of the issue) spoke during the meeting. It is not clear when the school board will bring this up for another vote.
So, if you were in my shoes, what would you do?
Thanks and again, please don't PARF this out. I'm asking other parents and citizens what their response to this very real issue would be.