Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Education
 
Board
State Board of Education
 
Guidance Document Change: Every day, throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, educators and school leaders work to ensure that all students have an opportunity to receive a high-quality education. As a part of that work, educators strive to meet the individual needs of all students entrusted to their care, and teachers work to create educational environments where all students thrive. The Virginia Department of Education (the “Department”) recognizes that each child is a unique individual with distinctive abilities and characteristics that should be valued and respected. All students have the right to attend school in an environment free from discrimination, harassment, or bullying. The Department supports efforts to protect and encourage respect for all students. Thus, we have a collective responsibility to address topics such as the treatment of transgender students with necessary compassion and respect for all students. The Department also fully acknowledges the rights of parents to exercise their fundamental rights granted by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children. The Code of Virginia reaffirms the rights of parents to determine how their children will be raised and educated. Empowering parents is not only a fundamental right, but it is essential to improving outcomes for all children in Virginia. The Department is mindful of constitutional protections that prohibit governmental entities from requiring individuals to adhere to or adopt a particular ideological belief. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees religious freedom and prohibits the government from compelling speech that is contrary to an individual’s personal or religious beliefs. The Department embarked on a thorough review of the Model Policies Guidance adopted on March 4, 2021 (the “2021 Model Policies”). The 2021 Model Policies promoted a specific viewpoint aimed at achieving cultural and social transformation in schools. The 2021 Model Policies also disregarded the rights of parents and ignored other legal and constitutional principles that significantly impact how schools educate students, including transgender students. With the publication of these 2022 Model Policies (the “2022 Model Policies”), the Department hereby withdraws the 2021 Model Policies, which shall have no further force and effect. The Department issues the 2022 Model Policies to provide clear, accurate, and useful guidance to Virginia school boards that align with statutory provisions governing the Model Policies. See Code of Virginia, § 22.1-23.3 (the “Act”). Significantly, the 2022 Model Policies also consider over 9,000 comments submitted to the Department during the public comment period for the 2021 Model Policies.
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10/24/22  6:12 pm
Commenter: John Gard, Virginia Tech Student

If this bill passes, the blood of transgender youth will be on the hands of Virginia politicians
 

     Upon hearing about this proposed policy that targets transgender students, I was horrified. Requiring all this paperwork, legal acrobatics, and questing of a student in order to allow them to feel comfortable at school? This is setting children up for a life of both internal and external torment. These transgender children have the right to use whichever names they want to and whichever bathroom they feel most comfortable using.

     Transgender children already have to face so much in terms of making friends, finding safe spaces, and navigating the cruel social construct that is public school. This policy is only set to make these already marginalized students feel worse. According to the Trevor Project, transgender youth are five times more likely to have attempted suicide and more than four times as likely to express fear of going to school as a result of their gender identity. If the controlling party moves forward with this bill, it sets in motion the circumstances for these statistics to become worse. 

     And this is not something as extreme as letting a five-year-old decide if they want gender affirming care. This is simply allowing a child to use the bathroom they feel comfortable using and being called what they wish to be called. It seems like such a small gesture of kindness that will go a long way in helping these children find they validation of their identity that they so desperately are seeking and deserve to have as human beings.

     As I write this, I ask myself: How can the party of family values and family centered policy be alright with passing laws that may end up causing families to lose their child to suicide? If this law goes through, the Virginia Govenor and Legislature will have blood on their hands for every transgender youth in the state who makes the conscious decision to take their own life. 

I leave saying this: If any politician in Virginia has one shred of humanity, please in the name of all that is good and right, vote against this bill and help to protect the children who are already so marginalized. 

CommentID: 195696