Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Education
 
Board
State Board of Education
 
Guidance Document Change: The Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools guidance document was developed in response to House Bill 145 and Senate Bill 161, enacted by the 2020 Virginia General Assembly, which directed the Virginia Department of Education to develop and make available to each school board model policies concerning the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary schools. These guidelines address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with evidence-based best practices and include information, guidance, procedures, and standards relating to: compliance with applicable nondiscrimination laws; maintenance of a safe and supportive learning environment free from discrimination and harassment for all students; prevention of and response to bullying and harassment; maintenance of student records; identification of students; protection of student privacy and the confidentiality of sensitive information; enforcement of sex-based dress codes; and student participation in sex-specific school activities, events, and use of school facilities.
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2/3/21  10:04 pm
Commenter: Jeffrey Shapiro

Strongly Oppos LLP
 

The Transgender Guidance is poorly thought through and misguided in its objectives.  It starts by speaking dismissively of a child’s sex at birth as “assigned” but only provisionally until the child determines his or her superseding “gender identity.”  In reality, a child is male or female from birth through death; there is no changing one’s sex. It is a gift from God.

With regard to gender, this is treated as innate from a young age, but the Guidance later admits it is changeable and provision must be made to handle changes.  So essentially the child is allowed, god-like, to change and morph their Gender identity at whim, and the school system is to play along and cater to it through every twist and turn.  There is an undefined “consistency” requirement that is unenforceable.  Truly the inmates will be running the asylum. 

The novel requirement to allow boys in girls bathrooms and locker rooms (or vice versa)is a disaster waiting to happen amd horrific for the vast majority of students, especially young girls. The bathrooms and locker rooms should be used according to sex.  That does not denigrate gender identity.  Rather, it  divides usage by sex rather than gender.  There is nothing wrong with this well established classification approach to bathrooms and locker rooms. 

In all, this Guidance is a shallow effort, filled with all the latest unproven pieties and virtue signaling.  It aids and abets chaos, injuring the many, while pretending to help the few.  It is a disgrace.  

 

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