Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Education

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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1/19/21 10:37 am

Commenter: Kristina Kitchen

Strongly Oppose

have recently read that biological men (transgender women) will have full access to all restrooms in public schools and teachers will not be allowed to question their intent (even if they do not appear to be, nor have they ever disclosed being transgender).

This means that your policy is endangering my two girls who attend Virginia public schools and they could be sexually molested or assaulted easily by an male (biological or otherwise) in what should be a safe space for them (restroom or locker room).

While my hope is that this does not happen to any child, it seems inevitable that it will happen. Although. not to my children as we are dedicated (along with about 100 other families in my area) to remove our children from the Virginia public school system due to what we see as an immediate threat to their safety and well being.

In addition your policies are putting parents and teachers at odds with each other and with their children.

Your vision to empower and influence children to choose a transgender lifestyle is disturbing. While also endangering all children in the schools restrooms and locker rooms.

While I am supportive of transgender and the entire LGTBQ community, I do not understand why or how these policies protect them or help them, more likely expose them to more discordance with their families.

You are likely to find yourselves embattled and sued over crimes that about to be committed on school property.

We will no longer be part of the public school community due to safety risks you are imposing on our children.

As far as school sports: You are putting the physical safety of our girls at risk. There is a biological difference in boys strength and power due to biological hormones that cannot be denied. You cannot erase those differences no matter how you might want to do so. You are trampling on my girl children's rights to have sports that are safe and fair (in a competitive sense) by allowing biological boys to play in women's sports. Girl athletes work very hard at their sports and their efforts should not be erased due to the states desire to play gender identity politics. Biological girls also have rights and should have protections afforded to them.

CommentID: 90735