To whom it may concern:

While I fully agree that any student should be treated respectfully, these policies being proposed by VDOE are an overreach based on radical theories that eradicate all distinctions between male and female and treat our school children as a social experiment in sexuality. None of those theories have compelling evidence and support from the scientific community as a whole. Implementing these policies would in fact be potentially more detrimental to children's long-term health and well-being since much self-proclaimed transgenderism in younger people more often than not stems from a confused psychological state of gender dysphoria which requires the wisdom and maturity of professional accompaniment and counsel rather than an unbridled, unloving response of just giving license to whatever the student may be feeling at the moment. We're supposed to be the adults in the room here!

Another difficulty with the proposed guidelines is that they assume a posture of disrespect toward the role of the parent as primary caregiver by handling student manifestation of transgenderism as knowledge to which the state is privy but the parent is not. What automatically qualifies the state to be more responsible in handling these matters than the parents themselves? This usurping of the authority of the state over the parent sets a dangerous precedent for the abuse of public power in other arenas as well.