Another state has taken steps to force its teachers to hide the gender identity of their students from said student’s parents unless the student directly gives them consent to speak about it to the parents.
The official guidance from the New Jersey education department about the subject claims that “a school district shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity; parental consent is not required.”
“School district personnel should have an open, but confidential discussion with the student to ascertain the student’s preference on matters such as chosen name, chosen pronoun to use, and parental communications,” continued the guidance.
Currently, no medical diagnosis or legal name change is needed for the school to just accept a student’s changing gender identity, as stated by the guidance.
Said guidance goes on to add that there is “no affirmative duty” for the school district to contact a student’s parent/guardian about their changing gender identity. Even if the parent states their disagreement with a student taking steps to change their name or pronouns, the staff of the school should continue to listen to the student and use their new pronouns and name all while ignoring the parent’s wishes, according to this released guidance.
This guidance even issues the recommendation that teachers warn the transgender student that the actions of other students talking about their gender change at home could “inadvertently disclose” the student’s status as transgender to their parents.
Additionally, the school district should be “mindful” of any disputes taking place between the parents and the student concerning the topic of gender identity, stated the guidance. It tells the district to go to the education department’s “Child Abuse, Neglect, and Missing Children” webpage if they believe this is happening.
The education department stated that the guidance on transgender students was developed after looking into the guidance and policies from various other states and organizations. The department also stated that it took time to consult with parents and teachers along with other mental health professionals and a few “advocates” concerning their guidance.
One educator in particular within the New Jersey public schools stated that while the teachers want to think that the state has the interests of the students at the forefront, this new guidance is just “hard to swallow” from an educator’s perspective.
“If a student in my class was failing my class because they failed to complete homework, would I ever lie and tell a parent they’ve completed everything? Or just not communicate with the family at all because the student might get in trouble for not doing said homework?” stated the teacher who wished to remain anonymous.
“I should not be burdened with the extremely sensitive responsibility of rearing impressionable (13 or 14 year old) students and potentially keeping the gender or sexual preference of a student secret from his or her family,” said the teacher.
The teacher went on to state that communicating with the family of the student would let teachers and the parents work alongside one another to actually help the student.
“We are being tasked with referring to student by whatever name they’ve created, acknowledging whatever pronoun they choose, and then leaving their parents in the dark,” stated the teacher. “If I’m to be on board, no questions asked, then I at least should be able to speak with the family about it so we could truly help the child with whatever they are going through.”