The King George County School Board voted Wednesday evening to establish clear guidance for division employees on the treatment of transgender students.
The vote was in response to the Department of Education’s establishment of model policies concerning common issues regarding trans people in schools.
Superintendent Jesse Boyd requested approval of Policy JBB, board member Cathy Hoover of the James Madison District made a motion to adopt it, and the policy passed unanimously without any discussion.
The policy states that division personnel must refer to each student using only the name that appears in their official record, or, if the student prefers, a nickname commonly associated with the name that appears in records. Staff may use a different name when necessary for academic purposes, such as during a foreign-language class.
Employees also must refer to each student using only the pronouns relating to the sex that is documented in the student’s official record. Sex is defined in the policy as the student’s biological sex.
Staff may refer to a student by a name or pronoun other than what’s on record if parents provide written instruction to do so; the student is 18 years or older or if they were emancipated. The written instruction will be documented in the official record, but the school division will not change a student’s legal name or sex even if requested.
For participation in sex-specific school activities, eligibility will be determined by the student’s sex and not their gender or gender identity. If federal law requires schools to permit transgender students to share otherwise sex-segregated facilities such as a bathroom or locker room with students of the opposite sex, parents will be given the opportunity to opt their child out of using those facilities. During overnight travel for school-related activities, students must use restrooms that correspond to their sex, unless required by federal law.
Athletic participation is governed by the Virginia High School League, and the county will adhere to its policies, which determine eligibility based on the sex assigned at birth.
Board members didn’t speak directly to the policy.
However, newly elected Chair Colleen Davis (Carrie Cleveland was elected vice chair Wednesday) told public speakers that the board is listening after they spoke out against the policy and the board’s November decision to forbid non-curricular clubs at the middle-school level, which effectively ended a push for a Gender and Sexualities Alliance at King George Middle School.
“I do hear you and my heart does hurt when a student comes before us and tells us that they’re hurting and they don’t feel heard,” Davis said. “You are heard. It might not look the way you want it. It might not look the way you think it should look, but we are doing things from these conversations, and we are trying to meet those needs.”
Davis’ comments were in response to eighth-grader Artemis Park questioning if the policy does enough to address bullying and harassment of transgender students. Artemis also shared statistics showing that transgender students face a higher risk of suicide than others in their age group.
“If the school doesn’t care about that, then they shouldn’t be in charge of what they are in charge of — children,” Artemis said.
Susan Park said the board’s policy and refusal to allow the GSA at the middle school is part of the “fear and rhetoric that has swept our country over the past few years.” She bemoaned national politics creeping into decisions made at the local level. She said LGBTQ students — and especially transgender students — are under a microscope, but not because they are causing problems in schools.
“It’s because schools and school boards have become a battleground where adults are trying to work out national and personal issues through local policy decisions,” Susan Park said. “When adults feel anxious about rapid social change or loss of control, they often look for a group to blame. History shows us that marginalized groups often become targets during these moments, and that means we should slow down and separate fear from facts.”
Susan Park told the board it is not its job to solve national culture wars, but to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all students. She said using a student’s chosen name and pronoun is not a political statement, but a show of kindness and respect that will make school feel less stressful for those students. She said the policy will not make students “less queer.”
“This new policy, it’s so unnecessary,” Artemis said. “It’s so complicated and teachers shouldn’t have to go and research a child’s legal name and see if their nickname matches up or not. It’s weird and demanding and draining for all parties. It’s upsetting and concerning that this is the solution you guys came up with.”
Artemis also challenged the Rev. Sherman Davis, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church, among others, by declaring that the Bible states not to pray in public. Davis invoked scripture during public comment, saying that the world is an “arena of which the ungodly can express their lust and their lostness and their lawlessness,” and that it’s “really the spirit of the anti-Christ.”
Colleen Davis, the pastor’s daughter-in-law, said Artemis needs to “go back and look at a real Bible,” because that interpretation is not true. In challenging the pastor, Artemis quoted Matthew 6:5, which implores followers of Jesus not to pray like “hypocrites” who stand in public places to be seen by others, but to pray privately and sincerely to God.
