Transgender Policy On Pronouns, Bathrooms OKed By Loudoun Board

Leesburg VA

11 August, 2021

8:07 PM

Description

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — After months of debate and public input, the Loudoun County School Board approved Policy 8040, which intends to protect transgender students, on Wednesday evening. The policy was slightly amended before being approved by a 7-2 vote. The newly approved policy says students should be referred to by their preferred name and pronouns. Under the policy, transgender students will also have equal access to school activities, like sports, and facilities, like bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. The proposed policy was highly contested at previous school board meetings. Tensions related to the policy at a June school board meeting, when public comments were cut off after a crowd of attendees became confrontational. Read more: Protests Against Trans Students, Equity Derail School Meeting Ultimately, school board members slightly revised the proposed policy to modernize some schools. The amendment, proposed by board member Ian Serotkin of the Blue Ridge District, instructs schools to provide more privacy, modesty, and safety for students in bathrooms and locker rooms. It will also require schools to provide more single-stall restrooms. "Enacting a policy is the law," Serotkin said, referring to a Virginia law passed in March 2020 that instructed school boards to enact policies for transgender students or risk legal liability. "Even if it were not the law, it would still be the right thing to do." Jamie Kaine is a student school board representative who was present at Wednesday's meeting. "As a student who has always been able to use the girls' bathroom freely, I would feel no fear and no intimidation from transgender women using the same bathroom as me," Kaine said. "Because transgender women are women. These are not people coming in to look at us and creep on us." School Board Chair Brenda Sheridan applauded Kaine's comment. "It's always the students who leave me speechless," Sheridan said. Previously, students and parents had spoken out against the policy at school board meetings. Tanner Cross, a physical education teacher at Leesburg Elementary School, was suspended after saying he would not follow the policy at a meeting. Read more: Teacher Who Disputed School's Transgender Policy Placed On Leave Cross was later reinstated by a court order. Cross and the school system are now engaged in a lawsuit that will be heard by the Virginia Supreme Court in September. Read more: Teacher Who Disputed Transgender Policy Reinstated By Court Order At Tuesday's school board meeting, another teacher used the public comment time to voice her opposition to the policy. The teacher, Laura Morris, identified herself as a fifth-grade teacher. "I quit," Morris told school board members. "I quit your policies, I quit your training, and I quit being a cog in a machine that tells me to push highly politicized agendas to our most vulnerable constituents – children." The policy was opposed by school board members John Beatty and Jeff Morse.