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MIDDLETOWN – Critics told the school board Tuesday members would have “blood on their hands” and that a pending policy regarding transgender students was “evil and sinister.”
The strident rhetoric had no impact; the board adopted the policy requiring parental notification if students seek to change their name or pronoun, the bathroom they use or want to join a sports team that differs from their gender at birth.
The state Attorney General promptly sued the Middletown board in Monmouth County and two other nearby districts – Marlboro and Manalapan-Englishtown – for adopting similar policies.
All the boards’ actions occurred on the same night and the suit followed quickly. Talk about a modern version of the Battle of Monmouth.
This developing issue, however, is about more than historical trivia.
Gay students in general and transgender students in particular have become front and center in the so-called culture wars enveloping the nation and state. One cannot ignore the fact this is an issue being pushed by conservative groups across the nation. Republicans clearly think condemning a “woke” public education system is good politics.
The state AG previously sued the Hanover Township school district for a policy that singled out all gay students – not just transgender students – for parental notification. The board rewrote the policy to eliminate all references to LGBT students of any kind, but the suit remains pending.
The cornerstone of the often passionate debate is parents’ rights – the idea that parents have a right to know what their kids are doing in school.
Opponents of these policies do not say that parents have no rights regarding their children. What they say is that some gay and transgender students do not come from homes where their orientation would be accepted and supported by their parents.
At Tuesday’s meeting, one student estimated that there are 125 transgender students in the district and that more than half of them have contemplated suicide. While this is hard to prove objectively, the point is that transgender students who fear the wrath of their parents may do something drastic.
What gets lost sometimes in this debate is that many students – especially teens – do not tell their parents what they are doing. It’s not as if a kid who has a sexual experience of any kind runs home to tell his mother about it.
No matter, as was reiterated by a supporter of the board the other night, parental knowledge is a key issue here.
Most of those who spoke at the meeting, however, condemned the board; others protested outside.
A number of speakers identified themselves as transgender and said the adopted policy would have terrible ramifications for a small number of students.
In announcing litigation against all three districts, the AG’s office said the policies are discriminatory because they target only a particular group of students.
This was very much the same argument the state made in the Hanover case.
The presiding judge in that case, Stuart Minkowitz in Morristown, seemed to agree that parts of the policy were discriminatory. Rather than immediately rule on the matter, he asked both sides to work out a compromise, which led to Hanover rewriting the policy.
With that in mind, a few speakers in Middletown said they didn’t understand why the district would adopt a policy that is similar, although not identical, to one a court already has found unpersuasive.
That’s not a bad observation, but sometimes you can make gains in politics not by winning the war, but by just fighting the battle.
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