Two New Jersey school districts voted to get rid of their state-recommended transgender school policies last week.
The board for the Franklin Lakes School District about 20 miles east of New York City voted 5-4 on Thursday to scrap its adoption of a transgender school policy recommended by the state.
Just a few miles away and on the same day, the Westwood Regional School Board voted 5-2 to toss the state’s transgender guidance as well.
The state’s version of the transgender policy states that school staff should keep a student’s new gender identity hidden from their parents unless the student gives permission or if there is a risk to the student’s health and safety. The policy also says trans-identifying students must be allowed to use the bathrooms and play on the sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.
It also includes a page of definitions for terms like transgender, gender expression, assigned sex at birth, and sexual orientation.
Franklin Lakes board member Scott Loia, who brought the resolution to abolish the transgender policy, said he does not “buy into this gender nonsense” and said “less is more” when it comes to the policy.
Loia argued that the school districts that have edited the state policy before adopting it have encountered more legal issues than those that just got rid of it.
“What’s important is leaving the window open where a kid could be affected by this if a certain staff member does, for instance, withhold information from a parent. That is more important to me than anything,” Loia said.
However, the Franklin Lakes school board is about to get two new members in January. The transgender policy is scheduled to be read and voted on again at a January 23 meeting, and it is not clear yet whether it will be reinstalled.
The Westwood district is also set to get new board members next month after four members who emphasized parental rights lost their races earlier this month.
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Board member Irene Fenarjian argued that the policy has a “presumptive guilt” regarding safety concerns for students at home and said the district already has “other systems in place for safety.”
The Franklin Lakes district serves more than 1,100 students, while the Westwood school district serves nearly 2,800 students.
Meanwhile, another school district, Roxbury Public Schools, voted to keep their adoption of the transgender policy, at least for the time being.
Board member Anne Colucci opposed keeping the policy, saying it “encourages keeping secrets from parents.”
Over the summer, New Jersey sued four school districts over their new policies requiring schools to notify parents if their children adopt a new gender identity.