Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Education

State Board of Education

Guidance Document Change: The Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools guidance document was developed in response to House Bill 145 and Senate Bill 161, enacted by the 2020 Virginia General Assembly, which directed the Virginia Department of Education to develop and make available to each school board model policies concerning the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary schools. These guidelines address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with evidence-based best practices and include information, guidance, procedures, and standards relating to: compliance with applicable nondiscrimination laws; maintenance of a safe and supportive learning environment free from discrimination and harassment for all students; prevention of and response to bullying and harassment; maintenance of student records; identification of students; protection of student privacy and the confidentiality of sensitive information; enforcement of sex-based dress codes; and student participation in sex-specific school activities, events, and use of school facilities.

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1/6/21 12:22 pm

Commenter: william T griffin

Destructive Policy for students, parents and teachers

There are so so so many destructive elements to this proposal, such as the following:

It circumvents the responsibility and right that parents have to direct the development of their children.
It denies the obvious biology of male and female differences, in favor of personal whims, which can change daily.
Allowing members of differing biologic genders in the same rest rooms creates great potential for sex abuse - and those who might enact this policy should rightly be held liable for any and all damages that result.
It is a very small fraction of children who "identify" with the opposite gender, and almost all of them grow out of this identification with time. For a policy to encourage them to pursue a lifestyle not in keeping with their biological makeup has far more potential for harm than for good.
Teachers have far better things to do with their time than to respond to whatever each of their students wants to be called each day. The policy places a huge potential burden on them.

I will stop here, but it is an embarrassment that the state of Virginia is even considering such a socially harmful policy.

CommentID: 88612