Last year, Fairfax County Public Schools changed its non-discrimination policy to include “gender identity”—but they forgot to tell some parents.
This week, the school board needed to make a few housekeeping changes to their policies—including their new “non-discrimination” language in student handbooks—and parents saw an opportunity to have their voices heard.
Things got heated. In a video from Media Research Center, parents from the district say that administrators tried to push the policy through quickly and quietly, without asking for input until the last minute (even putting the issue on the agenda late).
Parents and community activists also turned out to support the measure, some going so far as to compare concern over the policy to support for Jim Crow in the Deep South.
Parents who opposed the changes were prepared, partly because the changes include use of single-gender facilities by transgender students. Also because the changes to the student handbook could lead to kids being disciplined if they object to a transgender student using a single-gender locker room or bathroom (one student is already suing Fairfax schools).
One parent even adopted social justice terminology to describe the problem: “They promised the parents last year that they would come to us when they changed their policy. They have not come to the parents and they are gonna change a policy without being honest,” she said. “It changes the safe spaces in the bathrooms, girls have a right to a safe space.”
The board ended up approving the policy changes 10-1 over parents’ objections.
