Stafford schools would allow transgender students to choose bathroom, locker room preference; provide counseling for students opposed

STAFFORD — Stafford County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Scott Kizner has followed through with a promise to draft a policy that will allow transgender students to use the locker and bathrooms of their choice.

The policy will allow transgender students to use the locker rooms that correspond with their self-identified gender identity. They’ll need a confirmation letter from either a parent, health care provider, school staff member familiar with the student or other family members or friends to do so, according to the new policy.

The Stafford County School Board is set to hear the new policy on Tuesday night.

The new policy comes after the school system faced national scrutiny in October after a gym teacher at Stafford Gayle Middle School was unsure which locker room to send a transgender student to during a lockdown drill. The child was told to sit alone on the bleachers then moved to the hallway.

“The school system will plan a series of appropriate professional development programs, review our procedures and, if necessary, make policy recommendations to our school board,” Kizner said at a  Oct. 9 School Board meeting where as many as 25 transgender advocates spoke in front of the School Board, urging the Board to adopt a policy.

“After the situation with the transgender student that was barred from using the locker room during a lockdown drill,” Falmouth District School Board member Sarah Chase said. “I think that we do need to come up with a countywide policy.”

According to a draft of the new policy, school administrators and counseling staff are able to address any discomfort students may feel about the new policy by providing individual counseling intended to give the student an understanding of gender identity and to how to “create a school culture that respects and values all students.”

According to Chase, the School Board asked Kizner to meet with different equality groups and draft a policy around the transgender bathroom and locker room issue.

The policy defines officially defines gender identity as “a student’s internalized sense of their own gender as female, male, a blend of both, or neither male or female.”

The draft of the new policy also states:

• Students must still abide by the dress code but they are being given the right to express themselves in accordance with their gender identity.
• Students who show “consistent and uniform assertion” of their gender identity will be given a chance to participate in classes that are sex-segregated.
• Students are separated by gender, such as staying at a hotel for overnight field trips, school personnel tasked to provide accommodations that are consistent with the student’s gender identity.
• School staff will also be able to question a students gender identity when there is credible evidence that the student gender-related identity is being used for improper behavior.
• Students gender identity records will be kept by the school system as part of a student’s education records.

School Board members won’t vote on the new policy until January at the earliest.

In 2015, the School Board dealt with another controversy when a transgender student — a male transitioning to female — who wished to use the girls’ bathroom but was denied doing so by the School Board. They required the student to use the male or faculty bathroom.

Potomac Local attempted to contact all School Board member for this story. Chase was the only School Board member who offered to comment on the matter.