The meeting room was overflowing on Thursday night, Aug. 17, for the Orange Unified School District board’s discussion of a policy that would require certain school officials to notify parents if their child is “requesting to be identified or treated” as a different sex or gender.
The crowd, and the board, were divided over whether it was a parent’s right to be notified, even if their child did not want to or feel comfortable sharing they might be transgender.
Board President Rick Ledesma said the policy will be further reviewed to address concerns raised by trustees and a final version would be discussed and probably voted on at the school board’s Sept. 7 meeting.
He gave an account of a child who feared telling their parents they might be transgender, but also had suicidal thoughts, and received support from their parents once they did share. That, he said, was his reason for proposing the notification policy.
“This is all about perspective,” he said. “We all have different perspectives when it comes to this matter and I have shared my personal perspective. If the question is safety for a student over privacy, I choose safety. I am going to give my life in order to protect the students of this community. This is why I am in support of this policy.”
Trustee Kris Erikson raised concerns that “what we are doing is making mandated reporters, which are our teachers and administrators, mandated informants and sometimes, those two things are going to conflict,” she said.
“While parents have expansive rights, and they should, they don’t own their children,” she said, “and can’t dictate every single aspect of their child’s lives.”
OUSD is not the first district to consider implementing a parental notification policy. Earlier this summer, the Murrieta Valley and Chino Valley school district boards both adopted similar policies.
“All I am saying,” said Robert Vasilas of Villa Park, uncle of a student in the OUSD, “is…
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