Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District voted Tuesday night to become the next California district to adopt a parental notification policy.
As it’s written, the policy focuses on mental health, saying a designated school counselor would notify a student’s family if they have a “reasonable cause to believe that an action of a student will avert a clear and present danger to the health, safety, or welfare of the student and others around them.”
During the board’s discussion about the policy, Superintendent Alex Cherniss said there could be instances when a teacher or school staff member would notify parents when they become aware that a student desires or starts to transition genders, requests to go by a different pronoun or experiences distress because their gender expression does not match their gender identity.
“Every case you have to weigh the implications and if it is impacting the students to a certain level where the parent has a right to know,” said Cherniss.
Trustee Todd Frazier, responding to questions about the policy, cited DSM-5, the standard guide for mental health diagnoses.
“If you look at the DSM-5 definition of gender dysphoria, which it is in there … that is a pattern of behavior that is different in a student (and) regardless of what the reason is, needs to be communicated with the parents,” he said.
When asked if the policy would require teachers to inform parents if a student identifies as LGBTQ+, Cherniss said: “If the teacher or staff does not deem there to be a clear or present danger to the student, no, they do not have to report it to the family. That is up to the teacher or staff’s discretion.”
Trustees Carrie Buck and Marilyn Anderson criticized the policy’s language as “not clear” since it didn’t explicitly mention students who might be transgender. They requested a second reading in November, but that was denied.
“I think, as someone who is representing the student voice, the…
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