Transgender Policy To Remain Unchanged In Bridgewater-Raritan Schools

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — Bridgewater-Raritan school district's Policy 5756(Transgender Student Guidance for School Districts) will remain following a review by the Board of Education(BOE)'s Academic Committee.

"The recommendation of the committee is to keep what we have on the books," said Board member AJ Joshi, who chairs the Academic Committee, at the May 13 BOE meeting.

The policy, which is designed to serve as guidance for the district on how to support transgender students and their privacy, has been the topic of discussion among BOE members and the public over the past three months. Specifically, some have raised issues about confidentiality from parents.

The review came at the request of several board members, including Lucy Li, Jeremy Li and Jennifer Loughran. Loughran asked that the Academic Committee review Policy 5756 and compare it to the NJ School Board Association Gender Identity and Expression policy.

"I want to thank the academic committee for reviewing those policies. It is exactly what I asked for. And I said at that time that I would accept the recommendation, and that is how board governance works. Thank you, I appreciate it," said Loughran.

School board attorney Douglas Silvestro explained that the current policy was reviewed along with two other versions to compare.

Silvestro said that some members of the academic committee felt that the current policy was more clear and "there were some people from the board that gave kind of opposite feedback. There were, frankly, some legal concerns that I raised about some of the school board’s language [in the proposed revised policy]."

Lucy Li questioned Silvestro about notifying parents when a child approaches school staff about gender identity.

"There is nothing in the policy about - Staff, I need you to stop that conversation with the student. Pick up the phone and call the parents. The school districts in this state that have attempted to put that requirement in have all been sued by the Attorney General who has argued, so far successfully, in court that doing that is a form of discrimination against a protected class. Based on the students' identity, gender, expression," said Silvestro.

He added that the policy does say parents are entitled to this information by law and can request it at any time from the school district.

Board member Rebecca Hassouna noted that the BOE has discussed this topic "at nauseam."

"Everyone had the opportunity to send their comments, and we received plenty of comments. We spent more than an hour and a half in person. The entire academic committee went line by line with legal representation to go over three different versions of this policy," said Hassouna. "We have had comment for three months now from everyone in the community. They’re tired of coming, they’re tired of sending letters. We’re tired of hearing about this. If you want to change the policy, change the law. Go down to Trenton and change the law. Stop trying to change what we do here so that we can follow the law. Let’s stop talking about this."

Her comments were followed by a round of applause, whistles, and cheering from audience members.

Around 25 people spoke at the meeting, sharing their opinions for or against the policy with some going as far as to criticize the board members, teachers and staff.

"I don’t take a stand on a lot of things… but I am 1,000 percent going to take a stand with teachers. They are on the front lines and I think it was absolutely offensive some of the things that were said," said Loughran to the public. "Further, I stand with this board. I have had some disagreements with some of you, but at our core, I don’t think any one person here is a bad person or a hater or whatever other name we’ve been called throughout this session."

"We did what we were asked. We very thoughtfully put things through and came back with what we did. To be harassed nonstop with emails and with comments, I think, is negligence. I think our community has been led to not understand the policy," said Hassouna.

Superintendent Robert Beers noted that while he is not a voting member of the school board he does try to steer the board in a direction away from any legal liabilities.

"If we went with some of these language changes, we are setting ourselves up. And if we are going to be stewards of taxpayers' dollars, which, yes, is one of the things I am concerned with, we can’t just throw caution to the wind when there is guidance from the state," said Beers.

Ultimately, the board voted to end the debate and move on with the agenda following an almost four and a half hour meeting with Lucy Li and Jeremy Li voting against stopping the discussion.

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