Manalapan School District Hopes To Meet With State On Trans Policy

MANALAPAN, NJ — The Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District is hoping to meet with the state to reach consensus on its policy to allow parental notification in certain instances regarding transgender students, the district board president said.

Amended Policy 5756 was adopted by the Board of Education June 20. Two days later, the state Attorney General's office filed to overturn the policy here and similar policies in Marlboro and Middletown school districts. It is also asking for a temporary restraining order on implementing the policies, all on the basis of civil rights laws.

But Board President Brian Graime said Monday the district is taking another approach - trying to work with the state and go over possible revisions to the policy, hopefully to create a "template" for such policies throughout the state.

It's still quite early in that process, but the school district has been in communication with NJ-District 12 legislators regarding the matter to set up a meeting with the Attorney General, he said. Manalapan-Englishtown is a K-8 district.

At this time, there is no meeting set up, according to Synnove Bakke, chief of staff for Assemblyman Rob Clifton, R-12th District.

Graime said the district "prioritizes safe and equal treatment of all students. The Board of Education amended Policy 5756 with the full expectation that district staff will implement it in a manner consistent with those priorities," he said.

But Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced Thursday the filing of Division on Civil Rights complaints to challenge what it termed "unlawful policies" enacted last week by the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional, Marlboro and Middletown Boards of Education.

The state action alleges that all three of the policies violate the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination’s prohibition against discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression.

As the complaints assert, the policies enacted by the Middletown, Marlboro, and Manalapan-Englishtown Boards "expressly target transgender, gender non-conforming, and gender non-binary students by singling them out for differential treatment, requiring parental notification for those students but not their peers," the Attorney General's office says.

But Graime said Manalapan-Englishtown policy would not create "differential treatment."

"We are confident that Policy 5756 will never jeopardize students' physical or mental wellbeing or result in differential treatment based on personal characteristics."

And he said the board, which voted 9-0 to amend the policy, is proposing a way to work with the state:

"We recognize the New Jersey Attorney General has raised concerns with Policy 5756. Rather than expend taxpayer money litigating, we are coordinating with our Senate and Assembly representatives to try to schedule a meeting with the Attorney General.

"Our hope is to consider each revision jointly and craft a mutually acceptable version consistent with New Jersey law that could serve as a template across the state," Graime said.

"We respect the range of opinions generated by this issue. Our focus, of course, remains providing the best educational environment for students," he said.

Statements from area legislators, state Attorney General

In the midst of the move to meet with the Attorney General's office by the Manalapan-Englishtown board, Assemblymen Rob Clifton and Alex Sauickie, R-12th District, put out a statement from state Assembly Republicans yesterday "to correct the record on recent reports that boards of education in their district are harming transgender students." (Read the full statement by clicking on the highlighted link.)

Regarding the state legal action, the legislators said the Manalapan-Englishtown district "added inclusive language to notify parents and guardians of a child’s public social transition accommodation."

"I’ve discussed the updated policy with stakeholders, and nowhere does it state that students must share their public social and possibly surgical transition with family, when they truly believe they will be physically or emotionally harmed. The policy states the opposite, so the attorney general needs to stop fearmongering,” Clifton said.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General's Office separately issued a joint statement from the Division on Civil Rights and the Department of Education on "School-Based Anti-Bias Initiatives and the Law Against Discrimination." (Click the highlighted link to find the news page for the Attorney General's office news releases and scroll to the statement.)

The statement reads, in part: "To address the rising tide of bias and hate, many schools across our state have adopted anti-bias initiatives, policies, and curricula that recognize and value the identities and experiences of students from historically excluded communities. In general, these measures are consistent with the goals of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD)—to prevent and eliminate discrimination. To that end, DCR and DOE encourage all New Jersey schools, school boards, and administrators to continue to develop and implement initiatives to counter bias. . . "

It continues, in part: "In New Jersey, the law is clear. The LAD prohibits schools from adopting policies or practices that discriminate against students or staff based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or other protected characteristics, whether or not motivated by discriminatory intent."

Policy vote had large turnout

Regarding the local school policy that was enacted June 20, there was a range of opinions expressed at the heavily attended meeting where the district adopted its policy.

In Manalapan-Englishtown, the policy states it "establishes the board’s expectations for addressing the needs of transgender students while complying with anti-discrimination laws."
(You can access the policy at the school website.)

For grades 6 through 8, the school district accepts a "student’s asserted gender identity; parental consent is not required." For students in grades Pre-K through 5, "the responsibility for determining a student’s gender identity rests with the student’s parents/guardians."

The board also "finds that conversations with counselors, teachers or other staff about one’s gender identity and expression are entitled to confidentiality."

That confidentiality does come into question under certain circumstances, however, the policy states:

"In the event a student requests a public social transition accommodation, such as public name/identity/pronoun change, bathroom/locker room accommodation, or club/sports accommodations, or the like, the school district shall notify a student’s parents or guardian of the student’s asserted gender identity and/or name change, or other requested accommodation, provided there is no credible evidence that doing so would subject the student to physical or emotional harm or abuse," the Manalapan-Englishtown policy states.

And it calls for a series of other discussions:

"Prior to disclosure, the student shall be given the opportunity to personally disclose that information. It shall be the policy of the board to support and facilitate healthy communication between a transgender student and their family, when disclosure is consistent with this policy.

The large turnout last Tuesday at the board meeting included speakers who spoke for or against the policy.

Those opposed said the notification amounts to an "outing" of a student to parents who may not be understanding, causing unintended mental health harm, adding that a school is often the only "safe space" for the student.

Those supporting the notification said, in part, that not involving parents can create more confusion for a child, possibly leading to mental health challenges, and they asserted parents should be involved in issues affecting their children.

League of Women Voters of Monmouth County said "Despite arguments otherwise, numerous studies and data show that forced outing to parents is harmful, not helpful to LGBTQ+ youth."