Marlboro District 'Holds Off' On Trans Policy Until Court Hearing

MARLBORO, NJ — The Marlboro Board of Education has agreed to hold off on fully implementing its transgender student policy until a request for a stay on the policy from the state Attorney General's office is heard in court.

According to Marlboro Board Attorney Marc H. Zitomer, the matter will be heard Aug. 15 in Monmouth County.

Both the Marlboro and Manalapan-Englishtown boards of education and the Middletown Board of Education requested and were granted the change of venue to Monmouth County. The lawsuit was originally filed in Essex County.

"Given that it is the summer and at the judge’s behest, we also agreed to hold off on fully implementing the policy changes until the case can be heard by the court," Zitomer said.

The state Attorney General is moving to block a policy on parental notification involving transgender students enacted June 20 by Marlboro - and a similar policy in the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional school district. Both are Pre-k to Grade 8 districts. Middletown also enacted a similar policy and is also named in the lawsuit by the state.

The Colts Neck Board of Education was considering a parental notification policy at a meeting on Wednesday, June 28, that specifies when and if parental notification should happen.

Attorney General's lawsuit, Marlboro's reaction

Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced last week the filing of Division on Civil Rights complaints challenging what it termed "unlawful policies."

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.

Zitomer reacted to the suit last week, saying: "We vehemently disagree with Attorney General’s argument that it is somehow discriminatory or improper to notify a parent that their minor child is changing their gender identity or expression.

"It is our position that keeping parents in the dark about important issues involving their children is counterintuitive and contrary to well established U.S. Supreme Court case law that says that parents have a constitutional right to direct and control the upbringing of their children.

"We are confident that the board’s amended policy properly balances parental and student rights," Zitomer said last week.

State complaint against Marlboro

The policy enacted by the Marlboro Board of Education provides that the school district is required to notify parents or guardians of any student’s “change in gender identity or expression,” the state's complaint says.

"It also eliminates the requirement under prior Marlboro policy that the school address students by their preferred name and pronoun; the new policy now permits the district to deviate from a student’s preferred name and pronoun when “a parent/guardian of a minor student disagrees with the student regarding the name and/or pronoun to be used at school,” the state says.

"The new policy eliminates the requirement under prior Marlboro policy that all students are entitled to access school facilities in accordance with their gender identity," the state says.

The state complaints also assert that the parental notification policies have "disparate impacts on transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary youth."

"By imposing a requirement that school staff must 'out' these students to their parents, the policies expose these students to the potential for severe harms to their safety and mental health. The policies also disregard and contradict guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education concerning the confidentiality and privacy of such information," the Attorney General's office says.

“In New Jersey, we will not tolerate any action by schools that threatens the health and safety of our young people. Without question, the discriminatory policies passed by these Boards of Education, if allowed to go into effect, will harm our kids and pose severe risk to their safety,” said Platkin.

In addition to filing administrative civil rights complaints, the state is seeking temporary restraints and preliminary injunctions from the Superior Court to prohibit the boards from implementing the policies while the administrative complaints are pending. That is the issue to be heard Aug. 15.

Action at Manalapan-Englishtown district

In a similar - but not identical - policy to Marlboro's, the Manalapan-Englishtown Board of Education also voted June 20 to make certain policy guideline changes regarding parental notification. You can read more details about both districts' policies here.

In Manalapan-Englishtown, the board has said earlier this week it would like to set up a meeting through its state legislators with the Attorney General to come up with an agreed-upon policy that could be a "template" for the state. The state had no comment on that issue earlier this week.

The suit regarding Manalapan-Englishtown will also be heard in Monmouth County, board President Brian Graime confirmed.

Joint statement by Division on Civil Rights, Department of Education

Meanwhile, the Attorney General's Office separately issued a joint statement from the Division on Civil Rights and the Department of Education on Monday 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."

Reporting encouraged

The state encourages reporting of many types of potentially discriminatory policies:

"Some school boards and legislators have recently introduced proposals in New Jersey and across the country to restrict classroom discussions and staff training about race, racism, gender, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation; to remove symbols or signs that express support for, or oppose bullying of, members of certain historically excluded groups; and to ban books by and about people of color and LGBTQIA+ people."

"At times, school board members have also opposed efforts to comply with state curricular requirements that students be taught certain topics related to race, gender, or sexual orientation, and have opposed efforts by individual teachers to instruct students on these required materials."

"The Law Against Discrimination (LAD) also prohibits policies or practices that create a hostile environment based on any protected characteristic. School policies or practices violate the LAD when they expressly discriminate on the basis of a protected characteristic," the statement reads.

It says the departments "encourage students, caretakers, community members, staff, and school board members to report evidence of discrimination, bias-based harassment, or retaliation to DCR immediately.

"To alert DCR to a district that has or is considering a discriminatory policy, please email us at schooldiscrimination@njcivilrights.gov. To find out more or to file a complaint, please go to NJCivilRights.gov or call 1-833-NJDCR4U," the joint statement said.