STAFFORD — The Stafford County School Board will consider a controversial amendment to the school division’s non-discrimination policy later this summer.
School officials aim to add additional protections for transgender students. The School Board is reviewing a new non-discrimination policy that includes protection from discrimination against “race, color, national origin, political affiliation, religion, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, age, or genetic information.”
“I’m not clear why some disabilities are being brought out and given special attention,” said Chairwoman Patricia Healy. “My understanding is that pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions are all considered disabilities. Why are we only singling these conditions out?”
The non-discrimination policy already states that the school division cannot discriminate based on race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, political affiliation, or disability. The additions to the non-discrimination policy suggest that the School Board intends to make the school system a more inclusive learning and employment environment.
The current policy protects only staff under the Equal Employment Opportunity section of the non-discrimination policy. If the amendment to the policy were to pass later this summer the policy would protect both students and staff and create an “equal opportunity for an equitable, safe, and inclusive learning and employment environment.”
Beth Huntsbury who has a transgender child at Mountain View High School spoke in front of the board in support of the proposed policy. Huntsbury said that she received nothing from support from the Mountain View staff.
“How can we be arguing about this new policy,” Huntsbury asked the School Board. “These are our children that we need to protect.”
Not all speakers at the meeting agreed with the proposed policy or the timing of the information and subsequent vote. Dana Brown, who has a child in elementary school, says that the School Board is going over the proposed policy in late May or early June when people aren’t paying as close attention to the School Board.
“I’m worried that you’re burying this policy in the agenda when no one pays attention in June,” Brown said. “It feels like what you did with the [2019-2020 school year] calendar vote in July when most of you voted for the school year to start in August 2019.”
Griffis-Widewater School Board Member Jamie Decatur came to the defense about the timing of the policy stating that she had been requesting a policy proposal for months.
“It wasn’t my intention to sneak this into the agenda,” Decatur said. “We did have some other very important things going on [that were in our agenda].”
The school division came under national scrutiny last fall when a transgender student was barred from using both the boys and girls locker room during a lockdown drill at Gayle Middle School in the fall. The student was forced to sit in the bleachers alone during the drill.
After the incident, Superintendent Dr. Scott Kizner followed through with his promise to draft a policy that will allow transgender students to use the locker and bathrooms of their choice. The policy was presented to the School Board in December but has yet to be brought up back to the board as an action item after board members wanted to hold the vote so they could receive feedback from the public.
The policy was originally slated to be voted on in late February but lost traction due to the elementary school redistricting process that affected over 3,000 students and the School Board’s budget that included a 5% raise for all employees.
In 2015, the School Board dealt with another controversy when a transgender student — a male transitioning to female — wished to use the girls’ bathroom but was denied doing so by the board. They required the student to use the male or faculty bathroom.
