June Carpenter, a 15-year-old transgender student, recalled the time when she was in sixth grade and students bullied her by asking to take pictures of her, “presumably for nefarious reasons.”
“They treated me like a curiosity,” June said at a Wednesday morning news conference promoting best practices for expanding federal protections for LGBTQ+ students.
That incident was followed by years of bullying and harassment. She and her mother, Melissa Combs, said they encountered an unsupportive school and administration that “did not intervene” but “further denied the rights of LGBTQ+ students.”
“It put me in a state of constantly being on the defensive,” June said, adding that the experience caused her emotional well-being to skyrocket and affected her academic performance.
When June finally transferred to a magnet school in Hartford, she said she found support and understanding.
“While my former school (in Farmington) had a safe school climate policy, it was not consistently enforced. And while some adults had good intentions, it was clear that both training and resources were and are necessary for transgender students to be their best,” June said. “At Greater Hartford Academy for the Arts, I now see myself in my school. It gives me a lot of hope to see adults working hard to make schools better and safer for trans students like me.”
Farmington Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Connecticut Mirror.
Title IX is a federal law that includes protections for students against sex discrimination in schools. The federal government issued new Title IX guidelines earlier this year, while Connecticut’s guidelines on sex discrimination were also updated this winter.
Both sets of guidelines expanded protections to explicitly include LGBTQ+ students, while expanding the definition of “sexual harassment” and clarifying what school mandates look like.
“As a country, we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots of 1969 and the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ attitude I grew up with, but we still have a long way to go before we reach true equity and have a country where everyone is free to live their authentic lives without fear of discrimination or violence,” Rep. Sarah Keitt, D-Fairfield, said at the news conference.
In January, the state Department of Education released “Guidance on Civil Rights Protections and Supports for Transgender and Gender Diverse Students,” which made some changes to previous state-issued guidance and clarified federal and state laws for Make it clear that schools must treat all students. , regardless of gender identity, equally, in academic and extracurricular settings.
The document now makes clear that a Connecticut student under the age of 18, or without parental permission, cannot change their name or gender in their student records. However, identification documents are not required for schools to recognize a student’s gender expression identity.
“Requiring such identification, which students are often unable to obtain, could have the practical effect of limiting or denying students equal access to educational programming and activities, including, but not limited to, athletics,” the document says, and It adds that notice from a legal guardian is also “not necessary for the school to recognize the student’s gender expression identity.”
The guidance adds that Connecticut schools must recognize and respect a student’s preferences, and that refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns or call him or her by a particular name may “constitute discrimination based on gender” and “be considered discriminatory under Title IX”.
In guidance from the state Department of Education, it also defined gender dysphoria and how it can allow students to qualify for specialized instruction, clarified that school boards can develop policies about what information will be shared with parents, allows districts to provide sex-differentiated bathrooms and access to facilities that corresponds to the gender of the students and provides “equal opportunities” in participation in both curricular and extracurricular activities.
At the federal level, revisions to Title IX were released in late April and will go into effect on August 1.
Revisions to federal Title IX statutes include clarifying that sex discrimination is “discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.” It also expanded the definition of sexual harassment and made changes to the way allegations are handled on a college campus by eliminating the requirement for live hearings.
Connecticut schools have faced resistance to some inclusion efforts in the past.
In February, a tampon dispenser was knocked over minutes after being installed in a boys’ bathroom at Brookfield High School. Last year there were also efforts to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes and characters in Newtown, and a Connecticut court case made national headlines for challenging the state’s trans-inclusive sports policy.
The Biden-Harris administration has not yet issued regulations regarding a transgender person’s participation in sports.
On Wednesday, several groups came together to release their own guidelines related to efforts to promote inclusion and stop discrimination.
The OUT Accountability Project, an organization that advocates for equal access to education for LGBTQ+ students, the Center for Children’s Advocacy, a nonprofit law firm, Equality Connecticut, a grassroots LGBTQ+ organization, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders and Health Care Advocates International, have developed a half-dozen best practice recommendations for districts to follow “beyond the guidelines.”
Those efforts include promoting inclusion, protecting the rights of transgender students to education and sports, efforts to improve both mental health and academic performance by creating supportive environments, setting a positive example, and educating and raising awareness.
“How can a student give 100% to their studies if they can’t be 100% of who they are in the classroom?” said Tony Ferraiolo, director of youth and family programming for Health Care Advocates International. “We are setting them up for failure. Our goal is to ensure that all students know that they are seen, heard, honored, and able to live their lives freely and authentically.”
The best practice recommendations also broke down changes to Title IX regulations into several categories (including gender markers, privacy, bullying, and sex-segregated facilities and policies) with examples of what may be considered sex discrimination and how to provide more inclusive classrooms. in those situations. .
In the upcoming legislative session, the groups plan to push for funding for professional development and teacher training to better accommodate LGBTQ+ students.
Keitt said lawmakers plan to use the next few months to meet with school districts about “what they’re doing right and what schools are doing wrong.”
“I’m sure having gender-neutral bathrooms will be part of those discussions,” Keitt said. “Hopefully, we will have more information next January. “This is an ongoing issue that we need to monitor because not all schools are doing the right thing.”
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