Youths in Fairfax County, Virginia, can now be disciplined and even expelled from school for criticizing the intrusive and aggressive transgender ideology.
The transgender change in school regulations was imposed last night during a dramatic board meeting where only 12 pro-trans witnesses were invited to testify.
The board members met on Thursday night only after being informed the night before that the discipline change would be considered. No opposing voices were allowed to be heard, parents were relegated to shouting opposition from the seats and some were ejected from the meeting.
The Student’s Rights and Responsibilities Handbook is issued to each student every year. Students are required to sign, along with their parents. Violations of the handbook are treated as discipline violations that can result in either suspension or expulsion from school.
The new regulation reads:
No student in FCPS shall … on the basis of gender identity … be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity.
This “discrimination” language means that a student who speaks out against the “gender identity” ideology can be disciplined, and presumably suspended and even expelled, according to board member Elizabeth Schultz, who opposed the change.
Schultz says the school district — which is one of the largest in the country, with 187,000 students — “punishes students all the time for what they say on social media, even outside of the school year. Without a doubt, students will be punished for saying negative things on Facebook and Twitter about transgenderism.”
Schultz said the board met last year to accept a new policy on “gender identity” but agreed that any change regarding discipline would only be considered after a lengthy study and an open hearing where all voices could be heard. Instead, the board was informed on the night of June 8, Wednesday, that the discipline issue would be considered on Thursday night.
Schultz tells Breitbart News that the Thursday night rule leaves many questions unanswered, including “who can play on what teams, what bathrooms students will be allowed to use. We keep putting things into practice without even considering the ramifications.”
Schultz says one of the problems in instituting such regulations is uncertainty about what they mean. For example, Schultz asked board legal counsel on Thursday whether “a boy who identifies as a boy is included in gender identity protections?”
In a very testy exchange, the legal counsel said he did not know. Board member Ryan McElveen, who sponsored the trans motion, told Schultz the question was inappropriate.
Other questions left unanswered, according to Schultz, is “who can play on what teams and what bathrooms people can use.” She said these questions are all open particularly because of the ongoing litigation going on around the country.
One of the objections from Schultz and two other board members is how the issue came to be considered on Thursday night. Last year, they were promised a lengthy investigation and a full hearing. Instead, it was foisted upon them with less than 24 hours-notice.
On Monday, officials quietly invited people to speak at the event — but all 12 slot were taken in eight minutes by 12 pro-trans witnesses. “How did they know three days in advance, even before the board knew, that this issue would be considered on Thursday night?” Schultz asked.
The American College of Pediatricians has issued a report saying that transgenderism in children is dangerous. They have determined that testosterone shots and other transgender-related medical interventions are a form of child abuse.
There are a mere 700,000 transsexuals in the United States, according to the pro-trans Williams Institute at the University of California – Los Angeles. Only, 90,000 people have moved to change their name based on sex changes, according to a study of 2010 federal data. This means this massive and fundamental change is being imposed on all kids for the benefit of a tiny sliver of the American populace.
In general, the transgender ideology says government should push every American to validate every person’s choice of created “gender identity,” even though a man who wants to be a woman is still a man by every known scientific measure of evolutionary life. For example, an Oregon law recently allowed a jury to award $60,000 t0 a transgender teacher because other teachers declined to use the teacher’s preferred pronoun, which is “they” rather than “him” or “her.” Deputies for President Barack Obama have backed similar rules for all K-12 schools, and New York City has established similar forced-speech rules.
The ideology’s claim that the government must enforce a new right to “gender identity” also means that the governments must ignore and often dismantle many civic rules that evolved to help the two distinct sexes — men and boys, women and girls — meet their legally equal, but different and complementary, needs. For example, the transgender ideological demand means that single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms must opened up to people of the opposite sex, regardless of age, and without any verification of created “gender identity.”
As a result, it is now an offense in Washington State to ask a man in a woman’s bathroom if he thinks he is male or female. Similarly, Obama and gay advocacy groups have slammed a popular North Carolina law, dubbed HB2, because it requires people to undergo medical procedures before they can use a bathroom reserved for the opposite sex. Teenage boys who say they are girls are also allowed to compete against girl athletes — and to bump them off the winner’s podium.
Students in at least two schools have protested the new ideology, which are being imposed on children in Oregon, Washington and several other states.
Recent polls show the public strongly opposes the federal gender-identity ideology in schools.