EXCLUSIVE — Fairfax County Public Schools in northern Virginia are requiring all teachers to complete a training program that says parental permission is not required for students who seek to be addressed by different names or pronouns.
According to materials obtained by the Washington Examiner, the district assigned the training program “Supporting Gender Expansive and Transgender Youth” on July 22 for teachers in all grades, including preschool. Two sources within Fairfax County Public Schools confirmed that the training was required for all teachers.
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The training contained multiple slides about promoting “equity” in schools, as well as how to respond to students who express a desire to be addressed by a new name or by pronouns that do not correspond to their biological sex.
The training specifically states that parental permission is not required if a student asks to be called “by his chosen name in class,” “requests to use the locker room that corresponds with her identified gender,” or asks to use “a private bathroom.”
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Another slide details how a student who wishes to identify with another name and gender can choose from one of three options for changing their name, none of which require parental permission.
The first option is a name change in class, where a teacher is required to address the student by their “chosen” name. The student has the option to “use a chosen name in some classes and not others.” The second option allows students to change their name on school online platforms. Teachers are required to “ensure that class lists use chosen name.”
The third option allows students to change their name “on all records.” If a student chooses this option, their “legal name will be stored in the protected information view” in the district’s database. Choosing this option does not require a legal name change or parental permission and ensures that a student “will receive diplomas and transcripts with both the legal and chosen name.”
Name Change Options.pngThe training reaffirmed the slide’s content in a quiz question.
“By removing parental notification from this process, FCPS is essentially encouraging students to lead a double life at school,” Nicole Neily, president of the parent activist organization Parents Defending Education told the Washington Examiner. “For a district that spends so much money on students’ emotional well-being, it’s hard to see how undermining the relationship between a child and his or her family will be beneficial in the long-run.”
Change Student Records.pngThe FCPS training program was assigned a month after the district’s school board approved an expansion to its student code of conduct that further detailed penalties for students who “deadnamed” or “misgendered” transgender students. That policy, approved at a June school board meeting, allows administrators to discipline students who violate the policy under Title IX.
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The teacher training program the district required last month also included several slides on “Equity at the Center.” These slides told teachers they must “create student centered experiences” and “affirm and sustain gender identity, gender expression, and racial, linguistic, ability, and cultural identities.”
It also instructed teachers to “elevate voices of the marginalized” and “recognize and disrupt systems that create inequitable outcomes.”
Fairfax County Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.
The district’s training is the latest in a string of policies from school districts across the country whereby students can seek to transition their gender identity at school without parental notification or permission.
In Florida, lawsuits were filed against separate school districts after two families in the state discovered that their daughters had been put through a “gender transition plan” without parental notification. In one case, the child’s parents were not notified until after their daughter had attempted to commit suicide twice in two days.
Both incidents helped provide a catalyst for the passage of the state’s Parental Rights in Education Act, which defined parental rights in schools and banned classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation before fourth grade. The law has been dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by detractors, including the Biden administration, which has vowed to oppose it.
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A Washington Examiner/YouGov poll released last week found that 53% of adults support requiring K-12 schools to notify parents if their child seeks to be addressed by different pronouns while at school.
