Arlington [Virginia] Public Schools are quietly, but doggedly, crafting transgender and gender nonconforming policies for children as young as kindergarten, despite raising ire from parents.
The saga between the Arlington Parent Coalition and the schools has been ongoing since February when Ashlawn Elementary School hosted a transgender activist to read a book pushing that agenda to kindergartners. Though the school sent a letter home to parents, no opt-out option was mentioned and the communication occurred less than a week prior to the event.
The event at Ashlawn is one piece in a larger puzzle, a shift to pass an unprecedented transgender and gender nonconforming policy in the area’s public schools without considering parent input.
Arlington Public Schools’ leadership, partnering with GLSEN (formerly the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network), crafted a policy that will allow children to use the bathroom of their choice, request a preferred pronoun, and ask to sleep in the quarters of the other sex during overnight school trips.
The policy also emphasizes that schools should be exposing children to gender theory “as young as possible” and explicitly teaches children that they may withhold information from their parents about their gender status.
Parents such as Maria Keffler disagree with the policy, finding it an affront to parental rights and a rash measure not based on reputable studies and guidance from pediatricians.
“No one of conscience would deny that transgender students should be protected and supported like any other student. But Arlington Public Schools has been surreptitious, aggressive, and deceptive in its development of this policy implementation plan, which goes far beyond concerning itself with non-discrimination,” Keffler wrote in an email.
“Perhaps the most troubling aspect of this issue is the overwhelming attitude … that parents do not know what is best for their children, and the school needs to step in to protect children from their parents ignorance and bigotry. One administrator said that Arlington Public Schools must ‘help parents who are unsupportive or who aren’t quite there yet … help to move the parents along.’ The arrogant assumption that parents are unqualified to make decisions for their own children sums up the underlying ethos of this entire issue,” Keffler continued.
A resource obtained from Arlington Public Schools notes that this transgender and gender nonconforming policy is slated for implementation before 2021. If it passes, Arlington, Va., would join California in piloting one of the most progressive public school curricula in the nation.
Kate Hardiman is a contributor to Red Alert Politics. She taught high school in Chicago for two years while earning her M.Ed. and is now a J.D. candidate at Georgetown University Law Center.
