Protect Our NJ Transgender Students: 5 Step Call to Action
This is a 5 Step Call to Action! Write your Superintendent. Contact your school board. Write Acting Commission of Education, Kimberley Harrington. Contact your Assembly person.
Trump’s education and justice departments reversed the Obama administration’s position that schools must allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice—in turn leaving the issue to be determined on by state and local officials. Following this reversal, Acting NJ Commissioner of Education Kimberley Harrington’s office released this statement:
“Consistent with this regulatory provision, Acting New Jersey Commissioner of Education Kimberley Harrington will continue with the approach that then Commissioner David Hespe took last year when he said that school districts, through the local school boards, need to address the issue of gender identity through policy and that conversations need to happen on the local level so districts can craft their policies with community input.”
And the first NJ school board to decide on this? Egg Harbor Township. With a 5 to 4 vote, the school board rejected a policy to support transgender students’ protections, despite overwhelming community support.
The largest teachers’ union, NJEA, is now calling on the Kimberley Harrington to restore protections for transgender students. Furthermore, Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) is pushing for the passage of a series of bills that would offer more protections for the transgender community in New Jersey, which includes calling for a task force that would propose new rules for transgender students in schools.
This is a multi-platform Call to Action:
1) Write your Superintendent: The first is to determine what is your district policy: It’s also important to note that some districts, like Princeton, already have policies on the books. Last year, before Obama’s policy was ordered, the BOE in Princeton drafted protections for transgender students and the superintendent just reaffirmed the district’s commitment. If you district does not have such a policy, or has and has not publicly reaffirmed it, please consider writing a letter like the one below:
Dear Superintendent __________________________,
As you’re surely aware, on Wednesday, February 22, the Trump administration reversed federal protections set by the Obama administration that allowed transgender students to use school bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identities. Without these federal protections, it is up to states to enact anti-discrimination policies that would help ensure the safety and dignity of transgender students. Unfortunately, the state of New Jersey and Acting Commissioner of Education, Kimberley Harrington, are not taking a stand to support transgender students. Instead, they are instructing local school districts to craft their own policies with community input. So it is now time for us, as a caring community, to act.
I am writing to urge you to release an immediate and forceful statement indicating our school district’s support of transgender students and to work with our local school board to create a policy that would offer full protections to transgender students by providing them access to restrooms and changing areas based on their expressed gender identity and not just their biological sex or sex at birth.
I’d also encourage you to use this opportunity to reassert our district’s strong stance against bullying and commitment to building an inclusive and supportive community. Finally, I urge you to work with other superintendents and state assembly persons to pressure our state government to pass comprehensive legislation to protect transgender students. Thank you.
2) Go to your district website and find the members of your school board: Write, call, and email the members. You can adapt the letter to the superintendent if you like.
3) Write Acting Commissioner of Education, Kimberley Harrington—here is a sample:
Dear Commissioner Harrington,
I am writing to express my deep concern over New Jersey’s failure to immediately enact anti-discrimination legislation that would preserve the protections of transgender students in the wake of President Trump’s reversal of federal regulations that allowed transgender students to use restrooms and changing areas in accordance with their gender identity. It is a dangerous course of action for the state of New Jersey and the Department of Education to leave this matter up to individual school districts. This is a civil rights issue. All transgender students in New Jersey must be provided the safety and dignity that comes with the right to use restrooms and changing areas in accordance with their expressed gender identity and not just their biological sex or sex at birth.
I urge you to make an immediate and forceful statement to direct school districts to preserve the rights of transgender students and work quickly with the state legislature to pass regulations that would mandate full, statewide protections to transgender students.
Mailing Address:
100 River View Plaza
P.O. Box 500
Trenton, NJ 08625
My name is _________________________ and I reside in _________________________________. As you’re surely aware, on Wednesday, February 22, the Trump administration reversed federal protections set by the Obama administration that allowed transgender students to use school bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identities. Without these federal protections, it is up to states to enact anti-discrimination policies that would help ensure the safety and dignity of transgender students.
Unfortunately, the state of New Jersey and Acting Commissioner of Education, Kimberley Harrington, are not taking a stand to support transgender students and instead are leaving it up to the districts and school boards to make that decision. And just the other night, Egg Harbor Township’s school board voted against a policy that would offer full protections to transgender students by providing them access to restrooms and changing areas based on their expressed gender identity and not just their biological sex or sex at birth.
As your constituent, I urge you to support Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle’s (D-Bergen) series of bills–which will call for a task force to propose new rules for transgender students in schools, as well as offer state protections for the transgender community in New Jersey.
5) Join us at the Trenton Rally for Transgender Students Rights (please check back at www.standcnj.org for dates)
Read more
- State must step in after Trump kills transgender rules in schools, NJEA
- EHT school board rejects transgender policy