When Students Change Gender Identity, and Parents Don’t Know
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/22/us/gender-identity-students-parents.htmlHere are the facts:
1. A 15 year old High School Student in CA decided to transition to male in HS.
2. The HS allowed the student to change to a more male sounding name, use the male bathroom, and referred to him by male pronouns. The HS did not facilitate medical treatments.
3. The student informed the HS that he tried to come out to his parents before, but they didn’t take it seriously, so he asked for the HS’s support in not informing his parents. The HS honored the student’s request.
4. The mother found out glancing at the student’s homework assignment with an unfamiliar name scrawled at the top.
5. “The Bradshaws accepted their teenager’s new gender identity, but not without trepidation, especially after he asked for hormones and surgery to remove his breasts. Doctors had previously diagnosed him as being on the autism spectrum, as well as with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, PTSD and anxiety. He had struggled with loneliness during the pandemic, and, to his parents, seemed not to know exactly who he was yet, because he had repeatedly changed his name and sexual orientation.
‘Given those complexities, Mrs. Bradshaw said she resented the fact that the school had made her feel like a bad parent for wondering whether educators had put her teenager, a minor, on a path the school wasn’t qualified to oversee.”
Based on these facts, and assuming the student’s performance and well being at HS was not deteriorating, and although not necessary for me to form my opinion, but nevertheless supportive thereof, given that the student made an attempt to reach out to his parents, but they seemed as if they would rather not grapple with the issue, I “rule” in favor of the HS here. In my view the case is not a particularly a close one. I hold that opinion while feeling absolutely no need to be PC on this issue, and do not consider mistakes in gender references to be an execrable thought crime.
I in general avoid getting into trans discussions, as I so informed my colleagues in the Cave, given the lay of the land here. But I think posters here would be interested in this article behind a paywall, so I thought I would share it, despite my trepidation.
Since I generated the OP here, I can lock the thread, and will do so the moment there is any personal attack or unkind remark, directed at either a poster or anyone else, and will not hesitate after locking to report any post that I consider inappropriate. Typically, I do not report posts unless really outrageous, and then typically someone has beaten me to it. But I will here. I am taking personal responsibility for this thread, and will not tolerate it being soiled.
The idea is to discuss how HS policy on this issue should be fashioned, and what are the competing considerations and when. In that regard, to start off the discussion with an on the other hand, I don’t think a HS should facilitate medical treatments behind the parents’ back, assuming that is at all possible, absent the most compelling and unusual of circumstances.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
