Sarah Gibson from NHPR didn’t do her homework so at 2:15 pm today. She put out “misinformation” (you know, that AWFUL thing that the Left hates when it claims we on the Right have said what Free Speech allows people to do).
Ordinarily, I would have emailed her but her “home page” at NHPR has no email listed for her (nor a direct phone number). The only way to have left a message was via the NHPR Office Phone, (603) 228-8910.
Her post was “Policies for transgender students under scrutiny in N.H. schools and courts.” In it, she starts with the anecdote of the Somersworth School District (SAU56) that was seeing a large number of kids changing their gender identity in the school database and the response, the CORRECT response, by Superintendent Lori Lane (as always, some reformatting and emphasis mine):
Earlier this year, some transgender and gender non-conforming students in Somersworth began changing their name and pronouns in the school district database. The district has a policy for these students, aimed at protecting their privacy and preventing discrimination. But Somersworth Superintendent Lori Lane wasn’t sure if the school should loop parents in.
“We ask for parents’ permission for kids to do everything from going on a field trip to playing sports to so many things,” she said. “Why would we think that it would be okay to not have this kind of conversation with families?”
Unlike my Superintendent, Kirk Beitler, immediate past School Board Chair Gretchen Gandini, and present Chair Jeanine Onos, she put the right people first – the Parents. She recognized, correctly, that the kids are Parents’ responsibility FIRST and that the ethos of the school was that they are “in loco parentis” temporarily. They are granted permission to care, in a limited fashion – not total control as the Gilford, Manchester, and Exeter School Districts seem to assume.
And the Board made the proper decision:
Following several months of internal discussions, the Somersworth school board issued an update in May to its policy for transgender and gender non-conforming students. It now requires schools to seek permission from both the student and parent or guardian to make a change in a student’s pronoun or name in the official school database.
It also reads: “The school district shall take care to not initiate or otherwise independently encourage the start of a process of social transition for any students but shall follow supportive procedures as discussed in the policy after such transition has been approved by both the student and the parent(s) or legal guardian(s).”
…You hear this rhetoric: ’The school is hiding something from parents.’ And we don’t want to be known as that,” she said
They chose not to break their trust with their Parents. They decided to NOT create an atmosphere of distrust in which Parents would never have to worry “Is my child’s teacher, guidance counselor, Assistant Principal, Principal, or School Board LYING to me?” I am in that position now – I did as Chair Onos directed us all to do: “for any concerns, problems, or issues, ask your Administrators.”
As you all know, I did – during the School Board Meeting during the first Public Comment Session; I asked the Elementary School Principal Danielle Bolduc “what is the transgender status of my legal son?”. She refused to tell me.
Thus, she lied, by omission and refusal to answer the question, in front of me, the parents and students in the audience behind me, and the School Board in front of me. I then reamed the School Board for having put her into that awful position. I was later confronted by the High School Principal, Anthoy Sperazzo, saying that I had made her a political pawn.
There’s another school board meeting coming up very soon.
Anyways, Somerworth has a Policy JBAB but it differs from the one that was issued by the NH School Board Association starting in 2015 and recently pulled (at least Gibson got that right). It reads, for the specific issues that are being litigated in other Districts:
Information about a student’s transgender status, legal name, or biological sex listed on a person’s birth certificate also may constitute confidential information. School personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation to others without authorization from the student and parent(s) or legal guardian(s).
…Should the situation arise where the student would like their name and gender identity to change from what is on their official school record, the school will need the permission of both the student and the parent(s) or legal guardian(s) to make a change in the school district’s student information system, other files or other electronic data bases where the student’s legal name and biological sex listed on a person’s birth certificate is the only information identified.
And the Locker Room issue:
Decisions regarding consistent facility use shall be granted with both student and parent permission.
I also note that “preferred pronouns” are NOT part of Somersworth’s JBAB. However, it does have this which could be used by LGBT militants against the Free Speech of students, Staff, or other people who happen to be on school grounds:
Complaints alleging discrimination or harassment based on a person’s actual or perceived transgender status or gender nonconformity are to be handled in the same manner as other discrimination or harassment complaints.
Is NOT using demanded pronouns going to be considered discrimination or harassment? In some Districts, I would not be surprised. However, back to Gibson’s piece where she shows her ideological outlook with the use of the vaunted “scare quotes”:
The allegation that New Hampshire schools are keeping secrets from parents was one of the primary drivers for a so-called “parental rights” bill that died in the State House last week. Seriously “so-called”, Sarah? What is so scary about codifying what Parental Rights are, especially with what is going on both here in NH and nationally where Districts have turned against Parents? Your progressivism showed its nose from the inside of the tent with that. And you did what all Progressives did – take the side of “schools and kids over Parents” by concentrating on the “outing” of some students and not how the Districts are treating Parents.
So, she hates Parents as well? I’ll leave that hanging…
About not doing her homework:
…Lehmann has recently brought lawsuits against the Manchester, Exeter, and Gilford school districts. The lawsuits allege that schools’ transgender policies infringe on parents’ and students’ freedom of speech and religion, and on parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their child. Lehmann declined several requests to be interviewed for this story.
Wrong. While he IS the litigator for the Parents in Manchester and Gilford (the latter being my suit), he’s not involved directly in Exeter. While he purportedly may be giving advice, the lead chair for the Parents against SAU16/Exeter is Ian Huyett of Cornerstone because the freshman there is being discriminated against by the District because of his Catholic faith (which holds that God only created two genders: male and female). And she got this next part wrong, too:
A judge dismissed the Gilford lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of conservative blogger and activist David “Skip” Murphy. The other two are still moving through the courts.
She didn’t state why it was dismissed, did she? I’ll be blunt – the second judge, brought in at the last minute, dismissed it for lack of standing. Doing the complete story, I guess, was beyond her ken. I dryly note that she reported, “Lehmann declined several requests to be interviewed for this story.”
Well, she didn’t bother to try to contact me even though she admits that she knows who I am, and what I do, and couldn’t bring herself to write “GraniteGrok.com.” I guess that writing “conservative” must have been a hard slog (heh!).
And the last part includes Chris Erchull about whom I have already blogged:
Chris Erchull, a staff attorney at the GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said that New Hampshire appears to be a “hotspot for litigation,” as activists and lawmakers seek to roll back legal protections for LGBTQ students.
“It’s going to be really important to convince people and convince courts that affirming and respecting transgender and gender non-conforming students in school is the bare minimum required by law,” he said. “Putting schools in the position of reporting back to parents the gender or sexual identity of their children is not the proper role of school personnel.”
So I can only surmise that the flip side of his outlook is that School Districts SHOULD lie to Parents simply because of his sexual ideological bent?
He hates Parents, too, is the only conclusion I can arrive at when there are minor children involved. After all, he has made them HIS concern – and he’s not, unlike the Somersworth School District, willing to think that perhaps the Parents are the ones in charge.
