Alabama schools returned this month with new policies in place regarding LGBTQ students and the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.
In one Alabama school district, an art teacher said she was told to take down several Pride flags.
Students also are reportedly receiving fewer accommodations and support than in previous years. Lawyers from ACLU Alabama and Magic City Legal Center, which specializes in pro-bono legal services for the LGBTQ community, say they’ve received a number of calls from frustrated parents.
A new law that requires students to use a bathroom that aligns with the sex on their birth certificate, rather than a current or fluid gender identity, creates stigma and shame, they say.
“What we’re experiencing, I think, through the lens of our clients is just complete sadness that has just enveloped their lives because these children don’t understand these changes, especially the younger ones,” said Sydney Duncan, director of Magic City Legal Center.
Changes to bathroom access
Duncan said she has heard from families of elementary school students who said their trans kids are being pulled out of line when the whole class goes to the bathroom.
“They’re kind of being carved out and singled out and being made to feel different and shown to be different to the rest of the class and they’re internalizing that in a really traumatic way… if some kid who isn’t out to the school is being carved out from the rest of his classmates, and asked to stand apart from them to use the bathroom…that constitutes being outed,” Duncan said.
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The Alabama legislature passed two bills in April targeting LGBTQ youth. One bans gender-affirming medical care for minors, penalizing the administration of treatments by up to 10 years in prison and requiring school personnel to inform parents if their child is questioning their gender identity.
The other, the bathroom ban, also has a requirement that prohibits the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-5.
The bill’s sponsor Rep. Scott Stadthagen, R-Hartselle, said when promoting the bill that “almost every single school district in this state is dealing with this issue with opposite genders wanting to use opposite bathrooms.” However, after reaching out to several districts throughout the state, AL.com found in May that none had experienced any incidents prior to the law’s passage.
“The law causes even more challenges to an already distressed education system,” said Tish Gotell Faulks, legal director at ACLU Alabama. “On top of returning to in person full time, on top of education loss because of the limits of remote education and all of those things, we added having teachers and administrators police bathrooms unnecessarily.”
Gotell Faulks noted that many of the families she’s heard from had disclosed to their districts in previous years that their kids were trans in hopes of receiving more accommodations and protections.
Some have now come to regret that decision.
“These families disclosed deeply personal medical information to high-level school officials so that their kids could be affirmed and protected. And with this law, that disclosure, that parental protective behavior has been weaponized,” she said.
She said many of the parents she’s spoken with had previously received a positive reception from administrators.
“These parents experienced an embracing, warm, welcoming response. And then, this year, those same administrators called them and told them that their kids are not going to be treated in the way they always have,” said Gotell Faulks. “Imagine considering taking your kid out of the magnet school, out of the arts program, out of the dance program that they love because they now are holding it rather than going to the restroom.”
Nearly 70% of transgender students report not going to the bathroom at all during the school day, according to a report from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a national advocacy organization. Some students said they avoided eating or drinking during the day, while others reported getting a urinary tract infection or kidney-related medical issue as a result of not going to the bathroom.
Exclusionary policies in schools can also lead to mental health problems like depression and anxiety, and students deciding not to attend school at all.
In Alabama, LGBTQ youth are three times more likely to attempt suicide compared to their peers, and twice as likely to not go to school because they felt unsafe or experienced violence on campus, according to the state’s most recent youth risk behavior survey.
“The clients we’re talking to have just been in school two or three weeks and some of them have already opted to take a mental health day because of the distress this is causing,” said Duncan of the Magic City Legal Center.
Pride flags taken down
In Madison City, one teacher was reportedly asked to take down the Pride flag in her classroom because of the policies now in place.
“My art classroom got a lot less colorful this week after my district mandated that I remove flags that I used as signs of love, acceptance, and safety. I have a lot of hurt, confused, and angry students. It’s not about the flags, y’all. It’s about the message we send to students by banning them,” posted Elisabeth Vaughn, an art teacher in the district, to her Facebook page.
Vaughn did not return a request for comment.
In a statement to AL.com, Madison City Schools Superintendent Ed Nichols said:
“We have recently responded to inappropriate displays of flags and symbols in classrooms representing personal viewpoints of teachers and staff unrelated to the class curriculum. As school administrators, we must maintain a position of neutrality on political issues and not impose a teacher’s personal views and beliefs on our students through such displays in the classroom.”
The superintendent added that students are welcome to display flags during clubs like the Gay-Straight Alliance, which still are running in the district.
He also hopes to convene a committee of students and staff in the coming weeks to discuss these issues, though he isn’t sure it will inform the district’s policies and some students may not feel comfortable expressing their views or experiences given the new law requiring schools to inform parents of a student questioning their gender identity.
Madison City currently has not developed a policy to help guide students and staff on how to navigate the portion of the bill that prohibits the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Alabama Board of Education will hold a public hearing during their Sept. 8 meeting at 10 a.m. in the Gordon Persons Building in Montgomery to vote on final rules to implement the law. The public comment period opened July 12.
The public can address the board about the proposed rules during the meeting for up to two minutes by contacting the board secretary and signing up to speak. The request must be made at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the meeting.
* Article from: AL.com
