Students at nearly 100 different Virginia public schools are staging walkouts Tuesday to protest new policies from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) that require schools to obtain parental consent before allowing students to adopt new gender identities at school.
The protests are being organized by the Fairfax County -based Pride Liberation Project, which says it is the “only student-led organization advocating for LGBTQIA+ rights in Virginia.” Fairfax and Arlington are the two districts with the highest concentration of protests.
But the walkouts are taking place at high schools and middle schools all over the commonwealth, with students at schools as far south as Virginia Beach and Williamsburg organizing their own plans to vacate classrooms at various times throughout the day.
Nicole Neily, the president of the parent activist group Parents Defending Education, ripped the planned walkouts as a coordinated stunt by Virginia Democrats in a statement to the Washington Examiner. Neily’s organization has strongly supported the Youngkin administration’s new policies.
“For me, this is clear: The Virginia Democrats are coordinating using high school kids to push their agenda,” she said.
Youngkin’s model policies, released earlier this month, entirely overhaul how school districts must respond to students who wish to identify as a gender other than their biological sex.
“Generational difference”: one student shares his story, says his parents know he is transgender but do not use the correct name or pronouns.
This, the student says, is the “generational difference.” pic.twitter.com/HrVS4k0PwA
— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) September 27, 2022
The “Model Policies on the Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for all Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools” will require all public schools to obtain written parental consent before they are permitted to accommodate a child’s desired name and gender identity.
The new policies will force school districts that had previously committed to facilitating social gender transitions for students without parental notification or permission to obtain parents’ written permission first.
HAPPENING NOW: A student walkout at Culpeper Co. HS is one of many expected Tuesday across Virginia in response to the state’s new controversial policy regarding transgender students. https://t.co/zvQfpNxJyG pic.twitter.com/PnrGCKAvtE
— FOX 5 DC (@fox5dc) September 27, 2022
Youngkin has forcefully defended the policies from criticism, saying, “It’s not a controversial idea that when a child is dealing with very important decisions, that their parents should be involved in those decisions.”
Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter noted in a statement to the Washington Examiner last week that “Governor Youngkin was elected to empower parents, and this guidance does just that.”
“The guidelines make it clear that when parents are part of the process, schools will accommodate the requests of children and their families,” Porter said. “Parents should be a part of their children’s lives, and it’s apparent through the public protests and on-camera interviews that those objecting to the guidance already have their parents as part of that conversation. While students exercise their free speech today, we’d note that these policies state that students should be treated with compassion and schools should be free from bullying and harassment.”
The policies are currently in a period of public comment before they are slated to take effect next month. Thousands of comments have are slated to take effect next month. Thousands of comments have already been submitted in the hours since the period opened Monday.
* Article from: The Washington Examiner
