The Fairfax County School Board approved changes to its student code of conduct on cellphone usage and transgender rights after a long, heated school board meeting Thursday night.
The board passed restrictive cellphone rules and also expanded punishment for students who “misgender” or “deadname” transgender classmates.
In an 8-4 vote, the northern Virginia school board approved changes to its Student Rights and Responsibilities policy that categorized “discriminatory harassment” on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation as “behaviors of safety concern.” Violators of the policy could face weekslong suspensions and referrals to local law enforcement.
The “discriminatory harassment” provision was not the primary topic of debate at the Thursday night meeting. Despite a group of parents protesting the change outside the meeting, the board instead discussed at length a separate change to the code of conduct that will severely restrict student use of cellphones.
Under the new policy, elementary and middle school students will be barred from using cellphones during the school day, and high school students will not be allowed to use their cellphones in classrooms, bathrooms, and locker rooms.
The harassment policy had drawn the ire of local parents.
The board had previously defined “malicious deadnaming or malicious misgendering” as discriminatory harassment under a change it made to its policies last year. The new change further empowers school administrators to discipline students who violate the policy under Title IX protections against harassment in educational settings.
Fairfax County Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.
The board’s decision comes as the Biden administration is expected to release a new regulatory proposal on Title IX that would expand the definition of prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The Fairfax school board policy appears to preempt the expected regulation.
The ability of school districts to discipline students who misgender or so-called “deadname” transgender classmates has been a topic of notable controversy after a Wisconsin school district opened investigations into three middle school students under Title IX for using a transgender student’s biological pronouns. The district later dropped the investigations after widespread backlash.
* Article from: The Washington Examiner
(*) www.WhitePrideHomeSchool.com
