A midcoast school board has divided its community with a proposal to eliminate local protections for transgender and gender expansive students.
The board of the Union-based Regional School Unit 40 narrowly voted on May 16 to start the process of eliminating the policy, which has been in place since 2018, and it’s due to take a final vote on the measure this Thursday.
The board members who opposed the policy suggested that it undermines families and isn’t necessary given state protections for transgender people.
But the proposal has drawn significant outcry, with many of the students, parents, teachers and school administrators who testified about it on May 16 opposing the elimination of the policy. Even the superintendent of RSU 40 opposed the change. Among their arguments were that the policy helps marginalized students to feel less isolated and gives staff more guidance about how to support them.
One speaker at the May 16 meeting, who was identified only as Val from Waldoboro and is transgender, said removing the policy shows trans kids that the district does not believe they belong in the community.
Val lost a friend in high school to suicide. Research has found that 86 percent of transgender people have considered suicide, and 40 percent have attempted, with suicidality highest among youth.
“The safety and well-being of trans and gender-nonconforming kids in our schools depends on your willingness to see them, care about them and protect them,” Val said.
Despite the opposition, the board ultimately voted 8-7 to remove the policy.
Regional School Unit 40 also includes the towns of Friendship, Waldoboro, Warren and Washington.
The rules the board is poised to delete include several protections for transgender students, including procedures for keeping their identity private if they choose, addressing the student by their chosen name and pronouns, allowing the student to use the restroom that most closely identifies with their gender (and to provide accommodations if they express a need for privacy) and providing safe zones for those students.
While Maine school districts are not required to have a policy regarding transgender and gender expansive students, at least 71 schools do have them, according to Susan Campbell, executive director of the group OUT Maine that supports LGBTQ youth.
However, all districts are still required to follow state laws that prevent discrimination against transgender people. And a decade ago, a seminal court case concerning the Orono School Department affirmed the right of transgender students t o use restrooms that most closely match their identity.
Campbell is worried the deletion of the policy in RSU 40 would leave future staff without guidance on how to follow the law or best support transgender and gender expansive students.
“These policies provide clear procedures and transparency around what supports they will provide and how those supports will be provided,” Campbell said. “It provides direction for administrators and staff at schools, but it also provides reassurance for families and to their youth about how their children will be treated when they’re in school.”
Because the school district will still be required to follow Maine law, many teachers and parents who spoke at the May 16 meeting argued that ending the policy would accomplish little besides signaling the district does not welcome transgender students.
Julia Levensaler, the principal of the Miller School, an elementary school in Waldoboro, said at the meeting that she has had to use the policy and was thankful she didn’t have to make it up on her own.
“Deleting this policy does not change our legal requirements,” she said. “However, I believe what it does do is send a message to our LGBTQ students and staff that RSU 40 does not value or include them.”
School Committee Chair Danny Jackson and Superintendent Steve Nolan couldn’t be reached for comment.
During the May 16 meeting, in response to questions about why the board was considering removing the protections, board member Joshua Blackman from Warren, who voted to end the policy, said doing so would not change the state law and that he knows the feelings of people in the community from his time running for office last year.
Two other board members who voted to delete the policy also spoke. Jeanette Wheeler from Waldoboro expressed concern about letting transgender girls use the girls’ restroom, and Joseph Henry from Friendship said not notifying parents of their students’ gender identity wrecks the family unit.
Henry did not respond to requests for comment.
But Campbell contended that concerns over bathroom use don’t reflect reality. Many transgender students she has talked to, she said, are so fearful of using school bathrooms that they refuse to eat and drink all day.
