{"id":200,"date":"2022-09-21T17:50:01","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T17:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/?p=200"},"modified":"2023-12-22T14:01:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T18:01:54","slug":"acps-not-to-comply-with-youngkin-admin-anti-transgender-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/2022\/09\/21\/acps-not-to-comply-with-youngkin-admin-anti-transgender-policies\/","title":{"rendered":"ACPS Not to Comply with Youngkin’s Anti-Transgender Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

James Libresco<\/p>\nStaff Writer<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

ACPS has announced it will not comply with a new statewide model school board policy issued by the Virginia Department of Education on Friday, September 16 that aimed to roll back transgender rights for students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The policy, written under the direction of Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, requires staff to use the legal names and pronouns of students regardless of their preference, with the only exception being if parents provide legal documents proving their child\u2019s \u201cchange of sex.\u201d The policy targets transgender students, as it aims to prevent teachers from using a student\u2019s preferred name and pronouns, which can result in deadnaming and misgendering. The policy also mandates that transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their legal sex and not their gender identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the policy extends parental control in school systems. It states, \u201cParents must be informed and given an opportunity to object before counseling services pertaining to gender are given,\u201d while requiring teachers to relinquish any information about students\u2019 gender identity to parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, September 20, ACPS Interim-Superintendent Dr. Melanie Kay-Wyatt and School Board Chair Meagan Alderton released a statement<\/a> to students, staff, and parents saying, \u201c[ACPS] will continue its commitment to both implement and develop gender affirming policies for all ACPS students,\u201d and that \u201c[the model policies] do not align with our mission, vision and core values to support all students and staff.\u201d The statement also said the policies \u201cseek to undermine\u201d the \u201cvital work\u201d of the ACPS Equity for All plan, and that ACPS will continue to reference the original model school board policies they enacted in 2020 following the ratification of a state law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state law, originally passed under former Democratic Governor Ralph Northam\u2019s administration to protect transgender students, requires the Virginia Department of Education to \u201cdevelop\u2026 model policies concerning the treatment of transgender students\u201d and for school boards to adopt policies that are \u201cconsistent with\u201d the model ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Alexandria Legislative Director Sarah Taylor, that law also applies to the new model policies but \u201cdoes not include a penalty for noncompliance.\u201d She said, \u201cShould school districts be noncompliant with the model policy as it moves forward, they would technically be in violation of the law, but there’s no penalty in the original law that could be held against them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor added, \u201cThe Attorney General can always prosecute a non-compliance with the law, but it would be unclear what the penalty would be, because there isn\u2019t anything in the original legislation.\u201d Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares did not respond to Theogony<\/em>\u2019s request for comment on if he plans to pursue charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, Taylor said that Youngkin could \u201cdecide to mess around with funding for school districts that are not compliant . . . He could say, \u2018Well, any school district that isn’t in compliance with this policy is going to have their state education funding withheld,’ [which] would require the state legislature to do that in the budgeting process.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citing Democratic majority in the state legislature, Taylor added that it would be \u201cunlikely\u201d that the legislature would withhold funds. A spokeswoman for Governor Youngkin\u2019s administration declined Theogony\u2019s <\/em>request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo Credits from left: AP\/Steve Helber, ALXNow\/James Cullum<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACPS has announced it will not comply with a new statewide model school board policy issued by the Virginia Department of Education on Friday, September 16 that aimed to roll back transgender rights for students.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[21,69,72,25,20,71,67],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-acps","tag-education","tag-lgbtq","tag-policy","tag-school-board","tag-transgender","tag-youngkin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/unnamed.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2222,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/2222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/theogony\/2022-2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}