Jefferson County mother and father allege a Jeffco Public Schools policy violated their parental rights after they discovered their daughter was assigned to sleep in the identical mattress as a transgender woman on an in a single day college journey.
District officers mentioned they have been reviewing a letter sent to the Board of Training and Superintendent Tracy Dorland on Monday by an legal professional for Alliance Defending Freedom. The letter detailed the considerations Joe and Serena Wailes had concerning the remedy of their 11-year-old daughter, recognized as D.W., on a college journey in June to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
Alliance Defending Freedom is a nonprofit authorized group “dedicated to defending non secular freedom, free speech, parental rights and the sanctity of life,” according to the group’s website. It’s additionally been a key player within the political proper’s marketing campaign towards transgender rights.
In accordance with the letter, mother and father have been advised earlier than the journey that girls and boys could be on completely different flooring of the resort. D.W. discovered the coed she was assigned to share a mattress with was a transgender woman when the coed advised her on the primary night time of the journey, the letter says.
D.W. referred to as her mother, Serena Wailes, who was additionally on the journey, and mentioned she didn’t really feel snug sharing a mattress with the opposite pupil, in line with the letter.
D.W. and Serena Wailes spoke with a visit chaperone and the varsity principal, who requested D.W. if they may transfer her to a different mattress in the identical room, which she agreed to regardless of nonetheless feeling uncomfortable, the letter says. However college employees advised D.W. to lie, in line with the letter, and say that she wanted to sleep nearer to the air conditioner; when she was again within the room, one other pupil requested the transgender woman about additionally altering beds.
Serena Wailes and her daughter once more requested that she be moved. The letter says the transgender woman and one other woman have been moved to a special room. The letter alleges that faculty officers disregarded D.W.’s privateness and the Wailses’ parental rights, and that they silenced D.W. when a trainer advised her and two different college students within the room that they weren’t allowed to share with others that the woman was trans.
In an announcement, Jeffco Public Faculties officers mentioned they have been taking the mother and father’ criticism severely. They mentioned pupil security was paramount and their partnership with households was a precedence within the district.
“As a result of the district was solely just lately knowledgeable, and the journey occurred outdoors of the varsity yr and thru a non-public journey group, we’re nonetheless figuring out information,” district officers wrote in an announcement. “Nevertheless, it seems that the coed’s transgender standing was not identified when room assignments have been made and our understanding is that as quickly as their transgender id was identified, room assignments have been adjusted.”
The letter despatched on the mother and father’ behalf steered Jeffco Public Faculties coverage concerning college students’ gender id was unequally utilized as a result of the district didn’t supply the identical privateness protections to all college students.
“As a result of JCPS’s coverage prioritizes the ‘security and luxury’ of solely transgender college students to the exclusion of all different college students, there was no means for D.W.’s mother and father to request an lodging previous to the journey so they may defend D.W.’s privateness and ‘minimiz[e] stigmatization’ of D.W.,” the letter states. “Subsequently, an 11-year-old youngster was positioned able the place she feared social backlash if she requested a special room in entrance of different college students.”
The Wailses have two kids registered to attend the identical journey subsequent yr. The letter requested clarification of whether or not mother and father could be “knowledgeable of the intercourse of their kids’s roommates” on school-sponsored journeys beforehand and on whether or not mother and father may choose their kids out of any coverage that teams kids in rooms by gender id fairly than by beginning intercourse.
The district says officers are working with the journey group to be taught extra and expects to reply by the Dec. 18 deadline requested by Alliance Defending Freedom.
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