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OCTOBER 5, 2023
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School transgender policy up for approval BY JASON STARR Observer staff
The Champlain Valley School Board is expected to vote on a new “Transgender and Non-Binary Students Policy” at its Oct. 17 meeting. Passage would solidify what the district already does in practice to educate and enrich transgender and gender non-binary students. Although the policy breaks no new ground — it mirrors guid-
“This has made all of us think about, why were locker rooms ever designed as communal spaces to change and shower without much privacy as young people? Why did we ever do that? … When you strive for equity for some, you end up improving the situation for everybody.” Angela Arsenault CVSD board chair
ance that the Vermont Agency of Education and the Vermont Principals Association published in 2017 — its passage would still be an important step for the trans and non-binary communities, said Dana Kaplan, executive director of Outright Vermont, which consulted with the district on the policy. “There’s a difference between a statewide guideline and (knowing) that, ‘here in my own local community, in my school, leadership is doubling down
Participants in last week’s fundraiser for Outright Vermont walk down Church Street in Burlington. Outright Vermont helped the Champlain Valley School District craft a new Transgender and Non-Binary Students Policy that is up for approval later this month. PHOTO COURTESY OF OUTRIGHT VERMONT
and saying, in no uncertain terms, here’s (our) policy,’” Kaplan said. “I think that can only benefit young people who face disproportionate amounts of bullying, harassment and discrimination.” If approved, the district’s director of integrated wellness, Tony Moulton, will lead a team that creates a set of procedures that school staff and students will be bound to follow related to transgender and gender non-binary student use of bathrooms and locker rooms, and participation in athletics. “Policy is one thing and procedures are another,” said Erika Lea of the school board’s policy subcommittee, which drafted the policy last school year in consultation with Outright Vermont, the Agency of Education, teachers, administrators and students. “I invite anyone
to be part of building those procedures. That work is continuing.” “There are a lot of various partners and sectors involved,” Moulton added, “so it’s getting a lot of different perspectives and wisdom together to find out, what are the procedures that we need.” The policy requires that transgender students be allowed to use locker rooms and restrooms, and play on sports teams, that align with their gender identity. This is the district’s current practice, and follows guidance from the Vermont Principals Association (VPA), which governs scholastic athletics in the state. The practice has not been without controversy. Last school year, a high school coach in Woodstock was fired after allegedly making comments to students about the biological differences between
males and females. An Arizona-based group called “Alliance Defending Freedom” has taken up the coach’s case, suing the Windsor Central Supervisory Union superintendent and board on the coach’s behalf. “(The coach) expressed himself politely,” the group wrote in a press release about the lawsuit, filed in July. “He said that men and women have different genetic makeup, and as a result, men have a physical advantage over women in athletic competition.” Kaplan argues that gender is just one of the many differences that athletes bring to the playing field and that all efforts should be made to support trans kids accessing the social and emotional benefits of playing school sports. “Bodies are different shapes and different sizes, and people have different abilities,” he said. “Just because somebody is assigned male at birth who identifies as a girl, it doesn’t give them an unfair advantage. Try playing on a team as a trans person when the majority of your classmates are not trans. That is an unfair burden, but that is a burden that trans kids face.” Eligibility decisions for athletes to compete on a team that is inconsistent with their gender assigned at birth rests with the school district superintendent, according to VPA rules. Once eligibility has been granted to participate on a team that conforms with a player’s gender identity, that eligibility remains in place for their entire athletic career. According to Kaplan, there is a growing population of youth who identify as non-binary (who don’t identify as exclusively male or female). The VPA hopes to one day offer them a separate division in team and individual sports. “We look to offer non-binary classisee TRANSGENDER page 5
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