Students in the Capistrano Unified School District are currently celebrating the failed enactment of a parental notification policy that would have mandated teachers to report “significant changes in a student’s well-being,” presumably including changes in a student’s gender identity, to their parents.
While LGBTQ+ students escaped danger in the district for the time being, they are now aware of how many parents think that they are mentally ill, delusional, and undeserving of autonomy.
In the process of civil discourse, adults inappropriately engaged in an offensive political war over the attempted ratification of the policy and used students as pawns.
Outside the most recent board meeting on October 18, two crowds flooded into the parking lot of the District Office. On one end, parents wearing white, in support of the policy, displayed an American flag. On the other end, community members wearing purple in opposition displayed a rainbow flag.
Trustee Lisa Davis recommended the policy for consideration at the previous board meeting in September, yet throughout public comment, Trustee Davis was seen playing on her phone and rolling her eyes.
Davis’ argument for the policy is comparable to an untrustworthy political campaign as she vigorously attempts to appeal to parents with the idea of forming a “partnership” between parents and educators, yet this is entirely contradictory to the philosophy of the school district.
Section 100 of Article 0 of the Capistrano Unified School District’s board policies says that “All decisions will be based on what is best for our students.” The board’s job is not to ally with parents, but instead to provide “disciplined environments conducive to learning,” which the proposed policy neglected.
In a large number of testimonies in support of the policy, parents confused opinion and bigotry with fact.
“Transgender students are still a minority… Listening to this group of kids [in opposition to the policy] confirms that we are living in a mental health crisis,” said parent Mariela Islis.
Another parent went as far as to say that children don’t have rights.
Gender queerness is not an illness and it is offensive to insinuate such a thing. To disregard an entire community’s well being just because they are a minority is cruel, dangerous and probably illegal.
Student board member, Tyler Pearce, said “Our duty is to foster an environment where every student, all 41,000 of them, feel safe, valued, and heard… The moment we let individual ideologies infiltrate public schools, we endanger the very principle of education and erode the trust of the students.”
Active community members in the district must stop attempting to force their beliefs upon the district’s children, and respect the idea that children do have rights as outlined in the California Constitution.
The decisions made by the school board affect the lives of thousands of children with different backgrounds and identities. It is disgraceful to ruin an inclusive safe space with the dangerous involvement of inappropriate political conflict.
