'Parent/guardian consent not needed': School board discusses how to hide students' gender identities from parents

Parents Defending Education, a grassroots parental rights group, obtained and released a North Carolina school board presentation that detailed the district's transgender policy, which explained how faculty should hide a student's gender identity from the student's parents.

On August 17, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District Board of Education met to view an 84-slide presentation that covered a wide range of topics, including student discipline, teacher salaries, and the district's transgender policy.

The presentation used CDC statistics to estimate that of the district's 2,146 students, approximately 43, or 2%, likely identify as transgender. The school board also estimated that of those 43 transgender students, 15 had likely attempted suicide.

According to district policy, children can request to change their names and pronouns without parental approval. Teachers are not permitted to share a child's gender identity with the child's parents or peers without express permission from the student.

"Preferred name can be changed at student's request – parent/guardian consent not needed," the presentation stated.

The policy asked educators to consider that a student's parents may disapprove of the student's gender identity, which could lead to abuse, neglect, dependency, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, self-harm, and suicide.

"There is never a justification for a policy that calls for the deliberate withholding and concealment of information from parents about their own child," Erika Sanzi, director of outreach for Parents Defending Education, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. "This policy is based on an ideology; it has no place in schools."

Educators must refer to students by their preferred names and pronouns, although the policy noted that "inadvertent slips or mistakes" are excusable. However, when speaking to parents, teachers are instructed to use the student's legal name unless the child has stated otherwise.

Students are permitted to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identities, the policy noted.

When going on field trips, educators are asked to "consider the transgender student's privacy and comfort" and whether sex segregation is necessary. Teachers are also asked, "What will you do if you go to a place that enforces sex stereotyping?"

According to district policy, school staff must follow the students' lead on the confidentiality of their gender identities.

"In deciding whether to involve a student's parents or guardian in developing a plan, school staff should work closely with the student to assess the degree to which, if any, the parent or guardian will be involved in the process and must consider the health, wellbeing and safety of the student," the policy stated. "Currently no duty for school to report transgender status to parents."

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District Board of Education did not respond to a request for comment, the DCNF reported.