How does one sign up for APE? |
I agree with you until the last sentence. Your children shouldn't require your permission to be treated as boys in school. But, barring legitimate concerns of safety for the children (which I think are rarer than the norm), you should be made aware of their request to be treated as boys in schools. Although, I think it's more complicated and nuanced, and I'd say age is a relevant factor to consider as well. The youngest should probably need parental permission. But middle and high schoolers? No. |
If you are someone your kid feels safe telling, they will tell you. And I hope you work every day to be that parent. But a child's wellbeing is more important than your feelings. |
What does it mean to be treated as a “boy” at school? Use the boys bathroom, boys lockers, join the boys sports teams? Turn it on its head: are we letting teen trans “girls” into the locker room with my daughter? There is no meaningful way the sexes are treated differently except in ways that can’t be compromised. Trans kids must used the communal facilities of their gender at birth. That’s unavoidable. They shouldn’t compete with the opposite gender on single gender teams. So what is the debate at all? |
I'm thinking more in terms of pronouns and names. Kids already need parental permission to participate in sports and, I would think, would be quite aware of which gender team their child is playing on. Teachers should not be the ones responsible for notifying the parents that their kid is requesting to use different gender pronouns or to be called by some other name. |
Again its very simple. The parent has the right to determine what is in their own child's well being. So I decide the child's well being, not the school. Just like I have the right to make the determination on the most mundane of things - i.e. whether my child can go on a field trip. I should have the right to know/determine whether my child is being treated as the gender opposite to their gender assigned at birth. This is a dangerous slippery slope - imagine the reverse - if conservatives were in power and we had no rights as parents? That's why I'm also against the portion of Youngkin's guidance where teachers, against the child's parents wishes, have the right to refer to a student by pronouns corresponding to that student's gender assigned at birth even if the parents want the opposite. Again this infringes on parental rights because in the end it should be up to the parent, not the teacher. Now there are situations where teachers suspect abuse and there are laws for that. Teachers are mandated reporters. |
I'm not entirely sure I understand your argument- but your statements that you put forth as fact here trans kids use bathrooms of gender at birth, and don't compete with the other gender on single gender teams, is contrary to current APS policy. |
Calm down. No one is taking away all parental rights. We are talking about letting schools set the rules for how students are treated AT SCHOOL. If you want your kid to come home and dress a certain way, respond to a certain name, and do whatever else you think is appropriate for the gender you believe they are, you can still do that. At first I thought you were a parent who was hurt by the thought that your kid wouldn't tell you important things. But the harder you hammer away at this, the more you seem like a parent who will badger your kid into compliance. No wonder you think they won't tell you things. Why would they? You don't listen. |
It isn't "parents' rights." It's the right of the child to use pronouns they want to use and to have people call them by a name they want to be called. The only "right" relative to parents here is whether or not the teacher/school is obligated to notify the parent of such pronoun/name usage. Again, when it comes to sports, parents already need to grant permission and should already be aware of what sport/team their kids are trying out for or participating in. Kids should have rights, too; like who they play with on the playground and sit with at lunch. Or do you expect to be notified about all the kids yours are interacting with so you can grant permission for them to interact with specific classmates or not? |
Liberal arguments don't make sense here. This is a common one I see. Your argument minimizes identifying with a gender, like its a nickname or choosing a friend. Yet if someone says kids schools can identify and treat students by their gender assigned at birth/biological sex, then liberals start screaming that this will cause the child to commit suicide. Either its something inconsequential, like a nickname, or its something serious/consequential.Pick one. |
Pretty clear that you'll twist yourself into a pretzel just to deny trans kids basic rights. |
Right. APS has had progressive and inclusive trans policies for going on at least three years now. I have not heard any parents of trans kids oppose the policy so I think it's a made up conservative right talking point that there's some big issue with schools withholding information from parents of trans kids. When there is not. |
+1,000. |
Are you saying that the Wakefield counselor who said she forges parent consent isn't withholding information from parents? |
Nope I’m sorry. Parents absolutely have a right to know. Why would anyone support duplicity and hiding from parents? Unless there’s known welfare risk to the child parents absolutely need to know to better support their child. |