| Time | Text |
|---|---|
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Policy Puzzle
00:03:35
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|
| Policy that allows school staff to keep a child's transgender status a secret does not violate a parent's fundamental rights under the New Hampshire Constitution the state's Supreme Court has held. | |
| So your daughter says she's a boy, she's nine years old, and wants to be known as Jeremy and use the boys' room. | |
| You don't have to tell the parents why parents would send their kids to a public school in New Hampshire. | |
| It's a puzzle. | |
| Well, it's not a puzzle. | |
| It's laziness. | |
| It's gambling. | |
| You're gambling with your child if you send your child to a public school and many private schools. | |
| My animus is not toward public school as such. | |
| The policy was challenged by a New Hampshire mother who sued the Manchester School District after finding out from a teacher that her minor child, identified as MC, had asked school staff and students to be called by a name typically associated with the opposite sex. | |
| According to the lawsuit, when the mother first asked the school to continue using her child's given name and sex-appropriate pronouns, two teachers wrote to her saying they were willing to comply. | |
| But minutes later, the lawsuit says the school principal emailed her, repudiating the teacher's cooperative responses. | |
| The school principal. | |
| Good morning. | |
| While I respect and understand your concern, we are held by the district policy as a staff. | |
| I have quoted our district policy below, which outlines the fact that we cannot disclose a student's choice to parents if asked not to. | |
| If MC insists on being called... | |
| MC's desired name. | |
| As a staff, we have to respect that according to the policy or unfortunately we can be held accountable despite parents' wishes. | |
| The principal was reiterating district policy that absent the child's consent, School personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student's transgender status or gender non-conforming presentation to others. | |
| Non-conforming presentation. | |
| Wow. | |
| The language. | |
| Ten years ago, if this had been written, people would not have understood it. | |
| They would have asked that it be translated into English. | |
| The school justified the policy as recognizing transgender students' rights to privacy. | |
| The court's response? | |
| The principal got the policy wrong. | |
| The policy encourages school personnel to not disclose information that may reveal a student's transgender status, but contrary to the principal's assertion to the plaintiff, that's in italics, The policy does not require non-disclosure. | |
|
Court Reads Double Negatives
00:00:18
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| In other words, without the double negatives, the court read the policy's directive that, quote, school personnel should not disclose information about trans students to mean they can. | |
| It's just that they're allowed not to. | |