WHITE HOUSE TELLS TRANSGENDER STUDENTS: “YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN!”

…Probably today’s most famous transgender: Caitlyn Jenner, who is against Trump’s decision.

 

This Trump decision is thoughtless and cruel, and without any consideration for the students it affects.

 

As I have continued to say, it will take decades to undo the bad things that this novice president will be doing to unravel our country.  As an example, the White House has now told transgender students they’re on their own. Transgender kids are bullied all the time , and now the White House is helping the bullies.

 

This week’s decision by the Trump administration to withdraw guidance to school communities about how to protect transgender students.  This reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the federal role in protecting the Civil Rights of students. Worse yet, it confuses states and school districts, and puts real, live children at greater risk of harm.

 

It’s all about a 1972 law called Title IX.  Back then, a non-partisan US Congress had said that American educational institutions that receive federal funds may not discriminate on the basis of sex.  The law authorized the Justice and Education departments to enforce those rights.

 

It is categorically false for the Trump administration to say that guidance developed by the Obama administration was devised without “due regard for the primary role of the states and local school districts in establishing education policy.”

 

Long before the Obama administration made the executive order last May, we heard from moms such as Katharine Prescott in San Diego.  Ms. Prescott had lost her transgender son to suicide after he was bullied in school. We also heard from transgender students about having to answer embarrassing questions at school about their circumstances.

 

We heard from both transgender and non-transgender students. We heard from educators, parents, advocacy groups, school boards and administrators. Then the law was researched about the then state of medical guidance.  And we reviewed the many, varied ways that school districts and colleges and universities addressed issues affecting transgender students and the results were all over the map.

 

Questions were asked about the safety, or lack of, in locker rooms and their participation on sports teams.  Administrators talked about the difficult choices they had to make about when to recognize a student in transition and how to protect all students’ privacy. School districts and their boards talked about how to advise their members and the various choices they face.

 

All these departments shared guidance about how to satisfy the federal nondiscrimination mandate.  This was all done before the Obama administration issued the executive order.

 

Both the students, and their teachers, deserved no less. They face daily choices which most of us never have to face.  Such as, which bathroom line to stand in, what name or pronoun to use, whether to share information with a class, these and so many more questions. They need those answers right now, so all students can enjoy their right to nondiscrimination.

 

All American students are required to attend school every day, and they need to know that they are safe, welcome and respected as American learners.

 

In addition, educators and administrators need information about how to safeguard all of these student’s federal civil rights.

But under Trump’s new rulings, by withdrawing guidance, offering no information, and noting that the federal government wants to “more completely consider the legal issues” is a dangerous default to “local control”.  It is ridiculous to turn this over to local politics instead of honoring the letter and the spirit of the original law.

 

Trump’s leaving of these questions to the states means some transgender students in some state’s schools will have less protection than students in other state’s schools. What will happen when a transgender student transfers to another school?  This decision is thoughtless and cruel and it was implemented without serious consideration for the students it affects.

 

You now must understand that the Trump administration isn’t just sending these rights just to the 50 US states.  It’s now possible that each state’s school districts will have the right to independently choose to protect, or not protect, transgender rights. This is even though Congress was originally crystal clear that this was a federal responsibility when it enacted Title IX, 45 years ago. The law clearly says that “no person” shall be subjected to sex discrimination at school. Unless the Trump administration is arguing that transgender students are not "persons", it is required to extend these basic protections to all students.

 

Many news reports suggest that even the highly unqualified Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, she initially refused to join Attorney General Jeff Sessions in withdrawing the transgender guidance.  But she ultimately backed down when faced with the alternative of immediate resignation. If that is true, we can at least give her some credit for trying, but this offers no comfort to a nation increasingly divided by background, race and personal income.

 

If the current Education Secretary cannot win on such a basic right, how will she do on the following:

 

>>> What about the law-abiding children of undocumented parents, kids who have spent most of their lives in the United States?  Will they be deported like common criminals?

 

>>> What if federal education funds targeted to low-income children are instead spent on higher-income children?  What will she do?

 

>>> What about students with disabilities, if they are illegally denied the educational supports they need and deserve?  Will she fight it?

And what if students of color continue to be suspended and expelled far out of proportion to their numbers in school, would DeVos win on that and from schools discriminating in those and other disgusting ways?

 

Today, the federal government rightly defers standards and curriculums to states and districts.  But when it comes to protecting students, the law is clear that civil rights are paramount. These are real issues affecting real people and carrying consequences every day for children in classrooms.  The ACLU is already putting a law suit together.

All of our American students deserve better, especially the transgender ones that have been bullied for  so many decades.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017