Parents in Barrington defend policies to protect transgender, gender-diverse and transitioning students at school committee
"I ask that you do what you’re doing and maintain the current gender protocol," said a mother. "It’s appropriate, it’s rooted in scientific data."
Thursday night’s Barrington School Committee meeting was mainly about the budget and school construction, but that didn’t stop Christian Nationalist culture war issues from coming up as Jennifer Sapolsky, a Barrington High School teacher, took to the microphone during the first of two public comment periods to express her discomfort with the school district’s policy that protects transgender, gender diverse, and transitioning students.
Two parents, neither expecting this subject to be brought up, pushed back on Sapolsky’s comments. Here’s the video, followed by a transcript, edited for clarity.
Jennifer Sapolsky: I’m a resident here in Barrington, a teacher at the high school in the social studies department. I’ve come here once before. You guys were a new group and I spoke from my heart. I’m going to do it again with a slightly different message. My message before had been about our gender protocol policy. I had briefly spoken about how as an educator, I’m required by this policy to go against my conscience and withhold information from parents.1 I feel that that is objectionable on a moral level.
Today I come with a different perspective. I still feel the same way. I know I also represent others, but I’m speaking, of course, for myself. Additionally, there is more and more research, most notably through the CASS report2 and others like the CASS report that are demonstrating, with more and more evidence, that there are grave concerns about the irreparable damage that taking hormones and gender surgeries are having on our children.
This policy requires us to partake in this process for children seeking it.3 I think, at least for me, it’s on my conscience to come back and bring this to your attention. I have not seen any change. I have not heard any concerns raised by the administration at my building. There’s been no discussion about this very grave topic in our building. I can’t speak for the other buildings because I’m not there. It’s been quite to the contrary. As we know, as educators with your children all day long, we care for them. We’re all trying to do our best to care for children, and I assume goodwill on everybody’s part. Yet I believe that we are reneging on our responsibility to care for our children by not seeking the full truth of the very grave nature of this policy.
I think we are doing our children a grave injustice by not challenging ourselves as a community and a school district to delve into the research and open up a conversation about this. I hope to see some action in this department, and I’ve been very disappointed that there has been no movement—quite to the contrary.
If I were to speak, which I am, and I have no problem with it because I’m speaking publicly - I feel like it has to be done. And I don’t enjoy it because it’s not fun. But it’s not well heard in our community to have a different perspective on this topic by most, and I have been a personal target of that in my building. I think that’s important for you to know. Nonetheless, we must follow our conscience, and I ask you to do so.
Immediately after Jennifer Sapolsky spoke, a mother approached the microphone wearing a Barrington Community Progress Association (BPCA) jacket.
Mother: I ask that you do what you’re doing and maintain the current gender protocol. It’s appropriate; it’s rooted in scientific data. I don’t want to say too much more because I will get upset. The protocol is appropriate. That’s all I’m going to say.
Paige spoke to the school committee via Zoom during the second public comment period.
Paige: I am a social worker here in Barrington. I recognize that we are discussing the budget tonight. I just wanted to add something based on an earlier comment made tonight. I’m also affiliated with the BCPA.
I recognize that we are discussing the budget tonight. I’m also affiliated with the Barrington Community Progress Association. I just wanted to add something based on an earlier comment made tonight. I just wanted to say that gender protocols exist for LGBTQIA to S-plus people to thrive in environments where they feel safe, affirmed, respected, and understood. As a social worker, I have an ethical and professional duty to advocate for this marginalized population to be protected from any efforts to limit full participation in civic life and related activities that enhance social, physical, and mental wellbeing. Education should be more important than indoctrination into a culture of intolerance.
What Sapolsky seems to be referring to here is a rule that prevents teachers and school administrators from outing children who are socially transitioning—that is, for example, adopting names and pronouns and/or dressing in accordance with their gender. Why a teacher would feel it necessary to interfere in the student-parent relationship in this way is puzzling.
The Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People (commonly, the Cass Review) was commissioned in 2020 by NHS England and NHS Improvement and led by Hilary Cass, a retired consultant paediatrician and the former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
The Cass Review has been critiqued worldwide for its faulty study parameters and unsubstantiated conclusions. The largest doctors’ union in the United Kingdom, the British Medical Association (BMA), voted in favor of a resolution to publicly critique the Cass Review, which was used to crack down on gender-affirming care for trans youth in the United Kingdom, calling its recommendations unsubstantiated.
Just this week, reporter Erin Reed pointed out that new German, Austrian and Swiss medical recommendations around transgender care slammed the Cass review for methodological flaws, and affirmed the importance of gender affirming care.
The Barrington policy on transgender, gender-diverse and transitioning students, which is based on state law and Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) policies, does not require teachers to “partake in this process for children” seeking medical transitions. Those decisions are made by the child, the family, and medical professionals - teachers have nothing to do with that.