Westerly School Committee votes unanimously to develop local policy on transgender students

"...we can do it without some of the specifics that are in the RIDE guidance that I don't think fit with our community," said Committee Member Lori Wycall.

“I'd like to make six points about the transgender/non-binary issue,” said Westerly resident Anne Pearce, reading the testimony of another Westerly resident, Diane Goldsmith during the public commentary portion of last night’s Westerly School Committee meeting. Near the conclusion of the meeting, the Committee unanimously voted to replace the existing Transgender, Gender Diverse, and Transitioning Student Policy,¹ created by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) - based on the best application of state and federal law and top-tiered medical knowledge - with one of their creation.

Pearce continued:

1. As I understand it, the current policy has been in place since 2017. If the committee seeks to change the policy, it would be important to know in what ways it hasn't worked in the past. Up to this point, no one has testified about an actual problem that would require changing the policy.

2. The policy does not cover boys pretending to be girls or girls pretending to be boys. It was created to ensure that all students, including transgender and non-binary students, are treated respectfully. All the major United States medical associations, the American Psychological Association, American Medical Association, and the American Psychiatric Association, as well as insurance companies and organizations such as the American Bar Association and the National Association of Social Workers, recognize trans people and have policies that recognize their needs.

3. It does not provide any cover for violence. It is designed to protect all students from violence and bullying.

4. Allowing students to use a bathroom that best fits their gender identity or to ask for private accommodations is the most respectful and safest way to accommodate all students.

5. In the last meeting conversation, one of the most controversial issues was that the policy does not require the school to notify parents if their child defines themselves as trans or non-binary. Most schools have a policy of informing students when a student has broken the rules, including bullying, being violent, using drugs, or physically damaging the building. Schools do not generally have policies informing parents about who they see their child dating or who is asked to be called a specific nickname. For the same reason, the school should not take it upon itself to inform the family about gender identity when it has no understanding of those family dynamics. As the current policy states, schools can provide support for students who would like to tell their families.

6. Lastly, sports. The Rhode Island Interscholastic Committee has a policy that is both respectful of transgender athletes and conforms to the applicable federal and state laws. Westerly has been following that policy, and again, I have heard no testimony about Westerly students harmed by it. Statements that barring trans girls from playing on girls' teams is a matter of protecting girls are just plain sexist. It assumes that girls are small, they're weak, they don't get hurt, and they don't hurt each other. The example that was given at the last meeting was of a trans girl hitting a lacrosse ball that hurt another player. But what was left out of that story was that according to the Aspen Institute Sports and Society Program, lacrosse has the third highest injury in concussion rates among girls' sports.

“For all of these reasons, I strongly support maintaining the current policy, and I would add, as asserted in your mission statement, ‘as elected school committee members, we have an obligation and commitment to keep all students safe and protected,’” concluded Goldsmith, as read by Pearce. “This policy supports those students who need to feel safe and protected the most. It meets their needs and it develops their educational experience accordingly. This is equity and an example, as outlined in the school equity audit, of an equitable policy. For this reason, I strongly support maintaining the protocols.”

Not everyone was as supportive.

Dr. Mark Mancini has been a nephrologist in Westerly for about 25 years. He spoke in favor of rejecting the state guidelines in favor of producing a local policy.

“History has taught us many lessons, and one of them is that local governance serves the people best,” said Dr. Mancini. “A policy written for the state at large does not necessarily serve the needs of a small community such as Westerly. We are unfortunately seeing increasing examples of state policies intended to provide inclusion for those who struggle with sexual identity.

“They're trying to be fair, but we are seeing individuals hurt. We're seeing individuals hurt on both sides of the conversation,” continued Dr. Mancini, offering no evidence for his assertion that individuals are being hurt by the present policy. “I'm not going to get into it because I think we're all familiar with the conversation regarding that, but I think people are being hurt and I think we can do better.

“In short, it's always best to govern locally and to provide our own written policy, building upon the existing policies - improvements based upon the lessons learned, the example set, and the unintended missteps of others.”

Westerly resident Robert Chiaradio has testified in Westerly and throughout the state against policies that protect transgender and gender-diverse students. He frequently denies the existence of transgender people, as when he testified last night that, “No matter how much a boy wants to be a girl, dresses like a girl or looks like a girl, he isn't a girl and he will never be a girl.”.

One particularly strange position adopted by Chiaradio was the following:

“School and staff must accept a student's assertion of his or her identity. That means a teacher must call a girl a boy and vice versa, should the student identify as gender non-conforming. This is compelled speech and… it's a violation of the First Amendment rights of a teacher, no question about it … teachers must use the preferred name and pronoun of the student. Again, compelled speech - a First Amendment violation.”

Putting aside how spurious this claim is - no teacher and almost all public and private sector employees have limits imposed on their First Amendment rights to say whatever they want - Chiaradio is no First Amendment champion. He has been an outspoken opponent of library books in Westerly and at the state level.

As I mentioned in my coverage of last week’s Foster-Gloucester School Committee meeting, anti-trans activists like Nicole Solas and Robert Chiaradio are searching for a school committee willing to take RIDE’s policy on transgender, gender diverse, and transitioning students to court. They are looking for a lawsuit.

“The state needs one district to stand up and say, ‘No, this is not right for all of our kids.’ ... Other districts will follow as they also know what is best for their students, not RIDE,” said Chiaradio last night.

The discussion by the School Committee members was instructive.

The School Committee's effort to “edit” the policy is being led by Committee Members Lori Wycall and Christine Cooke. School Committee Chair Robert Cillino noted that Committee Member Wycall asked to have the item on the agenda.

Committee Member Lori Wycall: I would like to make a motion that we, as a committee, commit to writing our policy to replace the RIDE policy on transgender, gender non-conforming, and transitioning students.

Committee Member Christine Cooke: Second.

Robert Cillino: We have a motion and a second. Discussion.

Committee Member Leslie Dunn: If we're going to write something, my recommendation is that we make sure we reach out to the educators to get some input on how this protocol is working already. If we have a way to communicate with families who may have already had to use this protocol, that's going to be in our best interest. People keep bringing up this idea of safety and who feels unsafe and who feels safe. I think the only way to make sure that we have a protocol or a policy in place is to go to the people directly impacted by it and have input from them.

Committee Member Michael Ober: I think it would be a good idea to look at it. There's been some discussion about it. There are certain concerns. In an open debate and open review of the protocol, I can't see that we're going to change that much. Most of it is cooperating with a student, getting the parents involved, and trying to avoid any kind of issues. There are some sections that people have problems with, and as a community, we can do that. In the future, an equity [committee?] could look at this - we wouldn't have to. But we should make time for it. We should look at it and we should decide.

Christine Cooke: I don't disagree that when creating a brand new policy we need input, but we also have [Superintendent] Dr. [Mark] Garceau here who can give us input as well. But one thing that concerns me about reaching out to families, I'm looking at the privacy issue ... and I don't know that it's appropriate to be reaching out to them. I thought this whole thing was about privacy and keeping this out of the - you know - who are we to be reaching out to anyone about this? I mean, I look at it as, if the families want to come to the school committee, they can do that. But that is almost a violation of privacy in my opinion.

I still don't know if we have any students to whom this has applied. I don't know if this has even been applied, since 2017. Dr. Garceau could certainly speak to that.

Superintendent Mark Garceau: It has.

Vice-Chair Guiseppe Gencarelli: Last night I found this interesting article that I figured I'd share with all of you and give you a timeline of everything that's happened. I found this to be interesting. This was from the ACLU, in June 2017.

Back in 2010, [the RI ACLU did a] policy breakdown, by school districts, on anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policies based on sexual orientation and gender identity expression. Several districts in Rhode Island had a policy regarding that. Westerly and seven others did not have any policy either from RIDE or a different policy from the school committee.

In 2014, there was a school committee meeting in Westerly regarding the policy for transgender and gender non-conforming students. That was discussed and it was ultimately tabled without a resolution. Unfortunately, based on school committee minutes and news reports, the reason seems clear - dozens of residents came to the meeting to express vehement opposition to the policy. This response highlighted the need for state involvement. That got the ACLU involved and they went to the state because every school district should have a detailed policy to address the many privacy, confidentiality, and inequality issues that the needs of transgender and gender non-conforming students present… RIDE created the guidelines to help districts. Chariho, Westerly, and all the other districts adopted what RIDE put out.

I didn't know the history behind it all, so I figured I'd share it with all of you. I agree that we should have our policy because I think the state guideline is too general. I think it was a protocol for us to take and use to write our policy.

Lori Wycall: I think that between the protocol that's there, we could edit - work with that. With our solicitor and superintendent, I think we have the people that we need. I mean, we're the policy committee. We should be able to write the policy. I'm confident that we can do something that's going to ensure the safety of all students in Westerly and ensure a safe and supportive learning environment that will keep the parents involved and everybody safe. And we can do it without some of the specifics that are in the RIDE guidance that I don't think fit with our community.

Christine Cooke: I appreciate what you just shared, Mr. Gencarelli because I too have looked back - and this is what Dr. Garceau was trying to say from the beginning - is that Superintendent Roy Seitsinger urged the school committee at the time. I wasn't on [this committee yet but] I remember all hell broke loose and I remember Roy was like, well, you guys need to do something. And then they tabled it. So Dr. Garceau got the guidance and we again didn't do anything. We didn't do anything. He ensured we were aware that there was a protocol and we all did not pay a lot of attention because we had a lot of other fish to fry. So this is an opportunity - and I don't think it has to be a high-stakes issue - to have a policy like we have with everything else.

Committee Member Diane Chiaradio Bowdy: My biggest thing is that we don't open ourselves up to any litigation. That's my biggest fear. But yeah, we should be able to do that here.

Robert Cillino: So we have a motion on the floor to create a transgender policy so that we can eliminate the state transgender policy that we have in place.

Solicitor William Nardone: Mr. Chairman, before you vote, just a reminder that until you have a policy in place, the state protocol stays in place. The superintendent has to be able to operate the district on a case-by-case day-to-day basis.

Lori Wycall: Maybe a timeframe? I don't want this to sit for months and months and months. Since we're talking about it, I think we should work on it sooner than later.

Robert Cillino: Right. We would have to have a first reading and a second reading before any policy we're going to put in place anyway.

At the end of the meeting, Robert Chiaradio thanked the committee for their vote.

“I want to commend this committee for the vote that you took a little while ago on the transgender, gender-nonconforming, and transitioning students policy,” said Chiaradio. “We all have confidence in this committee that you will write a policy that protects all kids and gives all kids the safety, respect, and privacy they need and deserve.

“Thank you for that very, very much.”

1. In general, I’ve replaced the term “gender non-conforming” with the more expansive and accepting term “gender diverse” except in direct quotes from speakers.