On Thursday August 9th 2018, the Board of Trustees will be discussing, and likely implementing the CCSD gender diverse policy that has been the subject of debate for over a year. The meeting will be held at the Clark County Government Center, Commission Chambers, 500 South Grand Central Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89155 at 6:00 p.m.
The revised CCSD gender diverse policy was posted on Friday, August 3rd. We have reviewed the document and spoken to CCSD officials who have been involved in the writing process to clarify critical points. The following is a rundown on the important aspects of this policy if it is passed as written on Thursday:
Restrooms and Locker Rooms: All CCSD campus restrooms and locker rooms are open to members of the opposite sex if they identify as transgender and wish to use the facilities consistent with their perceived gender. If students object to changing or using the same restroom facilities with a biological opposite, private accommodations will be made for those children.
CCSD interprets NRS 651.070 (Public Accommodations Law) as a mandate to give a biological boy access to female facilities if he thinks he is a girl. Nevada State Senator Michael Roberson testified in a public meeting that this law is not settled in Nevada and that the Public Accommodations Law is being applied improperly with respect to locker rooms and restrooms. The bottom line is, private facilities are open at school and there will probably have to be a lawsuit to settle the Public Accommodations question in Nevada.
Overnight Field Trips and Hotel Accommodations With a Gender Diverse Student: CCSD maintains that it will continue its policy of notifying the parents of potential roommates of a gender diverse student to obtain consent if their child will be rooming with a member of the opposite sex. The verbiage in the policy DOES NOT specify parental notification and consent. CCSD Chief Communications Officer, Kirsten Searer assured us that the intent of the policy is to continue notifying all parents involved, but the details will be given in Guidelines for Administrators. Guidelines for Administrators are not available to the public and is the document that comes after the policy is adopted.
Parents and guardians must have access to guidelines that specify procedures when dealing with the challenge of protecting student privacy on overnight field trips. The details are enormously important.
Important questions still remain with respect to this policy. Students will no longer be allowed to be separated as boys and girls for classroom activities. How will the district handle the 5th grade maturation presentation (initial sex-ed class) when children learn more about their developing bodies as they become men and women? Will students be taught that gender is fluid and not related to biology? We asked Kirsten Searer for clarification and she said no curriculum on gender ideology will be adopted. However, the policy wording is vague stating, "nothing in this definition requires adoption of a specific curriculum." Power2Parent is opposed to teaching children that gender is fluid and not related to biology to any student K-12.
There is time to influence the outcome of this policy by doing the following:
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