CCSD Board Adopt Transgender Policy on 4-3 Vote, Whats Next for Parents

CCSD Board Adopt Transgender Policy on 4-3 Vote, Whats Next for Parents

View In Browser POWER2PARENT.ORG Dear Powerful Parents, On Thursday evening, after over a year of discussion and meetings, the Clark County School Board of Trustees voted to adopt the gender diverse policy, 4-3 (Wright, Edwards, Brooks, Cavazos- For; Garvey, Young, Child- Against). Parents and community members who showed up at these meetings, emailed, called and engaged this process, thank you. Parents are understandably angry and disillusioned with this process and what this policy means, and there are still very real privacy and freedom of speech concerns for our students. However, your voices have influenced the process and helped shape this policy. Parents have rights, and we want to provide some context, perspective and a blueprint for what we can do moving forward.   What this policy means: Restrooms and locker rooms are open to members of the opposite sex if they are gender diverse or transgender. The good news: any requests for individual privacy will be accommodated. Any child can ask for private accommodations if they have concerns with a biological opposite in their private changing area or restrooms.   Accommodations for gender diverse or transgender students in hotel rooms on overnight field trips will require parental notification and consent from potential roommates of the transgender student. Parents must know and give approval for their child to room with a biological opposite. There are still freedom of speech concerns because of the policy mandates that the gender diverse student be addressed by their preferred pronoun. But individuals can, if they are concerned with having to call a biological boy a "she" or a "they" then individuals can choose whether to use a pronoun at all. Charter schools ARE NOT subject to CCSD policy. Charter schools are subject to the state regulation which has not been finalized. The Legislative Committee on Education is meeting on August 30th. If charter school parents want to affect the outcome of the state regulation, they should plan to be at that meeting. We will have more information next week about which lawmakers will be voting on that regulation.     What we can do: Engage your child. Ask your child the important open-ended questions each day about what they are learning, who their friends are, and if anything that happened at school made them sad or uncomfortable. Ask about the good things that happen as well. Communication is the key to helping our children understand and process their educational experience.   Educate your child. It is critical for parents to be aware of how this policy will affect their children at school. Talk to your kids about the policy if they are old enough, and make a plan for any eventuality. Privacy concerns can be addressed with the administration of the school. It is important for parents to have a relationship with school administrators and teachers so that when there are privacy concerns, they can be addressed appropriately and in a timely manner. Empower yourself. Parents are the consumers of CCSD. If they feel the public school system is not working for their family, there are a lot of great choices out there.  Power2Parent will be having school choice events to help educate parents about school choice. ESA's (Education Savings Accounts) are critical to expanded school choice. They must be funded by the legislature. ESA funding should be a campaign issue for every candidate running in the general election. Elections matter.  CCSD Trustees passed this policy and they are elected officials. It is important to know who your trustee is, how to contact him or her, and keep them accountable.       Moving forward, please mark your calendars for August 30th meeting of the Legislative Commission. They will be meeting to review and possibly adopt the regulation language for the statewide policy. Again, thank you for all you do to defend parental rights. Please forward this email to other powerful parents and community members. Respectfully, Erin Phillips, President Power2Parent is a parent-led, non-profit organization. We depend on your generous donations to continue our work defending our fundamental rights in this community and throughout the state. Thank you.   Donate Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2018 Power2Parent, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have expressed an interest in changes to the CCSD Sex Ed curriculum and/or parental rights in Nevada unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences

Parents have put up a great fight!

August 9th is the next CCSD Meeting on Gender Diversity.

View In Browser POWER2PARENT.ORG Dear Powerful Parents,   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: Read the policy here.  (It's not very long). CCSD Gender Diverse Policy   Write your Trustee and let them know how you feel about their vote by filling out the contact form here.   Come to the meeting on Thursday August 9th at 6:00 p.m. and advocate for children, privacy and respect.   Thank you for your willingness to engage and exercise your parental rights!   Sincerely, Power2Parent   Donate Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2018 Power2Parent, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have expressed an interest in changes to the CCSD Sex Ed curriculum and/or parental rights in Nevada unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences