NJ, districts to meet in court over transgender rights
By: Mary Ann Koruth
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... School boards that have been targeting the state-mandated privacy rights of school-age LGBTQ+ children - especially their right to come out to their parents in their own time - will soon have their day in court, facing off with the New Jersey Attorney General's Office over the civil rights of transgender students.
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An appeals court will hear oral arguments on November 19 [2024] from the state Division on Civil Rights, part of the Attorney General's Office, and three school boards sued by the state for allegedly violating state law.
..... This latest development comes more than a year after a state Superior Court judge in Morris County blocked Hanover Township Public Schools from implementing a policy that replaced state Policy 5756, a set of guidelines for schools to treat transgender students in accordance with state law.
..... The judge ordered the district to stop implementing its own new policy, which could have required school staff to "out" students to their families. Transgender students are a protected category under New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination.
..... Hanover Township, a K-8 school district in Morris County, appealed the judge's temporary injunction, which paused the district's implementation of the new policy in January. [2024]
..... The November 19 [2024] hearing also follows lawsuits to enforce the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination brought last year [2023] by the attorney general against three Monmouth County school districts: Manalapan-Englishtown, Marlboro and Middletown.
..... The state sued them, saying they violated the constitution by changing existing policies to require schools to "out" LGBTQ+ kids. Court order blocked all three districts from implementing their amended transgender policies.
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The Manalapan-Englishtown Board of Education adopted guidelines requiring tis schools to notify parents when their child makes their gender identity public by requesting accommodation for their gender identity in school, such as suing different pronouns or a different bathroom.
..... In March [2024] the American Civil Liberties Union and Garden State Equality, an LBTQ+ advocacy organization, field amicus briefs supporting the attorney general's cases against the three Monmouth County school districts.
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Transgender student rights have been in the cross-hairs of so-called parental rights activists despite the long-standing state Law Against Discrimination, which protects these students' rights to confidentiality, in how they express their gender while on school premises.
..... About 18 districts have repealed Policy 5765, according to Garden State Equality. The policy was created by a law singed in 2017 by Governor Chris Christie, directing school districts to create guidance on how to protect transgender students.
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It was adopted by nearly every state school district, until it became the target of the parental rights movement as it gain momentum nationally and in New Jersey in 2020.
..... Sparta Township in Sussex County, Ramapo Indian High Regional School district and Franklin Lakes Townships in Bergen County have all abolished the policy or amended it, with Ramapo Indian Hills doing so as recently as March. [2024] Challenges to the policy failed recently in Edison Township, one of the state's largest districts, with the board voting 6-3 against repealing it.
..... Parental rights activists have called Pro-pulbic education groups and the Murphy administration "groomers," and moved to dismantle these policies, drumming up support in often-vitriolic social media posts targeting LGBTQ+ youth and their supporters in schools.
..... On the Facebook page of the New Jersey Project, a local parental rights group, a moderator, Eric Simkin, posted a black-and-white photo of young children waving flags with Nazi swastikas, juxtaposed with children waving Pride rainbow flags, which are associated with gay and trans rights.
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"This organization has been relentless in their attacks on the LGBTQ+ transgender students community," said Mike Gottesman, founder of the new Jersey Public Education Coalition, a Wayne-based organization that has been organizing to keep Policy 5756 on the books. "they have crossed the line with this post," he said.
Schools must follow Law Against Discrimination
..... Experts say repealing Policy 5756 is a shortsighted move that has no impact on how schools treat strangered kids, other than making it more difficult for a principal or school official who needs to consult simply worded language that interprets state law.
..... "any attempts to revoke this important policy leaves school officials without clear guidance of the law, opens their districts to legal liability, and, most alarmingly, signals to LGBTQ+ students and families that their schools may not be a safe and welcoming environment," ACLU-NJ legal director Jeanne LoCicero told NorthJersey.com .
..... Schools districts are required to follow the Law Against Discrimination whether or not they have of the books. The outcome of the appellate hearing, however, could be that the case moves to the state Supreme Court, which would increase its scope and bring trans youths' rights under further scrutiny.
..... "The state has always respected the rights of parents and agrees that parents should be involved in important decision regarding their children - and any characterizations to the contrary are flatly incorrect," attorney General Matthew Platkin's office has said. "to be clear: the state has never sought and never will seek a 'ban' on parental notification."