Virginia wants schools to adopt policies to protect transgender students Will school boards go along? dailypress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailypress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Virginia Judge Questions Faith Groups in Fight Over Transgender Inclusive Student Policies
Virginia is no stranger to helping the nation reach legal decisions impacting transgender students and Wednesday s hearing in a rural court could be the start of another nationally-relevant fight.
LYNCHBURG, Va. (CN) A Virginia judge had tough questions for conservative groups Wednesday afternoon in a dispute hoping to block the state from implementing transgender-inclusive policies in the upcoming school year.
The Virginia Department of Education claimed the policies “address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with evidence-based best practices and include information, guidance, procedures” and their promulgation was required under legislation passed last year. But several parents and Richmond-based conservative groups, the Founding Freedoms Law Center, the Christian Action Network and the Family Foundation of Virginia, claim the policies infringe on teachers
BY DAVID TRAN AND JESS NOCERA
Richmond Times-Dispatch
RICHMOND â When Meredithâs son, who is transgender, started his freshman year at Henrico High School in 2017, Meredith emailed his teachers asking them to use his preferred name and pronouns. She said the teachers were more than willing to comply.
However, getting his name changed in the school s online system was a little more challenging, said Meredith, who asked that only her first name and her son s first initial E be used for privacy reasons. There were hiccups along the way â the school would not update his name in the system before it was legally changed.
The reason we have a separation of religion and state isn’t so crosses can be taken down from graves, but so religion – Islam included – isn’t taught in our schools.
The Christian Action Network (CAN) says Islamic indoctrination is going on in our schools in grades 5 through 12, at taxpayer expense. They have written a strongly-worded letter to Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos saying this violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
“The nature of the materials and the lack of any similar materials for other religions such as Judaism, Christianity or Hinduism demonstrate the Establishment Clause violation, because there can be no argument that the materials are for comparative educational purposes. The materials are accordingly offensive not only to our clients, but offensive to the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution,” the letter reads.
Legal Battle Over Protections for Transgender Students Continues vpm.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from vpm.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.