The board of a Union-based school district voted Thursday night to eliminate a set of local rules that is meant to support transgender and gender expansive students, despite many community members speaking out against the change during a packed, marathon meeting lasting six and a half hours.
The vote total from Regional School Unit 40 School board was a tie, at 8-8, but the deletion of the policy passed because some members carry more weight because of the size of the towns they represent. RSU 40 initially voted 8-7 to delete the policy at its May 16 meeting and had to hold a final vote on Thursday.
The policy has required several things of staff in RSU 40, including keeping the identity of transgender students private if that’s their choice, allowing the students to use the restrooms that most closely match their gender identities, and using their chosen names and pronouns.
Supporters of the policy say that it helps marginalized students to feel more welcomed and gives staff more guidance about how to support them, while the board members opposed to the policy have argued that it undermines families and isn’t necessary given state protections for transgender people.
The board members who voted in favor of deleting the policy were Naomi Aho, Joshua Blackman, Noah Botley, Joseph Henry, Randy Kassa, Nichole Taylor, Melvin Williams and Jeanette Wheeler.
Board members Julia Abernathy, Erik Amundsen, Chair Danny Jackson, Sandra O’Farrell, Brooke Simmons, Matthew Speno, Julie Swindler and Emily Trask-Eaton voted against deleting the policy.
Wheeler said she doesn’t hate transgender and gender expansive students, but that they should consider finding Jesus Christ.
“I will say to the crowd, if you’ve got dysphoria, I love you anyway. If you’re feeling hopeless, I’ll pray with you,” she said. “I’ll try to understand you, but you have to try to understand me.”
Botley said the policy needed to be deleted so it could be rebuilt from the ground up. Several board members suggested taking the policy to an ad-hoc committee to work out a version of it that everyone could be proud of, but Botley declined.
The district includes the towns of Union, Friendship, Waldoboro, Warren and Washington.
More than 100 people spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting. About 75 speakers opposed eliminating the policy, including principals, teachers, parents and transgender students, while more than 20 supported the board’s decision.
A social worker at Medomak Middle School in Waldoboro, Lydia Short, said the policy helped her do her job every day, and that deleting it simply sends the message that the school board does not value transgender and gender expansive students.
“It helps us do our job on the ground every day,” she said.
Several students at Medomak High School said bullying and violence against transgender students has been on the rise since the May 16 meeting. Over 100 students signed and presented a petition urging the board to keep the policy. Some of the students said though transgender students are protected under Maine state law, those rights don’t prevent them from being bullied.
But a private school student who identified herself only as Abigail spoke in favor of deleting the policy, asserting that if the transgender students don’t want to be bullied, they should just be “normal.”
After providing the Oxford Dictionary definition of “bullying,” she said, “Many times these instances of bullying are just rude words between others. Both are a normal thing. It teaches kids to stand up for themselves. I fight with kids at school all the time.”
One of the board members who supported deleting the policy, Taylor, said if transgender students are being bullied in RSU 40 schools, then it’s an issue with bullying, which is not covered by the policy.
Several transgender students who attend schools in RSU 40 spoke against getting rid of the policy. High schooler Wren Davis said the idea that trans students are dangerous isn’t based in reality.
“Do I look like I would do something to someone? I’m just trying to go to school and learn. I’m not trying to push my voice on anyone, I’m just trying to live,” they said.
Board member Botley said the policy had been brought up for formal review by another board member, Blackman of Warren, and then went through the policy committee before it was recommended for deletion.
Jules Walkup is a Report for America corps member. Additional support for this reporting is provided by BDN readers.