NPCSD Introduces Protection Plan for LGBTQ+ Students

On March 19, parents, students and staff spoke during a New Paltz Central School District (NPCSD) Board of Education meeting, requesting for the district to implement stronger protections for transgender and nonbinary students. 

These requests come in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders regarding transgender people and diversity, equity and inclusion. Trump plans to prevent public schools from assisting students in their transition through his “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” executive order. The order forbids transgender students from receiving mental health care from school counselors in regards to their gender, changing students names, referring to a student by pronouns which do not match their sex, referring to a student as nonbinary and using the bathroom or locker room of their choice. 

Kate Ryan, the first speaker of the group and a parent of two said, “It is no longer enough to rely on vague assurances of support.” Ryan listed the policy proposals the group requested, including the establishment of a working group dedicated to gender justice, affirmative pronoun policies, protection and support for teachers who discuss gender diversity, inclusive signage in bathrooms, protections and support for students when they face peer-to-peer discrimination and robust curricular support for gender education.

Many of the speakers endorsed the policies. A parent of a nonbinary student discussed the discrimination her child was facing. Mental health was often mentioned in the speeches. Various speakers cited the higher rates of mental illness, bullying and suicidal ideation found in LGBTQ+ youth, especially transgender youth. Dr. Michael Paff, a licensed psychologist and member of the state Suicide Prevention Council, discussed the issue’s urgency. “Everything we do has an effect. There are no neutral acts. We are either suicide preventing or suicide promoting,” he said. 

The follow-up workshop meeting on April 2 introduced the Confidential Gender Support Plan. The plan includes many of the policies Ryan and other supporters requested, such as affirming students’ names and pronouns, which bathrooms the student prefers to use and designating a “school safe person/s” to go to if issues arise. The plan allows for easy gender markers, pronoun and name changes for student IDs, emails and IEP/504 plans.

The Student Support Plan, the page given to students, details the district’s commitment “to fostering a safe learning environment for all students, free from discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex, gender, gender identity, gender nonconformity and gender expression” and includes resources for LGBTQ+ students such as the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center, the Trevor Hotline, Family of New Paltz and National Alliance on Mental Illness.