RSU5 2023-09-27 Board Meeting

001good evening all right so I feel like I'm right on top of my mic but it's still not real loud are you guys able to hear me okay in the audience in the back yeah thumbs up okay so I'm super close oh thank you so I'm super close to my mic uh and I'm gonna encourage other folks on the board as well as our speakers at the at the podium this evening to make sure they're uh uncomfortably close to the mic because that's what it feels like to make sure that everyone can hear what everyone has to say as well as the folks at home that are watching the live stream so with that we'll start good evening welcome to the RSU 5 board of directors meeting it is Wednesday September 27 2023 and we

002are here in the Freeport High School cafeteria uh the full board is here with the exception of Beth who is on her way she was having some car issues and our student rep I'm not sure if she will make it back in time I know she was at an away soccer game this afternoon so we will get started in the meantime with the Pledge of Allegiance just a quick reminder because we do have a lot of folks here um we have a new procedure for public comment given the volume of folks that we expect to want to speak this evening we have a sign up sheet over here right as you walked in if you wouldn't mind just putting your name and town on there and so we have a we have a queue and

003we will we'll go through it in the most efficient way possible um and we will get there shortly but we have a few things before public comment so number four on the agenda do I have a motion for consideration and approval of the minutes of the September 13 2023 meeting as presented barring any errors or omissions Kelly and Susana thank you all those in favor great none opposed adjustments to the agenda I have one this evening I would like to boy I am loud sorry about that uh I would like to move item 14a which is Personnel um after number seven public comment great thank you all right uh so we will move on to um we don't have a report from the student rep because she's not here I don't think Jen's here either

004is she she's not okay so we will move on to public comments I don't have the list but I think Cynthia will bring it to me and I know there were some on the list on that end too there was a couple of names on there so we'll make sure you want to make sure we grab them all uh so just a couple of I'll start with I'll start with our our um pre-public comment remarks around how we will run public comment and then I have a few other thoughts as we try to get through as many folks as we can tonight so in order for the board to have time to fully consider and discuss the issues at hand we're setting aside so we have 30 minutes on the agenda we have a lot

005of people here that would like to speak we have another 30 minute at the end of our agenda I'm suggesting we move that to the beginning so we have at least a full hour to get through as many of the folks that came out tonight to share their thoughts with us as we can so we will have we will have at least 60 Minutes for public input on this policy well or anything else you'd like to talk about while you're here so in order to hear from the largest number of different voices each speaker is limited to three minutes for comments but I'm going to encourage folks to be as brief as they can so we can get through as many people as we can so if if you can at all be under three

006minutes that's much appreciated and then we can hear from more folks for those that have not participated in our meetings before I just want to review a few rules ahead of time to ensure the process goes smoothly and there are no surprises so at the outset that we ask for each speaker to identify themselves with their name and their town of residence we ask you to try and be brief and not repeat yourself we know that discussions of school related issues can be emotional but please remember that our children are watching and that we're neighbors so please be civil we will not permit profanity or shouting at one another or comments that disparage or attack individuals or groups of individuals speakers should direct all comments to the board this is an opportunity for the board

007to listen to the opinions of the public that relate to school and education matters it is not a public debate or a conversation so no question should be directed to the board the board will not be responding to questions if they are asked we're here to listen in this part the board will not permit complaints or allegations against staff members these are Personnel issues and they are not we are not permitted to hear those in public if they are complaints against staff these will be handled appropriately through our complaint policy Keb so thank you for your patience while I went through the introduction I have hope and confidence that your participation will be helpful here this evening and constructive to the board so we have a pretty good list of folks that would like to

008speak this evening so one thing I'm going to do and there's only there's only a few that aren't and I apologize but we'll try to make sure we get to everybody on here we're going to make sure we hear from residents from Durham Freeport and panel first we do have a few folks that are are not in the district so if time allows we'll make sure that that we hear from them as well so I'm gonna I'm gonna say who the speaker is and who the next speaker after them is so if you're the next speaker up if you wouldn't mind just coming and queuing behind the podium so we can keep it moving uh from person to person three minutes uh at the max ideally a little bit quicker if you can and we

009will start with uh Ben Jensen and after Ben will be Mary Pennington is that okay in the back thumbs up yep okay I'm here again to speak in support of the church I'm sorry could you give me your name sorry Ben Ben Jensen Freeport thank you here again to speak in support of the transgender and gender expansive uh policy and to thank the board and the policy committee for acting to protect trans kids and schools in accordance with Maine law and for following suit of other school boards across the country that have acted to protect trans and gender expansive students he's well documented that nearly half of lgbtqia plus youth have seriously committed suicide lgbtqia plus kids who live in supported supportive communities reported significantly lower rates of suicide attempts than those who did not

010half of these kids are scared to even talk about their mental health it is clear that allowing trans kids to use the bathroom that matches their gender is harm reduction it is clear that implementing policies like this proposal are suicide prevention that people have the regressive idea that trans kids will go through all they go through just trying to be their authentic selves or only doing it for sports or to use a different bathroom is frankly ridiculous nothing about this policy infringes on the right of a parent to teach their kids anything no one is coming into anyone's homes and telling kids how they should or shouldn't be this policy simply creates a safe space at school especially for those kids who feel unsupported at home trans and gender expansive kids who feel high social

011support from their family reported attempting suicide at less than half the rate those who felt only moderate social support however less than 30 percent of transgender and non-binary youth find their home gender affirming parents who are supportive and love their children unconditionally no matter the child's gender identity can be the difference between a kid thriving or a kid attempting suicide sadly that is not the reality the majority of these kids face on a daily basis requiring all kids to conform to a patriarchal cisgender construct not only harms gender non-conforming kids but all kids by instilling the idea that there are kids who are normal and kids who are abnormal kids should know that safe Spate that school is a safe place for learning self-expression free from bigotry and discrimination discriminate discriminating against transgender people does

012nothing to decrease the risk of sexual assault non-discrimination laws do not allow men to go into women's bathrooms period girls use girls bathrooms boys use boys bathrooms trans girls are girls trans boys are boys preventing discrimination towards gender expansive kids does not somehow create discrimination against cisgender kids it is disheartening to know there are people who think that well-being is a zero-sum story trans people have always been here they've been largely written out of history and have faced bigotry hatred in charlatani due to their mere existence thank you for not trying to erase these kids from our community policies like this will help trans and gender expansive kids Thrive feel accepted and loved in their communities thank you again to the board and the policy committee for hearing us all out and for their diligence

013hard work and compassion thank you Ben so next we have uh Mary Pennington is up and then after Mary will be Emily moaker and I'm going to apologize ahead of time if I mess up anyone's name sorry okay is this close enough uh you might want to be a little closer I know uncomfortably close that's how it goes talk all day at school and put microphones terrifying my name is Mary Pennington I live in Durham I teach High School in a nearby District where that school board passed their ACAA policy last year 11-1 before I start I would like to add a Content warning about the mention of suicide initially when I wanted to think about what to say I wanted to talk about lgbtq Youth and the relief they find from living their authentic

014lives surrounded by supportive family friends and schools it happens and it's a joy to see but this afternoon at our school we had our suicide prevention training session the honest truth is that not every student is surrounded by supportive family and friends thus the need to make schools as safe as possible according to the Maine CDC high school students who are gay lesbian bisexual transgender or unsure of their gender identity are more likely to consider and attempt suicide 54 percent of transgender Maine high school students reported Suicidal Thoughts within the past year compared to 14 percent of non-transgender students what are some protective factors against these dark statistics at least one caring and supportive adult in their lives strong school safety measures such as the presence of gstas and civil rights groups for support and

015advocacy and critically name and identity affirming policies such as this one for Sharon's gender and gender expansive students for these vulnerable students every single protective Factor makes a difference so that they can live their authentic lives thank you for supporting this policy and supporting the well-being and safety of transgender and gender expansive students at school thank you Mary Emily moaker is up next and if we could have Nathan legere Leaguer sorry you'll be up after Emily if you want to queue up can you hear me my name is Emily moker I live in Durham and I'm the parent of three students in the district I'm here tonight to present a community letter of support for the policy on tonight's agenda the letter reads as follows weave the below co-signing community members of RSU 5 towns

016support the drafted policy ACAA transgender and gender expansive students we value the health safety and rights of transgender and gender expansive students in our school communities we recognize that individual transgender and gender expansive people including children deserve privacy and the autonomy to decide when and to whom they disclose their gender identity and that they deserve respect safety and support when they do disclose it we commend the board for taking the initiative to write this policy and to provide our Educators with a road map with which to navigate these sensitive topics we urge the board to vote in favor of passing policy ACAA as written thank you for all the work you do to serve our unique and vibrant School community this letter is signed by 229 people from Durham Freeport and Pownal you are emailed

017this letter two days ago in order to take it into consideration as you prepared for tonight's meeting and the numbers I just cited are updated and that list should have been sent to you this evening we will continue to collect signatures in support of this policy and of transgender and gender expansive youth in our schools until the policy is passed thank you again and have a good night thank you Emily so next uh we have Nathan and then I'm going to hop to the list on the other side just to make sure because I'm not sure what when people signed up so Marissa Freeman will be after Nathan good evening how are you it's unfortunate because whoever's on whatever side of the aisle no one's listening to each other there's statistics thrown around from the

018left and the right can I I'm just going to ask you to name in town first my name is Nathan Ledger and I live in Durham we remind ourselves that we are a governing body that serves our school system and our students not the electorate or Our member towns let me repeat that we are a governing body that serves our school system and our students not the electorate or Our member towns that's a direct quote from a member that serves on this board Madam chair I'm confused I was under the impression that your positions on this board was given to you by the electorate by We The People by the parents of rsu-5 I thought that every three years you had to ask us not the students Who are ineligible to vote and not the

019school system that can't go to The Ballot Box but by us you have to ask us to sit on this board I was under the impression that we hired you and we voted you into these seats and just as we hired you we can easily fire you to say that you are not beholden to the electorate that you don't serve the parents who voted you in is beyond disrespectful and full of arrogance so my message tonight is to the parents of RSU 5. unfortunately the board is not listening to you they don't care what you have to say and they're going to pass this policy standing up here behind the podium for three minutes while the board Daydreams shuffles their papers and rolls your eyes will change nothing true change needs to come at The

020Ballot Box if we don't like what this board is implementing we have to fire them we need to find people that are willing to put their names on the ballot we need to find people who are willing to sit on the board and willing to change what's going on in our school systems we need people to get out and vote that's where true change is actually going to happen not here tonight secondly this policy is just words on paper it actually means nothing I will never relinquish my duties and responsibilities as a parent I will never allow your ideologies to make its way into my home parents you have the power you need to get involved you need to open your children's book bags you need to enter their bedrooms and you need to have

021these tough conversations my children know to never speak about personal matters to school administrators that includes their development their private parts or any personal feelings that might have those conversations are meant for me because I'm their father they're meant for the home and not for school will always in my opinion be a place for academics not for social transitioning as I talk to my children about it every single day as some of you would like you will never be able to indoctrinate my children I look forward to Future elections I look forward to seeing some different faces on this board and in the near future and so pass whatever policy you want but when you find yourself out of a seat you might actually realize that you are beholden to the electorate thank you thank

022you Nathan [Applause] Marissa Marissa Freeman from Durham no okay so we will go Karen Breer and after Karen Chris Polk hi my name is Karen Breer I'm a resident of Freeport I have a child at Mass Landing school and two grown children who graduated from RSU 5. while I wasn't at the last meeting I watched it online we as residents were charged with reading the transgender and gender expansive policy and to come prepared to speak to that policy as a parent and resident within RSU 5 I stand in favor of this policy and for the students this policy supports it is a right to be safe to be transgender or gender expansive to be yourself and be supported emotionally socially and educationally at our Public Schools our schools are here for every student of our

023tri-town community which includes youth who identify in a gender non-conforming and expansive way as a citizen of this community I feel a responsibility to educate myself and my family with regards to people who live life and identify differently from How I Live and identify in doing so my knowledge and understanding are expanding which has created a more compassionate stance through which I view the world when I spoke with my child about going to this board meeting and that some people do have different opinions than we do which is fine she asked me what if the people who don't agree have a child who is transgender and I did not have an answer for her finally I encourage everyone in our community to listen to one another and consider viewpoints different from our own listen to

024our transgender and gender expansive Youth and their need to be accepted for who they are to be supported to feel safe and to be educated within our community thank you very much to this board and the policy committee thank you Karen Chris Polk and after Chris Evergreen Johnson my name is Chris Polk I live in Durham and I have three grandchildren in RSU yeah if you could be a little closer to the mic sorry I know my name is Chris Polk is that better okay I live in Durham and I have three grandchildren in RSU five I am here tonight to oppose this policy that you will be voting on one of my many concerns is not only the safety of the students but the awkward position you will be putting young girls in our

025children deserve to use bathrooms and locker rooms feeling safe while having privacy as they always have now you are looking at putting young girls at risk of sexual abuse or worse and at the very least feeling uncomfortable why I ask are you willing to jeopardize the safety and well-being of the majority of the students to make a few feel included and as for the other issue of not sharing with parents when a child and I repeat a child wants to transition these are not your children you don't make that decision God created in his own image in the image and likeness of God he created him mayo and female thank you thank you Chris so Evergreen Johnson and then we will jump to Adam Stone my name is Evergreen Johnson I live in Freeport and

026I'm the mother of two children I'm going to ask you to get a little closer sorry sorry my name is Evergreen Johnson I live in Freeport and I'm the mother of two children who graduated from Freeport High one of whom is transgender and autistic it's no small miracle that he made it through school without having been bullied and is alive and well today it seems to me there are two separate issues before us one is the right for students to have a non-judgmental place of support at school without the influence of their parents many of us who grew up with struggles at home found safe teachers who listened to us and shared our burdens and our right to have privacy was never questioned unless we were in danger or were in danger to others I

027believe this is the most important thing we can give a transgender child to especially if we know the outcome means a greater chance of them living I fully accepted my transgender child and yet still advocated for conservative treatment until he turned 18. because he felt safe and loved we are able to work together on a plan that was right for him until he reached adulthood Freeport High supported my child by calling them the name and pronouns they chose at no time did any staff attempt to persuade my child into being trans or not trans to do so would have been inappropriate had I been someone my child couldn't talk to about their struggles I would hope they have I would hope they would have found a safe place at school instead last week I Googled

028transgender student deaths over the past few years I had to stop after 10 children and every death the cause wasn't because they were trans but because they felt ostracized and unaccepted in their home school or community the second issue here is regarding bathroom and locker room usage I also Googled instances of of a student being sexually assaulted at school by a transgender student and found only one possibly legitimate case in Virginia turns out the victim was not randomly chosen the student was not trans and was already on staff's radar as being someone who had shown inappropriate behavior towards females as a biological female I understand fear and caution but I can't base my decisions on fear over a non-existent problem if it's not transgender people we should be worried about then is it people pretending

029to be transgender the truth is that if a violent person has the intention to harm someone a skirt isn't going to make a difference many people have personal reasons to want to sit a space separate from the opposite sex this is a legitimate concern because everyone has the right to feel safe in our schools there are already options for bathrooms and changing if someone feels vulnerable using a multi-stall bathroom with doors for privacy there are single unisex bathrooms available instead a non-trans child has the option to use what makes them the most comfortable a trans child should be able to do the same I don't know what gender dysphoria feels like but I invite you to take a moment as I once had to to imagine hating the side of your body so much that

030you showered in the dark that's the level of Shame these children are carrying and the extent to which they will hide themselves this policy protects some of our most vulnerable students while still keeping every child safe I'm grateful for the support my own child found here and thankful that this policy will help ensure that future students can grow up alive and well too thank you Evergreen Adam Stone so after Adam we're going to uh Jonas Werner and if I could ask uh if we could queue up for the next person just to be so we can be efficient with time thanks I'm Adam Stone Durham Maine this is my son orange stone Jeremy I am here excuse me I am here to remind all of you there are only two people two in this world

031they'll make decisions for this child this is this is my child my wife's child two those two people are me and my wife period there's no discussion on this zero um I grew up in a time of Live and Let Live I do not care what you all and your families do in your house that's your business it's not mine nor will it ever be I expect the same from you guys what goes on in our house is our business the way it should be as growing up it was always my understanding that the LGBT community I know there's a few more letters in there but um always wanted it this way that was there that was their rule it was Live and Let Live we will do our thing you do yours and I

032and I am perfectly okay with that that's the way it ought to be in America I'm curious why why does it seem that that standing policy has changed not that it was written in law but curious what is the percentage of kids that we are trying to cater to with these new rules is it five percent is it 10 percent what about the other 90 to 95 percent of kids that are in these schools and I think I'm being very generous with five or ten percent I've no doubt that it's far below that is there not to be any thought or concern to how uncomfortable it may make all those children or all those families you all say you want democracy well that would be 50 plus one fifty percent plus one 51 percent if

03351 percent are against it which I think we've Justified we're way beyond that you know this rule should never be looked at you know I'm okay with with some things but uh this is a bridge too far guys it looks like we are the ones being discriminated against I am not okay with little girls using the same bathroom as my son period there I am I am not okay with the accusations that could come from it not saying they will but they certainly could I guarantee you won't have our side on it none of you so that was the the three minutes so if you just wanna fair enough you give me I got two more two more lines here guys uh there are bigger concerns for the school I.E grades test scores I am

034here to inform you that if you guys can't stand up and protect our children we will be looking to replace you and my last thing to say I'm Adam Stone running for school board Durham Maine thank you Adam thank you Jonas and then after Jonas uh uh Jennifer does that sound right hopefully hi my name is Jonas Werner I'm from uh well I live in Freeport Maine and I'm not running for school board um I appreciate the work that you do very challenging obviously there are a lot of people sorry about that obviously there are a lot of people in this room that feel very strongly about this topic um I was not at the last meeting but I listened to all of the speakers and was very taken by the amount of fear obviously

035the everybody's afraid the people like me who have trans kids are afraid people who don't have trans kids or worried about their non-trans kids worried about my what might happen in the bathrooms to them I have two kids that went to school here I went to school the problem in school for my kids was never gay or trans kids it was bullies and bigots it's not the trans children it's not the gay kids I'm pretty sure it's probably the same today and so I really although I hear the fear that people have about this policy I'm just not sure it's as real as they think it might be I'm grateful for this policy I'm grateful that trans kids in our community we'll have some more support we don't know if some of the young deaths

036we've seen in our community have later related but I certainly don't want any to happen in the future I want every child in our community to feel supported no matter their background so I want to thank you and I'm here to support you thank you Jonas okay so uh Jennifer is who I called yet but I'm actually going to ask her to hold because I just saw that uh that's it's out of District so we'll get to Jennifer a little bit later I'm going to move to Phyllis Brannon and after Phyllis uh Jessica Conley please microphone can you hear me a little louder if you could good evening I'm Phyllis Brannon I live in Durham Maine I'm going to read an opinion that was given by a parent from out of state to her school

037board this also is my opinion I have to say we are discussing things with them children that they are not emotionally intellectually and morally able to handle that is what is causing the anxiety that is what is causing depression and that is what is causing confusion we need our children to be able to be children to be able to be innocent to be able to enjoy childhood and not know all of the drama know all of the difficulties of adult life so let me just say there's one goal for the educational system it should be to prepare children to enter careers to be productive members of society it's not a counseling session it's not a self-help area it's not somewhere to find yourself and we should not be led by the children the children are

038called dependents for a reason they depend on us you cannot feel your way through life and I do not support this draft policy thank you Phyllis so Jessica Conley and then after Jessica Anthony Pringle please I'm Jessica Conley of Durham here I am speaking to this board once again about policies I don't agree with this transgender and gender expansive students policy is being pushed on school districts across this across the state based off of a 2014 Maine Supreme Judicial Judicial Court ruling do versus RSU 24. in this case in this case it was decided by a small margin that with a that those with a medical diagnosis recognized by a doctor and the school can use the restroom of choice though they go on to say in quotes our opinion must not be read to

039require schools to permit students casual access to any bathroom of their choice this case is often misrepresented and being used misused to back policies such as the one we are speaking about tonight without requiring a medical diagnosis just as self-declaration from the student so I ask again how does this District plan to enforce this policy to keep the kids safe and ensure boys and girls aren't just sharing bathrooms infringing on kids especially adolescent girls rights to privacy and discretion I'll answer for you you can't we have already had countless safety concerns and assault cases that stemmed from similar policies what more is needed for the school board to see and recognize the warning signs this policy represents a small majority of our district yet affects all it imposes rules that many families completely disagree with

040how does this constitute making a decision in the best interest of all students in the district when it opens them up for increased risk of assault and invasion of privacy I realize the school board believes they are only accountable to the Department of Education but I disagree the school board represents the community's voice in a public education it also ensures taxpayers get the most for their tax dollars there are many of us taxpayers in this room that disagree with this policy and the allocation of any tax dollars to support it so why is this policy being pushed let's look at some facts that in my opinion make this policy completely inappropriate for our school district gender dysphoria starts on average at age seven eighty percent of children with gender dysphoria change their minds and do

041not continue into adulthood as trans 80 percent according to the state of Maine the age you are deemed mentally emotionally and intellectually mature enough to make decisions regarding sex is 16. the age of General maturity when someone is deemed mature enough to make big decisions is 18. the brain reaches full maturity in your mid to late twenties one of the last parts of your brain to mature is the prefrontal cortex which is responsible for planning and making sound decisions with those facts in mind why are we pushing a policy of this magnitude in our schools when the majority of the student population is not deemed mature enough to understand it according to the state benchmarks it is not the school board or the department of education's place to instruct coach or guide our kids in

042anything but academics it is my right and responsibility as a parent to guide my kids in all other matters this policy infringes us parents rights to decide when we will when we will talk about this topic of immense ambiguity it is is it any wonder why so many young people are reporting confusion depression and not fitting in our kids need to be allowed to be kids save this topic for when they are able to understand it thank you thank you Jessica [Applause] uh so Anthony thank you and after Anthony is Samantha miles good evening Anthony Pringle father of two from Durham with so much at stake with tonight's first read of the AC Triple A policy where do we start previously I brought to your attention the consequences of implementing failed extremist policies like these

043from Nationwide instances of sexual assault between students including including transgender victims took successful lawsuits from parents who were kept in the dark on the development of secret relationships between school representatives and our children the entire notion of this draft policy is disingenuous to the core we've been told that without this policy in place students are at risk from the reprisal of parents who don't support the sexual developments that school Representatives have encouraged now giving that logic I trust it will also be the policy of this District that any other information you assume will be received negatively will be withheld at your discretion from parents from this point I trust will no longer be receiving reports on poor grades bad behavior or drug use from here forward it will only be flowery news and secrets any

044parent who might react poorly to a student who becomes subject to this policy would also be the same who would react poorly to the Litany of other challenges experienced during a child's educational career for this the school is beholden to mandatory reporting with laws already in place to protect children who are subject to abuse for any reason therefore any attempted logic to keep parents in the dark on policies like these as a non-starter speaking of keeping secrets let's talk about that last meeting a board member gleefully opined that the board is not beholden to parents or taxpayers no they are accountable only to students as a result you must now remove parents from the equation to engage in secret keeping with our children as someone who is genuinely concerned with the safety and Welfare of

045my children I'd like to direct your attention to guidance from the Center for Child Protection namely on the topic of red flags of grooming behaviors some highlights include targeting specific kids for special attention slowly isolating a child from family members undermining relationships with parents to show that quote no one understands you like I do oh and here's one you'll really like encouraging kids to keep secrets from their family members as a sane Society we have long understood that there is only one instance for which people would seek to hide their relationships with children from their parents it's difficult for me to stand here and know for certain your true motives whether driven by blind virtue cowardice or something much worse but I am beginning to become a professional in connecting the dots and I think

046you can see the implications here as well as the rest of us and it's not a good look earlier I questioned whether the district will logically seek to no longer advise parents of drug use for fear of parent reprisal well it seems you've also got a chronic drug abuse problem on your hands in the high school bathrooms it's gotten so out of hand I understand in fact that I've heard directly from multiple students that they're now afraid to use the restrooms during the day and instead find themselves either intentionally dehydrating or holding the urge until they're able to return home to their parents in a safe environment you can't even control your own restrooms from children potentially overdosing in them and yet here you are inviting sexual assault into the equation incredible with all of

047that said I offer you an easy out two birds one stone sort of deal single-use bathrooms across the board monitor them externally if you must now no longer do students feel ostracized for any reason no longer are students at increased risk of sexual assault and no longer are these bathroom centers for drug dealing and sex crimes if you're genuinely committed to solving problems instead of creating them then we the parents are here to support you for the sake and safety of your kids theirs mine press the brake on this vote work with us to craft a better policy that serves all children equally as we have been imploring you all to do all along and put your money where your mouth is when it comes to protecting our children now is your final opportunity for

048collaboration otherwise we'll be forced to assume the worst of your motives and you alone will own the responsibility for the outcome thank you Anthony after uh after Samantha Melissa Schultz please my name is Samantha miles and I'm from Freeport I keep hearing the word come up here fear and if this policy doesn't scare you it should it should my friends because it sounds a lot like your secret is safe with me and I won't tell your parents if your child came to my home for a sleepover and those words came out of my mouth I think we'd have a problem see I'm a licensed foster home in the state of Maine one of my five children in my home is a foster child and to be licensed there was requirements from the state of Maine

049so I would like to question the legality in your policy that doesn't line up with what was legally required of me as a foster mom for instance I can't give my child a haircut without the permission of her biological mother whom let me add is not deemed safe to be in the her daughter is not deemed safe to be in her care and I still have to ask her permission for a haircut let me tell you what else I can't do I can't get her a covid vaccine without the permission of her mother I cannot take her to Storyland without the permission of her mother you see because the state realizes that the parents have the rights to make decisions so I'm questioning where you as the school board and as the school have the

050authority to make decisions for our children and to not make the parents aware because that goes completely counteractive to what I'm told from the state of Maine also when I had my home study the state required me to have a bedroom for my foster daughter that was not shared with somebody of the opposite sex she could not have a bedroom shared also if the state of Maine found out that my foster daughter was changing and using the bathroom at the same time as my biological son I can promise you she wouldn't be in my care because the state of Maine requires me to keep her safe in an effort to do that they're telling me she is not to share those facilities with her biologic or biological cousin in fact who was my son that

051is not allowed in my home but your policy is allowing it in a public environment at the school so I would question you to put the brakes on this policy and to review those things because what I'm seeing is totally counteractive to what the state of Maine is requiring as a safe foster home for a child in this District so I encourage families here too you all are hearing me this this is not legal if it's not legal in my home it's not legal in this school thank you thank you Samantha so after Melissa uh Jill Gaston gay please hi my name is Melissa I'm from pownell I just would have liked your address I really appreciate what the two before me said I have I could go on and on to what they had

052to say I'd like to address the two concerns that I have with could you would like to address the concerns I have with the direction the proposed policy regarding the transgender and gender expansive students is heading in as of tonight let me be clear I am in no way taking a stance against the transgender Community I am however advocating for the non-trans students who now will no longer have the choice to feel comfort and safety when using the bathroom or locker room or when the school provides an overnight field trip and shared sleeping spaces are involved with this policy in its current wording they will not even be able to voice their discomfort as there is no support or consideration for their preferences and quite frankly it induces fear and bullying and disciplinary action for

053them while there are transgender students who feel uncomfortable using biology assigned bathrooms and locker rooms there are also students have who have suffered sexual trauma or extreme modesty and anxiety and will have equal discomfort sharing personal and private space with biologically opposite students and they deserve the same consideration while adjusting to make these new accommodations um I I had a personal proposal but now I'm actually feeling more aligned with the gentleman who spoke and that why don't we just go back to or go to having single stalled bathrooms all around I think I agree with him vaping has been a problem in the schools I can't tell you how many times my kids have come home and said I couldn't go to the bathroom because there was only one bathroom available this is a problem

054that goes beyond just the transgender and the gender expansive students this is a whole big problem so that should really be a strong consideration to change your bathroom assignments and your bathroom Logistics my second point is my 18 year old son last year needed a parental signature to go for a field trip I think to L.L bean he was 18 years old he was an adult and he needed my signature to go leave the school as you move forward with this policy I question the wording that allows for may or may not parental or legal guardian inclusion I have some real concerns about how the vague wording is for supporting the student will this student receive medical and psychological treatment who will pay for this treatment will the students pay parents Insurance be used and

055even more profound who is going to support this student into adulthood adolescents may or may not change their minds and may or may not regret the choices that they make as teenagers who is going to support these young adults at that time if you as an Administration are going to support this person through physiological changes are you going to provide continued support after high school if parents and Guardians are not included in this decision-making progress or process I am a pediatric health care provider and I agree with the foster mom who spoke it takes an act of Congress to do anything to a child without parental parental permission we have to go to the ethics Community or the Ethics Committee we have to get a court order we have to go to DHS and have

056parental rights removed so I agree with her and that was a big question of mine is how are you circumventing this legality I don't understand how you've been given permission to cut parents out of the equation I just don't know and then the Fallout of that how are you going to support these kids afterwards you can't expect parents then to have a good relationship with their children into adulthood where I work I see children suffering with their decisions or things that have been allowed to happen because of a moment and I'm not saying everybody is that way so don't get up in arms about it but I'm just saying this is bigger than the wording that's in there and I too would say please pause before you pass this and let's have some reconsideration I

057um my final thought is that as a community and District we can do better if our goal is to achieve diversity equity and inclusivity for all then let's not overshoot the Mark we can do better thank you Melissa so after Jill I have Jackie Priestley please intimidation okay my name is Jill Gaston gay and I'm a resident of Durham I do not support this policy as it is written this evening my first concern is this policy doesn't address age or grades when my son was in kindergarten if a child got wet on the playground came inside and changed their wet clothes in front of the other students they were reprimanded they were reprimanded because they were exposing their genitalia to other students with different genitalia according to this policy this Behavior will still no longer

058be acceptable in the classroom but will be acceptable as long as the children are in a bathroom or locker room how are you going to help these children understand all that my next concern is with school sporting events when there are multiple schools using the locker room of their biological sex we are going are we going to forewarn other schools that there may be a transgender in the locker room boys and girls should know ahead of time that there may be genitalia which they have no desire to see on display my final concern is the lack of shared communication and medically professional involvement in this policy although there are rare genetic variations that make genitalia and sexual identity ambiguous these variations are just that rare yet according to the American Journal of Public Health one

059in 250 people in the U.S identify as transgender this means that their sexual identity is not based on a genetic variation but on psychological reasons according to the American Journal of Public Health and the advocates for youth over 40 percent of transgender adults attempted suicide 92 percent of which were before the age of 25. you alone cannot prevent a child from attempting suicide we realized that last year none of us could yet this policy doesn't require parental or medical professional involvement a client of mine shared the story of their grandchild who questioned her sexual identity the school had a similar policy to what you are considering tonight and they helped her change her identity to male and provide the child with time the social worker had because this social worker didn't meet with the parents

060they didn't realize that the sexual identity was the result of anxiety and depression this child was questioning their sexual identity because it was the one factor she could control at the time you see her closest grandfather passed away and her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer all in the same summer this child didn't need a change of identity she needed Professional Therapy to help her through this extremely difficult and heartbreaking time in her life her parents accidentally found out what the school had done and today the child is grateful that they did because they got her the professional help that she needed once her Depression was resolved so wasn't her sexual identity thoughts I'm not saying that all children who changed their sexual identity are sexually confused or have an underlying emotional difficulty but without

061consulting the parents neither can you I plead you all to take every effort you can to prevent one child from committing suicide and one of those efforts is to make sure you are communicating with the parents and helping these children get Professional Therapy thank you thank you Joe so after Jackie Alyssa O'Brien please okay hello again I'm sure you guys recognize me from the last few times I've come to speak um you know I think I speak we I know your name but not everyone briefly from Freeport thank you um I think I speak for several parents and community members here although not everyone obviously but I'd like to say that it's really exhausting and disheartening to continuously come here prepare these speeches share real concerns with actionable suggestions for all of you only to

062watch it fall on either deaf ears or be told by you that as board members you're not accountable to the public and only to the Department of Education that was sent in several emails to several of us parents I'd like to think that as elected officials and community members yourselves possibly even parents yourselves you'd want to take the stance that your position is meant to bridge the gap between your community and this overreaching government body that is just railroading education but regardless of who you feel accountable to the fact of the matter is that this policy is dangerous it holds immoral policies with no legal standing and it has no business in our schools the educational system has one goal and that's to provide our children with the opportunity to receive a high quality education

063that will enable them to succeed in college their chosen career and ultimately their life it's meant to prepare our children to be productive members of society by teaching them basic skills such as Reading Writing arithmetic and critical thinking and for you all as board members a quality and well-rounded education is not just one line item on your budget it's the only line item we should be teaching our children how to think not what to think we should be teaching our kids right from wrong fact from fiction truth from Lies We should be teaching our children to never trust anyone who tells them not to involve their parents in something especially life-altering decisions such as this policy suggests I'd like to leave off of this statistic the Maine Department of Health and Human Services compiled a

064survey showing 1.6 percent of Maine high school students yes only 1.6 percent identify as transgender so again as I stressed last meeting in order to accommodate this very small percentage of confused children who certainly deserve our compassion but not this affirmation we are creating a policy that puts the rest of our children in an uncomfortable and even dangerous position inside the most vulnerable of places the bathroom and the locker room you are being lied to by your attorneys the Department of Education and any other group that tells you that this is already a law based on the Supreme Court ruling as we have heard before this policy as it currently reads indicates no medical diagnosis is required and that self-declaration is enough this is where that danger arises for young girls especially when one day

065a male just decides he's feeling feminine enough to use their bathroom the Supreme Court ruling of Roe versus RSU 24 indicates that a medical diagnosis is required and that their ruling should not form the basis for school policy elsewhere I implore you to take a hard look at what is being suggested in this policy read between the lines and decide if you truly feel that the benefit outweighs the risk because to most of your community members it's obvious that this opens the door to far more risk and who honestly are you truly representing thank you thank you Jackie so after Alyssa Michelle Allen please good evening board members my name is Alyssa O'Brien I'm my Durham resident and parent of three children in the RSU I come to you tonight to plead with you to

066hear our concerns and take genuine care when voting on this overreach of policy you need to hear that there are concerned children that are in fear of this policy and what it will bring to their school a place where they should feel safe this policy will instill fear and more anxiety in the students the Board needs to consider how uncomfortable this will make the majority of the students I know that my children would be mortified if someone of the opposite sex saw their private parts no child under any circumstance should need to sacrifice the use of a bathroom where the simple use is to do what their body needs to do to function and be healthy the policy is not fair there needs to be another way if you vote this policy in as is

067you are confidently condoning via condoning violating children in bathrooms and locker rooms you as a school board are condoning the violation of children no child should feel unsafe in a bathroom in their own School telling children who feel violated that they have to accept the violate the violation so that other people who want to try out being the opposite sex can enjoy doing so is asinine it's also abuse the children who feel the children who will feel violated are not choosing to be a certain sex they are using the bathroom that is designed for their body parts the transgender kids are choosing to do something different therefore they should need to choose a different setting that still feels safe for all a single stall bathroom won't kill anyone or label anyone I take a single-use

068bathroom over a multi-stall any day school is for education and also supplies safe Necessities such as bathrooms and food school is not for finding your sexual finding your sexuality sexuality that is a personal Journey not Guided by a school lastly this policy should be done with a licensed provider guidance counseling degrees do not help children keep medical information from their legal Guardians unless there is a reason of abuse that is making students livelihood unsafe I'm not sure why people like the board hide behind policies like this all kids and teens lie to their parents this policy is insinuating that kids need emancipation from their parents who want them to be healthy we tell our children to not trust an adult who tells them to keep a secret the wording in this policy allows the school

069to keep gender affirming and counseling away from parents at the child's request this is a public school whose job is to teach academics the schools are failing miserably in simply and simply educating our kids how will they focus on how to improve the education system not to manipulate children and their sexual sexuality it's unfortunate that the school appears to be breeding a breeding ground for mental health issues due to many Educators who think woke lgbtq and social emotional learning is more relevant than actually educating our kids the rsu-5 has an anti-bullying policy set in place and it's worked well for all kids for years now our kids are inclusive we should be proud of that thank you Alyssa so after Michelle Polly Smith please okay she does not support the policy I'm speaking for her

070um my name is Michelle Allen I'm from Durham Maine Polly's my mom that's why I'm speaking for her um first I wanted to say I live in Durham I have two boys I grew up in Freeport for most of my life and went to Freeport high school and was very proud of the school that I went to and still proud of the things that are offered to my kids currently but I am here tonight to speak against the draft policy AAA as you have heard tonight or we'll be continuing to hear from the community please keep in mind that you are all elected officials and per the national school board you're elected by people in the community to represent values views and desires for the public school in the district as selected leaders in this

071community you can start to consistently communicate with the public keep community members abreast of challenges ideas and progress I've yet to see this posted by anything about the RSU other than the link to the agenda but no other conversation really out there showing people and educating people about the draft policy with that being said I ask you to actively listen to the community tonight actively listen discuss our questions our concerns and remember that we're all here for one common goal which is to protect and educate our children this policy needs to be paused we need to allow for more discussion more Community involvement including surveys to students parents teachers what will this policy look like do we or you know what the community's thoughts truly are you're finding out tonight and I'm sure you have

072in the past couple of weeks but we need to ensure that we're being thoughtful of the multiple impacts of this policy the policy states that it's to create a foster to create a supportive and fostering and Foster a safe learning environment for each and every student I'm disagreement with this policy because I don't see how this protects every student I have concerns that this allows our schools to have more control over my child than my husband and I do based on the rsu-5 website in the multiple policies listed there are already policies in place for harassment bullying and discrimination therefore creating a safe environment should be included and covered in those existing policies last week I sent an email to the board with my concerns and questions I received a response with answers that simply

073stated hi Michelle thanks for reaching out and sharing your concerns about policy a ACAA with the board we appreciate your feedback I encourage you to come or watch a live stream of the upcoming board meetings when the board discusses the policy no real answers to my questions so I'm here tonight with all of these people that are voicing concerns on both sides here are my questions and I strongly encourage you to include these in your discussion later tonight this draft does not detail who and how it determines when a parent is or is not included in these discussions aren't teachers and School staff supposed to call parents about grades bad behavior at school ask permission to give my child medicine but now we're allowing parents to be excluded from the conversation based on what this

074draft also does not explain who's monitoring restrooms if this is a private matter for a student and in quotes other relevant meeting participants how will members of the staff know which students are able to use which restrooms please think also about the legal precedence in Maine specifically stated earlier tonight about the main Supreme Judicial Court in the Roe versus RSU 24. the main Supreme Court did state that our opinion must not be read to require schools to permit students casual access to any bathroom of their choice decisions how to about how to address students legitimate gender identity issues are not to be taken lightly we also do not suggest that any person could demand access to any school facility or program based on a solely self-declaration of gender identity this draft also does not provide

075does not describe what a support plan is is this counseling medical treatment psychological treatment medications garments again there are other policies in place that a parent needs to approve prior to a school nurse providing medications the three minutes is up okay or we did get your email though but also trust that we've read that and yep we've got the questions all right so um with my questions I with this email and the questions I just ask that you have an active discussion include the community and further discussion thank you thank you [Applause] so next up we have Brenda levertier and after Brenda is Kate Sansum I'm Brenda La vertier I reside in Freeport I'd like to bring to the board's attention a recent federal judge ruling over San Diego County's Escondido Unified School District policy

076two Middle School teachers refused to uphold the school's policy that required staff to lie to parents and hide students gender confusion the teachers argued that the secrecy policy infringed on their first amendment free speech and free exercise of religious beliefs regardless of a teacher's religious affiliation it's wrong to expect School staff to lie in order to keep their job teachers educate and influence our children they shape the future of our society teachers are expected to have a high level of morality and integrity and probity requiring them to be dishonest in the course of their job is unconscionable U.S District Judge Roger Benitez issued a preliminary injunction that protects the teachers who challenge the school's policy he wrote that the policy appears to undermine constitutional rights calling it a trifecta of harm it harms the child

077who needs Parental Guidance and possibly mental health intervention to determine if the incongruence is organic or whether it is the result of bullying peer pressure or fleeting impulse it harms the parents by depriving them of the long recognized 14th Amendment right to care guide and make Health Care decisions for their children and finally it harms the plaintiffs who are compelled to violate the parents rights by forcing plaintiffs to conceal information they feel is critical for the welfare of their students violating plaintiff's religious beliefs Benitez made it clear that school districts who insist that the child's right to privacy is greater than the rights of parents are mistaken the Constitution neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination I ask you therefore chair person Richardson to please table the review first read end vote regarding policy

078ACAA transgender and gender expansive students there needs to be more legal review I would hate for the school board to incur significant legal expense thank you thank you Brenda so after Kate we have Todd mellons my name is Kate Sansom and I'm from panel I'm a graduate of this school this is my son Ben who attends this school I also have a sixth grade daughter I'm a Christian I'm a heterosexual I'm married to a quadriplegic I've been a foster mom who has also had to adhere to the same rules about boys and girls that were mentioned earlier on I also have a brother who is gay and married to a man one would think that being a Christian and having a gay brother who is accepted would oppose each other but you couldn't be more

079wrong my entire family is fully embraced and fully loves both my brother and his Husband we do not treat them any differently than any of my other siblings who are also heterosexual and married I believe in all children feeling loved and accepted for who they are at their young ages they're too young to vote drink get married rent cars and many of them are still too young to have a driver's license at these ages they're all trying to find where they belong and who they are in this world and I believe in giving them the space and the resources to do that I believe that this policy today is going too far it needs to be paused and rethought the community needs to be able to weigh in in an official way this should not

080be up to just the school board I do not want my daughter to have to share a bathroom with a transgender girl who has a penis my son should not have to share an open locker room with a transgender boy who has breasts he just doesn't need to be looking at breasts isn't it hard enough to be a preteen or a teen without being exposed daily to body parts of the opposite sex if you're wanting to pass a policy like this everything should be single use bathrooms and locker rooms do you like Starbucks and make all bathrooms single stall and for everyone remove the multi-stall bathrooms and by the way my son who is six feet tall and as strong as any man that I know has told me the heat is that he does

081everything he can not to use the multi-sol bathrooms in this school every day that he is here because of the drug use that's going on in them on a daily basis that is a much bigger issue to deal with first he's not even comfortable with entering the bathroom and and many of the rest of the single stall bathrooms are locked during the day because of drug use so my son is holding it all day long until he gets home do not subject my daughter who's too young to make any real decisions about her sexuality to adult issues it's my right to choose when the time is right for that and as for keeping this from the parents my sister is a teacher at one of the schools in this district and I know for a

082fact that she has one of your children in her classroom so how would you feel if my sister as your child's teacher started directing that child either away from or toward transitioning but it was without your permission or knowledge and went against your own family values also last and lastly just this past week I was called by the nurse at the middle school regarding an allergy medicine that I had sent in with my daughter that day that was followed by a form of course sent home that I had to sign in order for my daughter to be given said medicine at school by this nurse so you better believe that I would want to call about bigger issues than allergy medications thank you thank you Kate Todd and after Todd Melanie Wyman please my name

083is Todd Mellon I'm from Powell I appreciate I'm going to ask you to be try and be a little bit louder I'm not sure if the back came okay is that better uh Todd Mellon from pownell I appreciate a couple minutes of your time I'll preface my remarks by saying I do have a child in a LGBT community um that we fully support uh what I'm what I'm hearing a lot from one side is uh in support of this proposal is that those that argue against it are fearful and that's not really what I'm hearing I'm hearing that we're that there's a lot of concern about what the policy is actually saying and what it does to the majority of the kids in the school that we're not really considering um one part I'm not

084going to repeat what other people have said but one thing I haven't heard talked about yet is sports my daughter was a swimmer at the high school and it would be unfair for her to be competing against the biological male whether that was a trans male or not uh this this policy would just that would completely affect her her world in sports and that would have a great impact on all the girls sports teams from soccer to field hockey and that's uh one thing I hadn't heard talked about yet so thank you again for a couple minutes thank you Todd [Applause] so after Melanie Ben Ben Crawford does that sound right hi is this good all right I am Melanie Wyman Durham resident senior here at Freeport High School and standing president of the GSA

085um I stand before you as I said as the standing president of the GSA and I voice our opinion to support this policy having been here through my entire transition which up until this year had been purely a social transition I have found that what this policy would bring to the entire district is already the norm here at Freeport and okay thank you um and a lot of us in the LGBT community we are struck like I am the only senior that I know of that is out and proud as a trans woman one of very few trans people in general in my grade let alone the school and I wouldn't be here today as I am if it wasn't for the fact that we had the resources available and that I could talk to

086the people who could help me through my journey without worrying whether or not I was going to be kicked out of my own house because my parents didn't agree with it thankfully I have one of the most supporting family that could I I could possibly have and I'm so grateful um but the the resources that we have are really what gave me this opportunity to even be here today I also would like to note over the past just two days I have run uh a petition I suppose uh to collect signatures in support of this letter and in just two days of me and my busy senior schedule I collected 25 student and staff signatures on top of the already I heard over 200 from the entire community um last year in my gym class

087I you know I had only been growing out my hair that was the only thing that I had done as far as transitioning and after many talks with my teacher as long as as I was comfortable with it I was allowed to use the women's locker room and so I did and the only person in that entire space who felt nervous or anxious or scared was me because I was scared I was going to be harassed or attacked or look down upon just because I didn't belong but I was proven completely wrong that just because I was you know I didn't pass I was still accepted and there were no genitals in the locker room I'd like to note that it's it's kind of inappropriate for genitals at all [Applause] so that was three minutes

088if you wanted I will you can just run if you have a final sentence nope that was it thank you for your time thank you Melanie so after Ben oh boy uh Mitch Rhoda all right so you hear me I'm Ben Crawford from Freeport I believe probably most of you know me um I talked to my daughter before I came here she's in the high school and uh I was telling her what I was doing and she said oh you're going to that okay uh and I I said so what do you think what about safety what do you feel about safety and she said well I know 20 of the students feel really safe at Freeport High School eighty percent don't I said who's the 20 she goes well that's the lgbtq community the

089other 80 don't feel so safe and I thought well they're doing something right you know they've gotten that message out pretty well but I wonder about the other eighty percent if they're feeling that Safety and Security that they should they expect to feel when they come to school so I was here last time Mr Cheney shared a number of things with us in regards to how the policy was actually developed um and the major Focus that was used was the American Academy of Pediatrics policy from 2001. I found part of that I'd like to read a little bit while the data is limited population-based surveys estimate that points uh 0.7 percent of teens aged 13 to 17 identify as transgender we've had a bunch of numbers similar to that some a little bit higher according

090to that report is rapidly evolving clinical field Physicians play a role by offering a safe and inclusive place for transgender and gender diverse youth who have high rates of depression anxiety eating disorder substance use self-harm and suicide none of us want any of them that to struggle with any of that children who are supported by their parents and families are more likely to experience better physical and mental health according to AAP in one study 56 percent of Youth who identified as transgender reported thinking about suicide at some point and 31 percent reported as previously suicide attempts that's horrible that compares respectively to 20 percent and 11 so the numbers are higher in what the AAA AAP found for transgender students but that does mean a lot of high school students are struggling with the same

091issue so if you take freeport's High School numbers about 540 that means we have at least four students struggling with gender identity it's probably more than that our number is a little bit higher that would mean two of our students right now are probably struggling with Suicidal Thoughts because of their transgenderism we need to support them now one of those students would probably be struggling with it even if they weren't transgender so when I read the policy it says the plan is optional for students now the state said a plan should be put in place so did the AAP they said a plan should be put in place but our policy doesn't that means that any student at any time can use any bathroom or locker room they want to and do not have to

092have a plan it's a little odd does the RSU not want to know which children may be struggling with the very issues we've been stating or a problem if a student's struggling with depression anxiety we want to know that we want to be able to help put in a plan in place so we can support them but instead we're saying you don't need a plan and by the way this does say children who are supported by their parents and family are more likely to experience better physical Mental Health so let's get the parents involved in that let's not cut them out of it let's bring them to it was that my timer or do I have some more time okay so just just to close you know I have all people in the last person

093who want a child to die mine died four years ago okay I don't want any child to struggle with that I don't want any child to die but let's make sure we're protecting them using the procedures that we can put in place to help them and don't cut their parents out of it they're the ones that brought them into the world they're the ones that care most about them even if they're struggling with the same problem their child is thank you thank you Ben so after um Mitch we have Matt Matt Tiffany please okay so my name is Mitch Ruda I live in Freeport I want to just take issue with one aspect of the proposed policy which is in my opinion a breathtaking overreach of parental rights and their legitimate interests and that in

094turn is a gross violation of what is in the best interests of children so I heard at the last meeting a very horrifying figure cited that 1.9 percent of kids in Maine are abused so that was a wow and really and is it that at home and if that's true that is very scary but then shouldn't we be discussing a policy to find and identify those two percent and help them indeed it may well be appropriate to do so without parental notification but the problem with this policy is that children and that's what we're talking about children especially these days with all the sexualized talk and the chatter about pronouns and with policies such as these being discussed and implemented may very well want to try out being a different gender a gender gender at

095school and they may very well say they don't want their parents to know about it if it were your child would you want to know would you want to know would you want to know so for you to say that to protect the two percent that may be abused we will take the kids word for it and not contact the parents if they don't want that is to put 98 percent of the kids Out Of Reach of proper and healthy parenting we are talking about minors a term specifically created in law to require important decisions be made only with the guidance of a guardian do you think that means you are you now the legal guardians of this community's children you have no right you have some nerve but if you want to write a

096policy about how schools can help kids suffering from domestic abuse I will stand here and support thank you Mitch so after Matt uh Rita Rita Thacker hi um my name is Matt I'm a parent and a therapist and I live in Durham um I'm worried about what will happen to the kids they have a lot to worry about in this world without being pushed aside and left feeling unsafe I think that every nearly every person in this room feels something like what I just said I think there's a lot that's going on in society that feels like all of it's in danger of going off the rails there's a lot of people who feel like many things are going in the wrong direction I think people have a hard time when they're told that something

097that they thought was a given maybe it's not as black and white as all that maybe it's maybe there's more to it that can make people feel wary you can make them feel guarded that doesn't change the fact that this policy makes sense we shouldn't deny people a feeling of safety because of quote unquote the way it's always been or because gender can be confusing comprehension doesn't need to be a requirement for compassion we can learn about what's actually going on and not give in to scare tactics talk about rape in the bathrooms people saying things to suggest that because it is confusing because it's different it must be dangerous these are the same sort of Scare Tactics that have been used against black people and against gay people when people resort to scare tactics

098that's because they're scared and their fear clouds their judgment it closes their eyes to reality to statistics to Common Sense to their own compassion we don't need to be scared of a policy we need to be scared for all of our kids of the people that would have kids believe that different means dangerous or disgusting that's what breeds violence and threats please vote in favor of the policy thank you Matt so after Rita we have Mary Todd Beth Akron I live in Panama Maine oh yeah you definitely need to get a lot closer sorry my name is Rita Thacker and I'm just going to ask if the folks in the back if you can't hear if you could just like your hand up that'll give me an indication that you're having a hard time hearing

099and we can prompt I live in Pownal Maine and I have four children I don't understand how you think it is okay for children to make life-changing decisions without input from their parents most of these kids are not smart enough to wear a coat when it's cold out how can they make decisions that will affect them for the rest of their lives one of the first things a predator does is teach a child to keep a secret that everything is okay just don't tell your parents because they won't understand it is not okay for you to counsel my child in what could be a life-changing decision if my child came to you and said they were pregnant would you advise her what to do and would you allow her to allow her and help her

100to keep it a secret how do you choose what medical conditions to keep Secret will you be there in five seven ten years when the decisions you all made proved to be almost unbearable I don't think you will be but we as parents will be there and I as my child's parents should be the sole decision maker in my child's life staff does not have my permission to counsel or advise my child on anything life-altering you do not have the right to advise them on anything that does not pertain to academics thank you Rita [Applause] so Mary Todd and then after Mary um uh the last name Maxwell first name begins with a j sorry hi I'm Mary Todd pownell I have twin Juniors here at the high school and thankfully they're pretty well-rounded kids

101I asked them before I came and they said that you know I'm going to ask you to just be a little bit out loud sorry um I asked him before I came you know how they felt about the whole bathroom thing and they actually agreed that they don't use the you know the whole bathroom thing because of the drug use so that's you know great good good job um they're they're kind of desensitized to the whole thing like they don't care about the transgender thing but what I'm concerned about is my my neighbors kid who's in the first grade he came over and I complimented his haircut and he said I don't want to be a little girl I said well of course you don't darling girls have cooties and he goes I don't want

102to be a girl I don't want to be a girl and I go well who told you you could be a girl you said my teacher that's where grooming comes in and then what type of conversations are happening behind the parents back he's in the first grade first grade so I really think you guys need to think about that and also too I know it's a question and I'm not supposed to ask a question but I'll answer that said question when you have a bunch of lawsuits coming at you who's going to pay for that lawsuit the taxpayers and I don't want to so I really think you guys should think about this thank you thank you Mary okay and then uh uh Orion Breen will be next hi my name is Dale Maxwell um

103I'm actually kind of heart to see everybody out here tonight because just depending on which side of the issue it doesn't matter you thought it was important enough to skip Wheel of Fortune in jeopardy but I'm gonna give you I'm going to give you a perspective could you just let us know what town you're from oh I'm sorry I'm from Port thank you I'm going to give you a perspective that a lot of people don't I'm a fully formed adult in the wild trans person I don't have any issues about how to identify where to identify and I get my validation from me I'm a little concerned from a humanistic perspective about some of the things that have been said tonight and that's not to say that anybody's wrong it's just that I don't think

104you all have the full picture I've heard people talk about how this is a sexual issue when it's really a gender issue has nothing to do with sexuality or it shouldn't ever [Applause] you know even though there's a big argument about uh whether the tea belongs in LGBT the fact is that if you're not heteronormative you are looked at kind of side-eyed and it doesn't make any difference what your issue is somebody's going to disagree and sometimes they're going to do it violently 25 years ago in the early days well not early in the middays of my activism um the whole thing was gays in classrooms oh my God our CH run for your lives our children are going to be doomed because we have gay men and lesbians in our classroom teaching them mathematics

105and social studies now it's trans people in the bathroom well I'm going to tell you something if you take that and the sexual thing about it most trans people young or old are too intimidated to actually be predatory most of us are not that interested in like being sexually anything we're interested in just surviving another day without being beaten half to death Adam Stone said it Live and Let Live I agree with that you know I I've been a proponent of Live and Let Live my entire life and I think that the people who are behind me who are proponents of this uh believe that too they just want you to leave them alone and let them be themselves does this need a little fine tuning I'm addressing the board here with this I think

106you need to take a deeper dive into this and hold everybody accountable for their actions not just the people who are against it but the people who are for it too because they have a responsibility in this and I want you to know that physical assault and sexual assault are two different things one has to do with predation and power and the other has to do with just plain bullying and hate and having been a victim of of uh physical assault twice while doing nothing but promoting a common sense approach to building a bridge between the different philosophies and ideologies I can tell you that nobody wanted to sexually violate me but they definitely wanted to somewhat annihilate me and respect is a two-way street you know just like you guys are expected to respect

107the idea the identities of trans people the trans youths have a responsibility to their environment to act responsibly and I think that this all boils down to is that cooler heads need to Prevail on both sides of this issue you need to get your facts straight you need to stop calling it something it isn't you need to stop pretending that it's something that it isn't if you're trans if you're an ally you should make sure you're on Solid Ground faux statistics and trust me I've been a reporter for LGBT issues for 25 years I've got file cabinets full of Statistics almost everything I heard here is like skewed to make your point and there's no there's not enough scientific evidence you can't even explain why people are trans these days so those statistics is about

108how many people are running around claiming to be trans I think we need to give it a little attitude because you have people who are otherwise in the very midst of finding out who they are as human beings they're not fully formed yet cut them some slack that was that what your timer did go up so okay I'm gonna let me just uh I just want to say the last thing I've heard them I've heard trans people be described as confused we're not really confused we've been given a set of circumstances that we didn't ask for necessarily and a lot of us feel alienated and I'm sure after this discussion some of them are going to continue to feel alienated I hope you'll all look deep in your hearts and find some empathy to come

109up with a more balanced approach to dealing with this and I hope you guys will come up with a more balanced approach to implementing it thank you so Orion Breen and then following would be uh Chandra Jin Robbins hi hello my name is Orion Breen I live in Pownal and I have a child at Freeport Middle School um my child is uh non-binary and uh if you don't understand what that means that's totally fine uh they're just a kid who is obsessed with Zelda and is just like any other kid and you know and they're friends with kids and go over to their house and you know I know that some of their friends parents they don't get what non-binary is and we can still be friends uh we are still neighbors uh we are

110still a community um I support this transgender and gender expansive students uh policy um and but I want folks who don't support to understand that I hear you I still consider you a neighbor you can still be a friend um I I share some of your concerns uh you know the Freeport Middle School is lucky to have a lot of single stall bathrooms and it's concerning to hear that uh that sounds like there is a potential drug problem in the high school and uh definitely something needs to be addressed and if there's single stall more single stalls will make more people feel comfortable I support that and I hope people will support putting that into the budget if that's something that will make more students uh feel comfortable to me this policy is not about

111keeping secrets from people uh that's not how I read this policy um you know my kid growing up there may be some things that they don't feel comfortable talking to me about right away I feel good that there are people at the school who are licensed professionals and are educated and trained about how to talk to kids and listen to kids and can help them work through their feelings so that they feel comfortable talking to me about anything um I think that is the point of the school and and what we're talking about this policy is that it's it's it's to encourage kids to feel like they have adults in life that they can talk to and and and that they and those parents and those people that the the kids talk to are not

112encouraging the kids to keep secrets from their parents but I encourage them to work to their feelings so that they can feel comfortable to talk to their parents um and so that's why I I support this policy and I appreciate everybody that came out and and and has concerns about the community and that's a good thing to see so many people here and I hope that we'll see just as many people here when we discuss the budget as well thank you thank you Ryan Chandra so we have Chandra up next and then uh Sarah Dutton after her can you hear me my name is Shonda Robbins I live in Freeport I am a business owner here in Freeport and I also reside here I have heard a lot of a position to this particular bill

113and I apologize if I'm not doing this right I've never been to one of these before and was hoping to never have to come to one of these before but um as I was saying I probably agreed with or at least it had discussions as I've heard on the opposing this bill and then plot twist a year ago my child came out as trans and then this was not somebody else's child this was not somebody else's problem this was in my house and I am lucky enough that I didn't ever have to worry about a teacher or somebody knowing something about my kid that I didn't know because my kid told me first and I'm incredibly proud of that that she felt comfortable enough to come to me and tell me that she was trans

114and I'm not gonna lie and say it was easy because it was not it is still not easy it is a terrific transition and um it's very difficult as a parent when something happens to your kid that you are not prepared for my child was a side male at Birth I had plans for my son I had plans for how they would be when they grew up I had all these things and then plot twist she's a girl and I didn't know what that meant until it was in my house and I did not know what it meant to have a child who I remember when it was like to be 15. I remember how weird it was to go through puberty I remember what it was the brush showed up way too early my

115sister they showed up way too late you know it's weird but it would have I can't begin to imagine what it's like for my child who is a girl to be growing facial hair and to be having erections and having nocturnal emissions and um whose voice is getting more like her father's not more like mine I cannot understand how difficult that is for her and I can't make it any better for her except to support her in every way I can I support this bill because this bill is already in effect or Bill it's not Bill what is it called policy because this is already the policy my family has experienced in the Freeport schools up until this point I have been so proud to be here in Freeport intolerance and my other friends I

116mean I'm one of a handful of non-white people in this state and one of a handful of the wine people so people are saying it's only one person that counts okay that gives me pause I have to admit that does give me pause but my experience as a Mainer is that we are neighbors we take care of each other okay we don't understand everything everybody else is doing because let's admit it some people do really weird things but we as a community we come together we support each other we want to do the best thing for our kids and I have to say as a parent as a trans child if you are worried that your child is trans and talking about this with somebody else there is a very simple solution for this and

117this is this ask your kid if they're trans ask them and if that makes you uncomfortable I have to tell you that's actually not your kid's problem and it's not the school board's problem okay okay as a parent I have had to learn to do a lot of things I never thought I would have to do because my kid needed me to do and one of them was learn to be a parent to a trans child and to learn how to speak respectfully to her I gotta tell you the pronouns thing and the name change is a real doozy my mother still can't get her header out thank God she chose she my mother couldn't get her head around the non-binary day thing but so I'm in support of this bill I'm in support of

118policy I'm in support of this policy because this is already the policy and if you're afraid of what's going to happen when this policy is implemented this policy is already occurring okay and the people who are scared are actually not your kids they're mine thank you Chandra so after after Sarah we have uh Mickey Hart Hi how are you can you hear me okay is that is that better is that better yeah no okay well my name is Sarah doughton um my husband Mike and I both grew up in Freeport we both graduated from Freeport and we've raised our daughter also in Freeport um most of what I have already written down has been said but I'm I'm just gonna read it again anyway fear is driving so much of this policy and is creating

119fear within our community although I disagree with most of this policy my biggest fear is regarding parental rights being taken away if this policy is passed I don't want to impose on anyone's rights and I don't want anyone imposing online or my family's rights as a mandated reporter if a teacher believes that child abuse and or neglect is happening it is their responsibility to report it period there should be no reason for a child to take on the role sorry there should be no reason for a teacher to take on the role of a parent and make medical decisions for that child especially without knowing any prior medical history how can anyone make any safe informed decisions without knowing this I would hope that you would want to have meta better medical care for our

120the kids in our community these are not your kids you are not the parent the only justification I am reading this policy is that there is a theoretical possibility that there is a parent that might not handle a gender related issue correctly and because of that you are you are going to take the parental rights from all of us strip them from from all of us if this policy is passed as is you are going to get yourself and the town in a situation where you are directly liable for when a really awful situation occurs with one of the kids to me by passing and removing our parental rights you are saying that you don't believe any of us to be good capable parents that are able to make healthy choices when it comes to

121raising kids and that you believe we are going to hurt our kids without having any evidence I would never have thought that I'd be up here pleading out of fear that a parent's rights could be taken away from them and even even crazier thing is that nobody would even know that their that their rights have been taken away from them so please don't punish us for Parental crimes um that you think others may possibly theoretically theoretically commit you have heard and we'll hear a lot of comments tonight I'm sure your email boxes are flooded I am asking tonight for you to table this do not make a recommendation as to how the board should vote yet I hope that the board will consider all that you have heard and read regarding this policy to me

122this is such a huge topic I ask you all to watch tonight's meeting a couple of times and truly think about what you would uh what you will be voting on now and for the future parents and kids of Freeport Durham and panel please find Solutions with the greatest impact for the most amount of people thank you Sarah [Applause] so after Nikki we have Claire Ross hi I'm Nikki Hart Freeport co-director of parents rights Maine I am a mom and a lesbian of the gay community who has provided high-level therapeutic care for children and States custody I was also that child that's being marginalized today I suffered from gender dysforth the age of seven by the age of 10 I was that vulnerable child learning disabilities dysfunctional home and depression at the age of 14

123I was victimized by so-called safe adult who was The Trusted pillar of the schools suicidal ideation led me to being in the custody of DHS where I started attending Bagley which is the Boston Alliance of gay and lesbian youth because of my background I was easily targeted softened groomed desensitized sexualized exploited victimized and trafficked all in the name of equality and inclusion why do I share this I am the product of what happens when schools overstep boundaries based on assumptions rather than data and facts I have seen firsthand how even the most well-intentioned adults and policies can cause real life harmful effects it has proven fact that parental involvement highly reduces suicidal ideation drug use bullion Dropout rates and victimization even a quality Main and out Main and others clearly state that is extremely vital

124for LGBT identifying youth to have complete parental support in order to have healthy and Alive children so why in the same breath do they contradict this by heavily influencing schools to change policies excluding such critical parental involvement yet none of you question this or why we are using the school's legal resources and limited funding to create these policies that inadvertently undermine parental rights and involvement which leaves students at a disadvantage in core academics while prioritizing ideology pushed by these non-profits equality inclusion is not creating policies for just LGBT trans identifying students while excluding policies that equally protect all students no matter how they identify so where are the policies for the children who don't identify as LGBT or trans it is not creating safe spaces and displaying flags and posters that identify LGBT students while

125discriminately excluding children who don't identify as such so where are their safe spaces flags and posters we don't support one minority group by creating a new one it is not placed in one protected class over another forcing competing rights or violating another child's human right which is legally actionable it is not exposing children to books that normalize and blur boundaries of incest rape violent sex bestiality pedophilia and perversions this just triggers the children that have been victimized and research shows it causes actual developmental harm even to those who haven't and it is certainly not forcing children to choose a trans identity while being exclusive of those who choose to identify as straight patriotic religious or any other posing Viewpoint there is no difference between a homosexual and a heterosexual heterosexual except for who he chooses

126Partners you can't teach someone to be gay no more than you could teach someone to be straight believe in anything different is degrading demoralizing and delusional your decisions are impact in the health and well-being of every student no matter how they identify which is causing irreparable damage to their lives and academic Futures their actions are reflecting poorly on our schools it is inappropriate unprofessional and sends a message that your mission is political activism which never ensures equality for everyone thank you thank you Nikki Claire Claire Ross and after Claire Hugh Bowen hello can you hear me you might want to get a little closer a little closer like that okay my name is Claire Ross I live in Durham and I am going to be short and sweet about this um after hearing all the

127heartfelt testimony tonight I'm asking you to look deeply within to table this policy there are legal questions there are so many questions that have been raised so eloquently by other people here tonight the fact that you have so many people here on this issue should be enough to look deep within and table this vote I think we need a lot more work on it and even though you have given a lot to it and you've worked hard on it yourselves I think we have a lot more to add to it and the community is speaking tonight my hats off to people in this room there's no US versus them we're one Community thank you thank you Claire so uh Hugh and then after Hugh is Joe migliaccio Cube Owen Freeport uh I don't have anything

128prepared to say but um just in hearing everybody speak um I feel like I'm a pretty middle-of-the-road guy uh I believe I mean I agree with uh quite a bit of the policy um but it just seems like the committee was just trying to shoot the moon with this and uh you know way off in in whatever left or right field and uh I just think uh a little bit more time and uh you know thoughtfulness on both sides and I think there's a middle ground to be reached um I just think uh this was you know some of the details of this policy ask a lot one portion of it that I really don't agree with is uh a small portion that a lot of people might not have noticed is mandating students to

129use pronouns um you know I'm not a guy that likes pronouns I don't want to be told I'm supposed to use them I don't want my kids to be forced to use them uh I don't think that that reflects that you know any you know you're hateful or or scared or unaccepting you know if you can treat somebody with respect um you know so there's some little things there that I think would uh make the policy less offensive to a lot of people um that's all thank you thank you Hugh so after Joe um if we have uh Reverend Sean Patrick Cody hi I'm Joe maliacho I live in Freeport um I just wanted to say I was here a couple weeks ago and spoke and asked a couple of questions that I think were

130echoed here today I also when I left watched the video and heard the chair of the committee that authored this say it has to be written the way it is because we live in a transphobic Society and there's a lot of things generally in society that cause phobias arachnophobia Glacier phobia or a glass of sodaphobia which is spear fear of public speaking there are some other names about fat phobias and fat shaming and other things and it might surprise you to learn when I was in Middle School in Freeport I was a fat short guy kid and I'll tell you what I don't remember anybody and and I'll tell you I've seen it recently I don't remember anybody asking me if I felt bullied or anything like that maybe I would today but I don't

131think I'd talk about it and would you expect if I did talk about it that you'd start giving me diet pills and coaching me on how to lose weight without talking to my parents because school and home don't separate it's kind of sophomore to think that you could do this in school with me and then I go home and my mother is feeding me three pizzas so why wouldn't you also work in these initial counseling meetings that I heard somebody say my experiences the counselors doing everything they can to get their kid comfortable so they can talk to the parents if that's the goal you better put it in the policy because you can't trust people to just give mental health in social health counseling uh you know this is a teaching entity and we're

132trying to keep the social compact of the family together I know some of you may have your black lives matter signs on the lawn which totally disagrees with the nuclear family unit that's fine but we still have a social compact here we're trying to preserve families we're trying to keep fathers and mothers involved in the life of their parents and when you think about this so please I would say you need to do what you need to do on the law some of this is legal and yes people the state of Maine if you go uh I think you still have the boardsmanship thing up there there are laws that say they really are upholding to only focus on the schools you know budgets things like that aren't aren't that so just to put a

133fine point on that when you're you're saying that but I really was insulted to imply that Freeport uh poundo in Durham are transphobic communities public speaking math science those things scare people and what I would I would leave you with is please just stop using the sophomoric grouped in term trans it's insulting to my friends myself with family members we're not just people aren't just all grouped into one thing and what I will say is uh phobia is designed or defined as when exposed or thinking about a topic you feel faint you get dizzy you feel like you're gonna die you have fear of death you have fear of many things I don't know but I'd love to hear how many children in the Freeport schools are walking around when they've met somebody who may

134be trans sexual transvestite trans you know all of those things not conforming do they fall down faint get dizzy do they go to then it's not a phobia respectfully thank you Joe all right and then I'm I'm back to Jennifer kirari from I think it's from Falmouth so if I'm messing your name I'm sorry but um well hi everyone my name is Sean Patrick and I do live in Portland uh which is why I'm speaking now I think um but I'm the minister at South Freeport Congregational Church and I've I've been part of this community for about a year and a half now um and I just want to commend the board on this policy for me growing up queer in the 90s being in high school in the early 2000s it was not easy

135and I did not feel supported by my school I didn't feel like there were adults I could come talk to about it and um you know my parents loved me but I was terrified about coming out to them because until you do that like you just you don't know um how they're going to react and if they're really gonna you know surround you with their love or if they're gonna react out of a place of fear um so just thank you for this policy I read through it it looks really reasonable to me and and seems like it will make trans and gender expensive students feel like they belong like they're not other like they don't have to go to this one special place that only they go to um and I just want to

136say that all of the trans and gender expenses of Youth that are here adults that have children who are trans and gender expansive Bravo on being here and listening to some of these comments and um I see you and just support you and um I'm proud of proud of this town proud to be a pastor in this town so thank you thank you Sean Patrick and then our last speaker uh that looks like the name starts with an S so maybe Nick it's also from Portland sorry hi I'm Jennifer Curran I'm from Falmouth I am part of the lgbtqia community as well over the summer a gentleman here at RSU 5 shared three new stories that he believed highlighted safety concerns regarding trans student rights in schools specifically in restrooms and locker rooms the first

137story is from Loudoun County and the details of the story include horrific sexual assault that happened in the female restroom between two students the perpetrator of the salt was initially described by a number of conservative news sources as a transgender individual since then this horrible assault has been used as a warning to Target Trans Safety policies as of this month September 14th there's been an update to the facts of this story the Loudoun County circuit court judge ordered a release of the findings of an independent investigation of the loud and sexual assault cases the report stated that it found no evidence that the student who perpetrated the assault was transgender are that he purposely wore a kilt to get into the girl's bathroom instead the teacher said that the student preferred male pronouns and his

138mother also stated he identified as a male finally at the time of the assault there was no policy bathroom policy that included trans children in that policy second case was Johnson Middle School the second example cited by this speaker again detailed assault perpetrated by a trans student news update the Melbourne Police Department investigated this allegation concluded the allegation is totally unfounded it did not happen the third example well that's still alleged we'll see what happens the same speaker recently mentioned a lawsuit well here's another at Kenosha Unified School District the district Woodward was ordered to pay eight hundred thousand dollars to settle a federal lawsuit brought by a transgender student the district banned the student from using the boys restroom referred to him by female pronouns and discriminated against him in various other ways judge

139and Claire Williams wrote the harms identified by the school district are all speculative and based upon conjecture where the harms to the student are well documented and supported by record so why of all the fear of salts in restrooms and locker rooms well we know there's no link between trans-inclusive policies and bathroom safety and we know this by a study conducted by The Williams Institute that tested the relationship between non-discrimination laws and public accommodations and reports on crime in public restrooms and other gender segregated facilities the quote from this institute's tested refining say the opponents of public accommodation laws that include gender identity protections often claim that laws leave women and children vulnerable to attack in public restrooms said the lead author Ms hazenbush but the study provides evidence that these incidents are rare and

140unrelated to the laws so is it hard to believe that a trans student who might be targeted in class or after or in a bathroom might need support here in your school to feel validated and safe it wasn't so long ago that as a gay woman I could be fired it wasn't until 2009 that we had these Protections in place if I got sexually discriminated against or fired I had no protections that happened what 15 years ago you have a chance to include children that are marginalized I appreciate you and I hope you do the right thing thank you thank you Jennifer okay so that oh yes one more sorry uh good evening is this good yes wonderful uh before I'd like to start I'd like to state that my name's Nick I'm from Portland

141and I'd like to thank all the other trans people who are here today to support themselves I myself am a trans person I am here tonight on behalf of myself and my peer members of Portland outright Portland outright is an organization that's been supporting and advocating for lgbtq young people throughout the state of Maine since 1988. the members of Portland outright are proud to support our us-5's new policies to support transgender and gender expansive students these policies are about treating students with basic decency that's all we want as trans people for our classmates our kids our students ourselves we want the safety and support that we need to focus on education if a student named Alexandra wants to be called Lexi we don't need to need an administrative red tape to prevent her from going

142by the name that feels better for her same if Christopher wants to go by his middle name Kyle then he should be able to it's just the same for Trans student students their name and pronouns are nothing but an aspect of their identity just like any other students likewise it should be simple for a student to safely use the bathroom as an outright member an outright member who is in high school right now had this to say as a trans masculine person I don't feel safe using the boy's bathroom I've had past experiences of being singled out compared to others and even physically pushed out of the bathroom I also don't use the girls bathroom because I present as a boy and as a result I have to go out of my way to to

143go to one of the few single stall bathrooms all the way on the first floor I go out of my way trying to make my peers feel comfortable when they go to the bathroom but I'm a very soon but I'm afraid of facing more violence and aggression just because I have to use the bathroom this member spends valuable time that should be dedicated to learning in the classroom either walking away walking all the way across campus or worrying about his safety all of this takes away from the valuable education that transgender students should be receiving that all students should be receiving creating a supporting support plan that centers gender non-conforming students should be no different than creating a 504 plan these policies simply make learning more accessible and Equitable for all students not just transgender

144ones we all know and recognize that both parents and schools want the best for our children and young people in their Care Portland is happy to see art the RSU 5 Administration take care to support education and safety of transgender expansive students in their Community we believe everyone has the right to a decent education and can't wait to see this policy put in place thank you thank you Nick foreign thank you for for uh the respectful listening to all the different folks that got up and spoke this evening um this might be a record for the number of of public comments so thank you for for the patience and for your willingness to come out and and share your thoughts on this uh we're going to continue on with the rest of our agenda uh

145so I would encourage you all to stay but I will remind you that this concludes the discussion from the public as a part of this meeting so this now becomes uh the audience feel free to stay and watch but there is no communication back and forth between it's now the time for the board to do our work which does include the first read of that policy but also a few other things so uh with that I believe we are moving over to the adjustment to the agenda to make sure we get this done which is 14a so do I have a motion for consideration and approval to employ a third grade teacher at the panel Elementary School for the 22 excuse me 2023 2024 school year Kelly and Maddie thank you I think I bring

146to you Emma Everett Emma has a BS in education from the University of Maine and a master's in education from the University of New England let me ask you a quick question do we not have that in our folders Jenny did not put the orange sheet in no okay I don't well I will I will describe Emma then okay um we apologize for that um she holds certification um pre-kindergarten as well as grades K to three she has experienced as a second grade teacher at Limestone Community School references describe Emma as caring collaborative having a calm tone with students respected seeking out feedback and a good team player any questions for information folks would typically look at at those orange sheets that you would like I don't know if you have it though either do

147you know is this a permanent position this is this this is permanent we had a um a staff member that's leaving to take an administrative position in another District so this is a permanent position other questions okay uh all those in favor great not opposed all right so uh report from the superintendent okay so in your packet uh you have the policy and school properties disposition and I'm just going to tell you about some items that are no longer used to us that we would like to dispose of per policy I'm just informing you that we have um the 2014 Big Ideas Math materials for grades six to eight there are about 30 student textbooks per grade level along with teachers editions and packages we have purchased the 2020 version in that 2014 version is

148no longer available it's obsolete and really under the policy we like to dispose of them because there's no present or future values we like to dispose of those as well as we have some outdated old teachers editions for K2 units of study because there is no present or future value of them just informing you that we have those items we are going to dispose of yeah sorry G Onna get it nice and close uh could you say that last one again the last one is some teachers editions for the K2 units of study that are outdated okay thank you and that's it for the superintendent's report all right uh all right administrator reports we have Finance uh Kelly Wentworth welcome back can you hear me louder okay good evening in your packet this evening are

149the expenditures for July and August of 2023 before school started as you know our fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30. and because we did not have the meeting in July I have included both in this um financial report it's very early on although we do look financially healthy at this point we're continuing to monitor things we any of the previous positions that had been brought forward have been funded largely by grants that we receive through the district and where although we still have a lot of those positions open there is funding for those positions through those grants if anyone's interested please feel free to visit our website under the employment section and apply for any of the open positions within the district I do want to remind people as well that all of

150the financial statements that are included for monthly both monthly and all previous years are included on our website under the budget section on listed under financial statements that's where you can find the full details I present just the summary within the board packet we did have a finance committee meeting at the beginning of the month that I am sure Beth will go over under the committee report section s for Kelly thank you thanks all right so we will move on to 9B which is an update from the Moore Street school and goal review Julie Nickerson good evening I'm Julina Kissin the principal at Moore Street for those of you who I haven't met before um so just generally we've had a great opening to school we've welcomed um 326 I think students back to school

151this year and um you know with just this is our fifth week of school we're getting into um academics having just set expectations and Community built in our classrooms um so in your packets you will have seen uh an update of last year's goals and then this year's goals and for those of you who are on the board at this time last year you'll know that the goal we set um was a new one for us and reflected um the change of our demographic in our classrooms and that we really had to think a little harder about differentiating for all our Learners and ensuring that all Learners have an access point um whenever we're learning at school um so you'll see that many of our many of our action steps were ongoing or already kind

152of achieved and and we're just kind of building on them um our data at the end of last year we saw a little growth but not the growth we would hope for so this goal will maintain for this year we've turned over a third of our classroom teaching staff this year so it makes sense to just continue along the path of the learning that we were doing last year and maintain this goal um and we'd like to see greater growth in our in our data targets one of the things in our new goals you'll see the change in the strategies and action steps that I just want to highlight is a more focused um study if you like around assessment for a kind of subset of Learners what we're finding is we have probably more

153like 75 of our students who are what we would call instructional at Benchmark so they're handling the great uh the work of the grade level and they're just not quite getting to a point where they're fully independent with that content so we're really trying to focus on that group of students who we're not quite getting to the Finish Line at the end of a grade level um to see if we can really pull our data up from where it stands right now so you'll see in the document that I've created for this year that our focus is around thinking about assessments so that we can more closely monitor the growth for those students particularly but all students um and then we're we're focusing our plc's to plan as teams um to kind of support each

154other and have a collaborative approach to our learning so any specific questions you might have around what's in those documents more I have a couple thank you so much Julie those assessments will those can you hear me oh my gosh okay I'll just I'll try to speak loudly you know I'm not good at that um are those new assessments or to be determined or are they is it more frequent assessment what's yeah so currently if you looked at the assessments we do at K2 it's pretty it's pretty comprehensive we do a like at K2 reading instruction particularly has a lot of components to it and so you know once you get students get to three five we're giving them the mwa and it's um a more broad-brushed kind of approach to assessment we have a

155lot of like discrete skills we're assessing and most of those assessments are done one-on-one so it's not any additional assessments we do have one new assessment that we're using which is our phonic decoding assessment um but really the focus is more on more an increased frequency particularly for that group so that we can monitor more closely um like small steps in growth okay thank you and I had a question on the second page but did you get that did you get to that yet no you can ask okay um where it says under special education uh work with the uh participate in PD to better understand the new units of study and literacy is that continuing following on following on new curriculum from last year or yes so um we've continued to use units of

156study but this revised versions for both reading and writing at the K2 level so this year we're fully implementing last year K started in January with the new unit the revised units it's not completely brand new um and then starting now for this new school year K2 all classrooms K2 are doing that using the revised units for both reading and writing and so we're bringing up special educators into that PD so that they're fully aware of what is happening in the classroom so that special ed can truly be a laodon support and they know what the classroom is is working on okay and is there a separate separate from that is there an additional phonics curriculum that's layered on top of that I'm just asking because I feel like I heard something about it at

157parent night yeah so we have so we use all three of the literacy components that the units to study but produce okay Jesus College produce um so we do Reading Writing and phonics phonics has its own and they all intertwine so they're separate workshops for students to experience but the learning is is kind of layered on from each of those parts and I'm gonna ask one more question has there been um you know when the teachers have to implement the new curriculum I'm assuming that's like probably time intensive is that take a PD and is that something that's been worked on the past year yeah so this year our commitment for K2 teachers is all our PD days are focused on literacy um and on math coaching is kind of supporting plcs so so and

158we had you know that was before school opportunities to to support those new the new implementation it's not for those teachers who've been teaching with us for a while the lift is not um it's an adjustment more than a like whole revamp but uh starting with k last year definitely helped us kind of anticipate some different things that we were able to support the other grades with I'm just up [Music] now can you hear me I'm just wondering what the overall goals are as far as like percentages I guess I'm kind of a numbers person so um I mean ultimately alcohol would always be 100 of online right but I think that's probably not no completely reasonable but right so I think um I've stood here before and I have um we've thought that 20

15910 increase is a realistic increase On Any Given year so our hope Would we that we could grow at least 10 more percent on each of those data points as Baseline for this year I might say that that would be helpful to have in here um because I think when we look back to say okay how did we do are we happy with how we did I think having just that kind of reminder of what's a reasonable increase to expect because if we hold you to 100 that's not really fair so we might want to include that in here yeah I was also curious how is that going let's go amazingly well that yeah no it's um we've been able to really share the responsibility of really wrapping around students and then one of the

160things you might remember was the priority for the ask was as a district we really value supporting our teachers and and ensuring that all students have access to high quality instruction and um and that is what was I was having difficulty with based on our increased students in need was actually getting to classrooms to do observations so that's already made a really big difference and having five new staff like that's really important this year to get those teachers on you know off to a great start and um you know just really implementing instruction in a way that we expect here in our district so no it's been great thank you great Maddie thanks Julie it's nice to see you and hear your report I wish we'd had more time for more of the fun update

161stuff I miss I miss that stuff um I'm concerned to hear that that the turnover in the teaching staff was a a third um I just love to know a little bit more about what why you think that is is that people leaving the profession is that is there anything that you can put your finger on that we should be aware of um no there's a variety of reasons there was a retirement that was a medical concern and a couple of teachers um moved on for a different opportunity uh one of our kindergarten teachers um Jamie Palmer for example she has left but it was she was um you know she's been talking to me for years about wanting to teach middle school and she has gone to teach middle school so um sad to

162see her girl but she's fought she was following her professional goals so it it really it really has just been a circumstantial thing and I think also um more Street I mean this is my ninth year I think at Mall Street and for a very long time we had a very stable veteran staff and so I think some of it is to be expected that we would now start to see more turnover but and I can't miss the opportunity to just ask how our new manners are doing great yeah no it's it's um I was saying earlier that it's fun to be reminded how much growth has um occurred with our students who still remain from our first round of students that joined us and the amount of language they now have in comparison to

163our new students who who have come and how far they've come so um so yeah we're excited to have them and um and start our cycle over but no it's been it's been good Julie I was wondering about the positions for the early intervention team I know it's across schools but do you have that in place this year is it yeah yeah no we hired um three amazing people and you know I feel based on the current state of hiring particularly in special ed we are fortunate to have hired three really amazing people of those positions and um and so it's it's like the model is still evolving as we're kind of living it but it's like second year round already started off on a really great footing and and they've been a really strong

164addition to our Pre-K team as a whole and they serve as kind of coaches to our teaching staff as well in order as well as serving students directly so it's been really successful thank you other questions for Julie thank you thank you all right um so board comments and committee reports did we just do this at the last meeting yes is it usually every other meeting okay um we'll move through it quickly uh board information exchange or gender requests Kelly do I have to hold this down I'm just mentioning this on behalf of Meetinghouse Arts they have an upcoming exhibition in October entitled Americans who tell the truth it's a portrait series by main artist Robert shetterly and it's going to be open to the public there's a reception on October 20. and then on

165October 23 Monday Connie Carter who is the education director for Americans who tell the truth will lead a free workshop for teachers that includes a visit to the gallery a film about young people who have stood up for racial social and environmental justice and a discussion about how to use the suggested free lesson plans Ms Carter will provide a certificate of completion for teachers who may need recertification credit and if any of our teachers do have any questions about how to access this resource they may get in touch with Penny Dublin at Meetinghouse arts and I can provide that information thank you Susanna I have a slightly ironic one given given last week's discussion two weeks ago discussion on all of the work that comes out of the cable TV board um an update on

166that just because I will be getting off the board in another couple meetings our appointment from the RSU is not an appointment to that board so just for us to know that it's a recommendation to the town to then be appointed to the board which seems to explain why I have known nothing about this board for the past four years but does not explained that the board has not met for the past eight so just any of these boards that are town on Town boards that we're making an appointment we need to make sure that that position actually gets appointed and so following through with that it's not just enough that we make that recommendation [Music] so you're not in charge is what I'm hearing of that I thought you were the only one on

167the board apparently not there's apparently a board but we're still trying to figure out who's actually on that board but so just just for any of these boards that are illumination to a town position the town actually needs to go through and approve our nomination does not do that okay uh I think that's the only one we have so yeah but for November when we reappoint that we need to make sure that that happens we let the town know so that they do it okay perfect thank you for that um I'll just share a quick update that I had last week last Wednesday um uh msma main school school management association uh hosted a kind of a round table discussion with um with the office of new Americans with school board chairs um it's and

168it was Erica Erica Carly Harris and she's with the governor's office of policy innovation in the future and it was basically just a discussion around um you know what would be helpful for this this is a government a governor-appointed a new office that will be opened it will be started in in 2024 there's actually a network across 19 states in the country for office for new Americans and it was really just a listening session of what would be helpful for schools around what this office could provide it's not going to obviously be a huge huge office so but more facilitation to resources or communication or those sort of things and I believe in October they have another discussion happening with superintendents so we had there was a good good number of folks there Panera taken

169the the Department of Education commissioner Deputy Commissioner someone from the children's cabinet for the state the Yarmouth chair York chair Portland South Portland Brunswick myself rsu2 it was it was a good discussion and it was a lot around um you know improving funding for services communication was a really big piece you know to avoid surprises would be great so I thought it was a really good first step and I'm interested and excited to see what that office can do so Mara so Gene and I had talked a little bit about this but I just wanted to make a formal ask for more information about the literacy curriculum because we've had a couple of community members contact us about the curriculum we are using and there's been some public discussion and um sort of I don't

170want to say reading Wars but um there's there's um in the education curriculum literacy Fields some shifts going on between traditional methods that I think we've used in Teachers College and moves towards science of literacy or science of reading I mean so I'd just be curious to know more maybe that's something our curriculum committee could take up and bring back to us I know we've recently purchased like Julie said new teachers College curriculum but I'm I'm still wondering if those updates are are enough um I think we're lucky that we have the resources to be able to do that and to get the better updated curriculum to try to make sure we have the best um literacy teaching methods we possibly can so I just would love to learn more about that all right yeah

171Colin makes the show thank thank you Michelle um I have two things one um I would love um Gene perhaps it's uh this is for sort of you and Jen gulco but we've heard a lot of parents tonight um with concerns around uh drug use in the schools and I wondered whether we might be able to have an update on what um on that issue and what the school is doing the schools are doing to address it second I would like to just ask the curriculum committee and any other parties that are relevant to um uh at some point this year give us a bit of an update on how the question of AI is being addressed in education and the impact of um of uh chat GPT and the uh um the new Power

172for generating texts and how that may impact a variety of different aspects of how our children are learning and the education they're receiving well that's a big one any other questions or information Exchange all right so I will flip it over to Beth for finance committee well I gave you an update last so there's really really new because we that was our last meeting um and but basically we just um kind of set our work for the year and decided to change um our meeting dates to line up with when the Director of Finance gives her report to the board so we will now be meeting on the second uh meeting of the month I guess so um that will just be the change and I will take any questions sorry I have a lot

173of questions tonight actually it's a comment about um something I forgot about to put on this list of topics that um the budget brochure I know that if we want to do anything with that we had to just do it far in advance right if we want to read yes we will definitely if we want to rework the budget brochure that goes out to The Community thank you for reminding us about that we will put that on there so thank you more anybody else okay good all right thank you uh policy great thanks so uh we met on uh September 8th uh on Zoom um and worry uh the substance of our meeting had to do with our um policy review um just for the I mean the board knows this but also for the

174Public's awareness um we will we look as a policy committee at um at different policies for different reasons um some of them are policies that we're looking at because there's been a change in law and we need to make sure that our policies are in compliance with that law other times there's been a a question has been raised by the board or by the administration of something that we need to look at and then there's a huge category of policies where we just need to look at them on a regular basis just to make sure that they are up to speed um so that was what we were looking at last time we looked at BCA the board of directors code of ethics uh GB JC retention of application materials um and bbba board of

175directors member qualifications the first two uh BCA and G BJC uh were reviewed with no substantive changes um and uh bbba uh we had some questions for uh the administration as also also else for our Council so we're getting some answers for that and that we brought back to the policy committee on October 6th we also talked a bit about the uh the board committee report out that I did last time on the boards on the communities behalf um and we also had a discussion about the policy Community Logistics there were some good questions that had been raised about uh whether we should return to be meeting in person for the policy committee and while we agreed that we would really like to all meet again and be able to uh eat the donuts that

176Cynthia would bring um we really wanted to maintain the the greatest possibility for um for public ability to to witness and to uh to understand the process of what we're engaged in so we're going to be continuing to meet via zoom and our next meeting will be on October 6th 2023 at 8 45 AM are there any questions for Colin okay thank you all right so policy review uh do I have a motion for consideration and approval of first read of policy ACAA transgender and gender expansive students Mara and Kelly thank you are you doing the update or is Cynthia Colin um this is not an update this is a discussion well I know but usually you guys start the discussion well the uh the I think we've had to start a discussion with the

177uh very um uh impressive Community turnout um I think we as you know we gave our uh committee report last week in terms of outlining some of the basic principles that we were using um some of the with the different ways in which we could break down uh thinking about the um the policy um and uh we also asked you for questions um and a number of you sent in questions to us so um we've we've been thinking about those as a committee also been talking to Gene um uh for the administrative perspective I think overall uh this evening we can have we should have the uh the conversation should go wherever it needs to go um I think in general I think the committee is prepared to answer to answer questions about about how

178we develop the policy and about the policy but also we are going to defer to Gene um for uh for questions that have more to do with existing um sort of existing procedures as well as how how the administration understands the impact of the policy as written so now we get to talk about it I wanted to kick us off with them just I hope you'll indulge me I've written some things down that I'm just going to read because um uh we had a lot of questions that came from the board and I appreciate that so I thought I'd get the ball rolling so I'll start by saying I support passing the first read of this policy as written with one minor change to section e number five which was suggested by one of our

179board members just making sure that that number four and number five use similar language and I can read that specifically at the end of these comments um I'm no longer on the policy committee but I was over the past year while we wrote and prepared AC Triple A we reviewed sample language reviewed proposed and current policies in other districts conferred with RSU 5 staff to better understand current practice consulted our attorneys about what is required by law requested input from representative students read and heard input from parents and community members and discussed at length in great detail how to best provide for the students of RSU 5 and those of you on this board know that this has been happening for a year there has been absolutely nothing rushed about this process it has been

180lengthy robust exhaustive and not exhausting exhaustive we take we've taken this charge very seriously um so that's comment number one I do want to thank the current committee chair for his thorough report at our last meeting and to those of you who have reflected Upon Our reporting over the last year and reflected on the community input and I know you're all taking the community input very seriously and I appreciate your time and attention to that because I know it's not easy to sit up here and not be able to answer questions and to hear the passion with which many community members views are expressed it's difficult and I I commend everybody on this board for taking their job very seriously and I want to thank you for sending your questions by email in preparation for

181the discussion so um well I'm not going to specifically identify the questions that came through I think these comments reflect my my answers to those and some of my personal views as well so this is discussion it is a long-held practice of the policy committee to draft policy which is clear in in their intent but flexible in their language it's always tempting to consider every possible scenario and draft language which would presumably control any imagined human behavior but the committee understands that that's an impossible task and it actually makes the jobs of our staff and administration more difficult please note the language in the second paragraph of the policy which states quote this policy is not intended to anticipate every possible situation that may occur since the needs of particular students and families May differ

182depending on the student's age and other factors end quote the committee crafted language to be flexible in order to allow for the wisdom and experience of the people in whom we have entrusted our students care to prevail we made the assumptions that our staff are trustworthy people and trustworthy in their work similarly we assumed that all of our students are inherently trustworthy people we did not assume that any group of people related by age gender race sexuality religion etc etc would ever be inherently more dangerous to anyone speaking personally it is my belief that if the committee or the board were to do so we would be guilty of perpetuating myths and stereotypes the likes of which have led to some of the world's most horrific atrocities that people have perpetrated upon one another and

183very personally I'm the great granddaughter of Catherine Alexander Katz who was murdered at Auschwitz because she was a member of a group of people who some at the time believed to be dangerous to others so this is the lens that I apply to my work on behalf of any group of people and especially to the children of RSU 5. to protect and avoid stereotypes of any kind so with all of that said I do not believe that this policy should a I do not believe this policy should a specifically outline what a support plan might look like I think we need to be flexible on that front I do not believe it should specifically describe how a student would or would not choose to involve all of their Guardians and I do not believe that

184the policy should specify how and when use of certain bathrooms should be determined beyond what is already outlined within the policy I want to acknowledge that the many members of the community who have addressed the board regarding this draft policy it is heartening when members of the public engage themselves in understanding the work of a school board but I find it distressing when false narratives occur which increase unnecessary fear divisiveness and outrage some have suggested that the committee's work is anti-parent which is a very dangerous line of rhetoric I wish to remind the board of the following which was reported to you at the last meeting and I'm quoting we believe that given the information available to us regarding rates of abuse maltreatment violence and suicidal ideation and attempts that the administrators should trust the

185student to determine when and if to involve their parents in the creation of a school plan we have structured the policy to reflect this while also respecting the importance of encouraging open dialogue with parents and family around these important life decisions end quote and I believe we've heard it represented in some of the commentary tonight that this is the practice and has been the practice and we do consider the family unit very important it's also important to acknowledge that in addition to the public comment we've received tonight and at the last meeting we've also received many many letters from the community many of which express support of the work of the committee and urge us to accept it as written which I do as well and just to specifically talk about the section that I

186do think we should change for Cynthia's notes um section e number five if we were to change that it would mirror the language in number four so it it would read locker rooms students are permitted to use the locker room that most closely matches their gender identity if any student expresses a need for privacy dot dot dot the rest is written so essentially changing it from if the student expresses to if any student so similar to what it says okay care thank you Maddie for those remarks I appreciate your perspective as someone who's been working on this for the past year I did prepare a few thoughts as well so our roles on the board are to do what we think is in the best interest of the students yes we were voted by our

187town Neighbors we were voted to do what we think is in best interest of the students a responsibility as school board members in partnership with the superintendent is to provide leadership to guide the mission and direction of rsu-5 the first strategic goal to meet that mission is for all rsu5 students to experience a joyful learning climate that is safe nurturing and fosters curiosity I believe this policy will help achieve that I'd like to say thank you to Colin Maddie and candy for the amount of time research and very thoughtful consideration you've put into this policy you haven't taken it lightly at all I haven't taken it lightly and I believe the rest of the board hasn't taken it lightly either I also know that those of you who have given public comments or emailed us

188also haven't taken this lightly I acknowledge that it takes courage to send those emails and to speak at a microphone on public record so I thank everyone for participating in this process I can speak for myself and say I've listened to every public comment I've read every email many more than once I've had numerous conversations with parents and community members I've read other policies and research papers and I believe this is a good policy worth passing this is no doubt a tough issue there is a wide spectrum of understanding of what transgender students experience I believe that those who drafted and continually revise this policy have developed a strong understanding of what would be most supportive of these students a support plan is one that is meant to support the student in their needs at

189that time in order to be in the safest most supportive learning environment for them so that we can all reach that first goal I referenced earlier and this is not at the expense of any other student I simply it simply would not threaten the safety of their peers learning environment I appreciate that there is an awareness and concern of assault in general preventing all kinds of assault is something we should all be teaching our children about the evidence shows that the risk is significantly higher for transgender students they are twice as likely to be assaulted than their cisgender peers I believe our schools are doing everything they can to keep assault risks as low as possible through current mechanisms in place and putting this extra safety mechanism in policy can lower the risk even more

190allowing students to choose the bathroom they feel safest in and express themselves in a safe and supportive environment will ultimately increase the safety of our whole student body and as much as I want to believe that I am the biggest best and most supportive influence in my children's lives I know that may not always be the case because that's what can happen sometimes that's what can happen in life my next hope would be that they have or find other adults they can talk to because research shows that children do better when they have support from trusted adults in addition to their parents the uscdc states that youth who feel connected at school and home are less likely to experience negative Health outcomes related to sexual risk substance use violence and mental health so for those

191transgender students who don't feel connected at home this policy can assure them that they have a safe connection a sense of excuse me a sense of being cared for supported and belonging at school truly preparing students for a world after the 12th grade means that they means more than making sure they know math science reading and writing I'm in favor of this policy because I believe it supports the social emotional education that our staff are providing this policy underpins and utilizes the concepts of empathy perspective taking social awareness and compassion all Concepts that I know are being taught in school living in a world with people of all gender Expressions requires these Concepts it doesn't need to be more complicated than that it doesn't need to invoke fear or disgust trans youth are twice as

192likely to experience depression seriously consider suicide and attempt suicide compared to cisgender youth and youth homelessness disproportionately affects bypoc and lgbtq plus youth their 120 percent more likely to experience homelessness than their non-lgbtq plus peers often due to being kicked out of home because of their Identity or leaving home on their own to escape a dangerous or abusive situation a 2019 School climate survey showed that only 37 percent of lgbtq plus youth identified home as an affirming space these statistics are scary these statistics are why we have this policy in front of us to consider so what can we do as school board members right now for this population of at-risk students we can pass this policy and show them that they matter their identity matters their safety matters and they can trust the adults

193in their school to support them in a joyful learning climate that is safe nurturing and fosters curiosity and I have some questions that I emailed so I'm hopeful that will is that something I need to ask again now is that sure okay I would love to unders better understand what staff training is currently in place about the legal rights personal safety and emotional well-being of transgender and gender expansive students and if none what are they considering for training uh and along with that what education are students receiving about gender identity and student rights and specifically related to discrimination and then I have one other question I can ask after okay I'll I'll start with training with that um for staff training there's some required training every year for all kids and I think that when

194we're really looking through the lens of all kids for example our staff are trained in affirmative action um there's a gender Equity training that they have that follows the human rights act with guidance for equal educational opportunities in accordance with the main Human Rights Act for all children as well as a sexual harassment uh training that that all staff receive we are asking we ask our staff to review policies for non-discrimination Equal Opportunity harassment and sexual harassment of students hazing and bullying so all those are all those things that would Encompass all kids in addition and I know if we've heard a lot of folks talk about statistics regarding suicide there's a suicide prevention training that our staff are participating in every five years we've had our director of instructional support our instructional strategists and

195our psychologists attended a workshop in this past June for working with young transgender children clinical and ethical considerations that was put on by the National Association of Social Workers so that's training that they had to support other folks in our district other other staff members in our district and as well as the when you look in terms of Staff training and our social emotional learning training that we have is inclusive A diversity of all groups so those are specific things in there when um when the board has an approved policy that would be another um policy review that our teachers would be in all staff members would be expected to review at that point really what was question number two oh question number two is around what education students receive students gender identity in general

196and so when you're looking at you're talking about specific curriculum there is social emotional learning that's naturally embedded in our health and PE curriculum uh our students participate in inclusive learning environments that values the interest of all children through opportunities to learn and practice social emotional skills and behaviors there are you know through there through high school health courses there may be some through when when they're looking at their human sexuality component of that Health curriculum and then um are you know certainly for the lens of all students we're looking at student rights and discrimination through the lens of kids and my third question thank you very much um what record so in section e number two of the policy it references a student who has not legally changed their name and or gender may

197still request that the school unit utilize their preferred name and or gender on school records and this request will be honored to the extent that this school unit is not legally required to use the student's legal name or gender on particular records so I'm wondering which records are legally required to still use the student's legal name so those records would be through our student information system things that are in power school so the a student's legal name would be there in terms of if it's on a transcript so a transcript but have a legal name on it also any State Testing would have a legal name on it in the state as we know the State Testing all all our student information is uploaded to the state so that when everyone has a student IDs

198and when they take the the state assessment that would be a legal name where you would find preferred names would be in there's a preferred field first and that would be to help a teacher when they're looking at a roster of students and I would say that's not and someone mentioned in publicon is not just about students who are transgender it could be Elizabeth wants to be called Beth so that's where that preferred field would be okay uh thank you Cara other questions that folks had Kelly first of all I just want to thank the policy committee for all the work they've done and I know they've been so thorough they've been spending so much time thinking about and crafting a policy that will both protect the rights of equal access and treatment of our

199trans and gender expansive students according to the law and also support their mental and emotional needs it's clear that their rights and their well-being is the primary goal of this policy and they have you have put a lot of thought in consideration into both what you've chosen to include and what you have chosen not to include and so as I've listened to some of the comments that some of our guests have mentioned tonight I just want to mention some of the things that have not been included in this policy this policy does not explicitly direct staff to prescribe any medical treatments for Trans or gender expansive issues it does not prevent any students from sharing any aspects of their lives with their parents it does not encourage any of our staff to keep secrets from

200family um and um I I really I commend you for thinking these things through and and taking them into consideration one thing I do want to bring up as a point of policy is section D3 and that is the issue of student gender identity disclosure to parents as it's currently written the policy states that the designated staff person will discuss parent Guardian involvement with the student to ensure that the student feels safe and supported and I can tell especially after Maddie's discussion in Collins that you have made that intentionally vague and I can understand why but I want to just think about whether it might be um worth considering strengthening the language in this section um clearly we trust our staff to do what's right and clearly there are many families in our community that

201might not support their transgender students it is demonstrated by statistics that many transgender students do experience significant levels of family rejection but considering how important supportive families are to our gender expansive students well-being I wonder if we should think about adding some language that make it clear that we do not that we do wish to support healthy communication between parents and their children about their gender identity and that we would be willing to offer resources to help our students navigate the involvement of their parents so just something to throw out there and talk about thanks Kelly I've been thinking a lot about about that same thing you know I was um discouraged to hear the the perspective after reading the policy that this was encouraging secret keeping I don't think that was ever the intent

202um my my read of the intent was to keep it as to keep it flexible for the safety of of the students um but I but I hear the I hear all of the comments around the perspective that it looks like we're trying to exclude the parents so I think some kind of language that identifies that we think the safest best you know outcomes for for children as the statistics show is a safe family relationship right where where everyone's working towards the same goals and then the school layers on and also supports those goals um you know we've seen great great success when that's the case right um so how can we how can we put into the policy that we recognize that and that should be the first step right like we want that

203to be the goal and we have a policy that allows for that but we also have the flexibility if there is concern that that is not what's going to happen when we involve the parents right um you know and I we thank you for for the additional policies you know um the policy committee provided some we had folks from the community Who provided some you know to read through what other people how other people have tried to tackle that um I think there's some language that's in in some of the other policies probably specifically yarmouths around how they start with you know this is our goal is to have everybody at this table working together um but if you know in a hopefully very small number of cases where that's not possible or isn't in

204the best interest of the students this is how we would how we would handle that so maybe if we come at it from that's the exception not the rule that might help alleviate some of the concern about excluding parents I like those thoughts and maybe it's something we can just boot back to the committee just to flesh out a little bit yeah I mean I guess I would be interested to hear what what folks are thinking Danielle that was one of my concerns and questions that I submitted to the group and I also had a long conversation with Colin about that specifically and I think the policy example that we got from rs221 actually has some really nice wording in their section D I believe under the same number three that goes into you know

205providing resources for the community um because I I look at this as you know we ask a lot of parents I think and I think I gave Colin the example of in 2020 during the you know the height of the pandemic we asked parents to really become teachers and become the Educators um in part of the community along with other teachers right and I mean I felt that burden um to be quite honest and I think to take a parent out of a policy like this kind of then means that we're just not needed anymore and I I think that's a bad thing um I would hate to be not involved in my kids education and their development I think I'm very lucky my kids tell me everything in fact I joke probably sometimes too

206much um but I I'm I'm happy about that right so they tell me so I feel like I'm never going to be caught in a situation like this to where I don't know something and then all of a sudden I have to find out you know from a teacher um something like this um so yeah I I would love to have some wording in there about involving the parents somehow and also doing that safely for the kids because I don't want something to happen to a child either um and you know also providing resources for both the parents and the kids because if the parents are struggling I think we can offer something to help with them as well [Music] my thought around that specific piece is I just I I agree with maybe having

207something like that but I would want it to be crafted carefully because I wouldn't want it to be a staff member making the decision whether they feel a student is comfortable or not including the parent I like I feel like it should be the student's choice to include their parent or not so I'm I'm comfortable with the way that it's currently written because it allows that flexibility I feel like once we get into talking about um will the child's parent be involved or not and that's an administrator decision I don't think an administrator should be deciding that I'm not saying that that it would be written that way I'm just saying that's a concern of mine that that could happen yeah because I think the you know the the way that the Yarmouth policy deals

208with it in their in their section um says that the student if the in the case where the student is not yet informed their parents of their desire to assert a gender identity or expression different from their gender assigned at Birth the administrator or appropriately designated Personnel shall first discuss parent Guardian involvement with the student they shall be notified by the administrator or appropriately designated Personnel prior to their parent or Guardian being contacted and shelved the opportunity at that time or at any point to pause the planning process stopping the planning of the process does not prevent the students from continuing to access other school support services including counselors and social workers and then the planning meeting shall evolve the students parents or Guardians unless the superintendent after due investigation knows or has a reasonable

209cause to suspect that involving the parents would likely lead to abuse neglect or and or neglect of the students and and then it continues on the the definition of the main child family services protection act um you know I I think I I unders I understand where you're coming from um around the administrator versus a staff member who's been involved in the discussions with the student I I like the idea that it's not um it's not the default that and I think we heard it from parents that that have have had students where that have have transitioned and and dealt with these issues over the years um it's difficult with your parents right um and if you're given the choice of something harder not something hard like how many times would you take the not

210hard um even if even if you kind of knew in your heart in the end it would be better for you to have the support of your family so I think having having a a point person to help make the the more rare situation where the parent isn't involved and I love the language that they can stop and pause at any time right like we're not ready yet okay how can we get you ready because I think that's the intent right the intent isn't to to exclude the parents it's like how can we help these kids and I think this is the back to the comment earlier this is what's happening in the schools we're trying to help kids have the tools and the and the words and and the the confidence to have those

211conversations with their families um I just I I worry that if it's hard right I mean you want them to have ownership in the process and I think they do um but I think it shouldn't be the the default that the that the parents aren't involved struggling with that I think that the existing language does address that to some extent and that is that a conversation is initiated and there is flexibility in that conversation for students and staff to talk together and decide you know with giving the child agency but you know yes we as adults have some perspective that our children don't have and perhaps our staff members can offer some of that perspective to the children that you know but ultimately I agree I think in these scary situations children should be able

212to choose how and when they disclose but that doesn't mean that we couldn't encourage them that when the time is right we can offer these resources to them to help them with those conversations and their parents too foreign yeah thank you yeah I think I think the same I I like the how we've had this vague language if we are creating it so that people are reading it and the interpretation by many is that we are intentionally excluding anybody I'd be fine with a little bit more framework around that but I would not want I would be uncomfortable if we are then putting ourselves in a position where saying you know we know something about this kid we're telling their parents because there's a lot about that parent-child relationship that the school isn't going to

213know and I think that the students absolutely need to have that agency to to know that relationship better than the school and to say that if they're not comfortable speaking with their parents yet or having their parents informed that we work we work with our student and that you know help them whatever and you can go back to saying that you know some decisions are harder some are easier and we might default to easier decisions but by doing that we can also help students learn about those harder decisions too and how can we make harder things less scary how can we feel supported how can we dive into things that are scary and are challenging by having ownership as well I think I think that ownership is a big aspect to you know making some

214of those bigger decisions so I would be fine with a little bit more framework there but I still want to keep it you know possibly where yarmouth's saying that there is sort of an initial discussion the student can press the pause button and saying you know I'm not ready to go forward with this because ultimately the student is the one that's going home and living with the parents and the staff isn't so I just want to make sure that we're not default we're not yeah okay I'm concerned that if we added the all of that Yarmouth language that would ultimately require opening up a abuse and neglect investigation that that would make this policy null and void essentially so students wouldn't feel comfortable coming at all knowing that that could be a result I think

215it's also important thank you Kelly for stating what this policy is not it is not there's no making decisions for students they're we're not doing anything to them there is no health care or medical component to this at all these are not life-altering decisions these are students who would prefer to use a different name different pronouns and relieve themselves in a space where they feel safe I don't think that it is more than that unless I'm misinterpreting unless there's something that I've missed in this policy um so I I think it's it's being blown up in a way to be something more than what it is and I think that these kids can change their minds they okay if next week they want to use a different name they say you know what I don't

216feel like I'm identifying as that gender anymore there's no harm there we've already heard a number of times about the true risk in bathrooms it is not it is against transgender students so that is something that I I'm not concerned about personally and other aside from just general assault in general that we should always be aware of so I I would say I like I really do like the idea of um if we wanted to add some language would I think that this is something that staff is probably already doing if this is something that comes to them is saying you know how part of that conversation how do you feel about talking to your parents about this and trusting the full agency of the children to to let them know I just wanted to

217thank everybody for the really thoughtful questions and and remarks I um I think we I would love to return to the um this question of some additional language on that but I would I think that it also might be helpful perhaps to ask our superintendent to maybe share a little bit about what um what these support plans actually look like in practice because as as we have as we have noted um what we are what this policy is codifying is is our current practice is our current procedures um so we uh we know that the procedures that we're currently using to support our students are working and uh Gene I wondered if you might be able to share a little bit about about that that might inform the conversation sure sure happy to do that

218so we had a lengthy discussion at our administrative Team level Team level to see what was actually happening in practice in our schools and in terms of initiating Nation who initiates that a support plan at the K-8 level primarily is parent initiating it's a parent coming to an administrator it's a parent coming to a counselor and saying that they would like to have some support for their child at our high school of our older students many are student initiated initiated however it was shared that most parents are most parents are aware even though they're student initiated there are some students who are afraid to tell their parents for other students their parents know and they're not supportive in that and there's been some talk like who participates in in this sort of Staffing meeting it

219would be the student potentially the nurse the guidance just guidance counselor social worker teachers Administration and the parent and what the plan looks like it's really individualized the for the need of a student our our teams listen to the parent they listen to the students and parents will often guide the discussion when when our staff asks like how can we be more more supportive our schools work to involve the parent if the parent is not initially involved at the request of the student sometimes those plans um require contain bathroom usage which bathroom are you most comfortable using for some kids it's names and pronouns and it was shared that for our high school kids they care about their names the most that's the most important thing to them for example when you have a substitute

220teacher you want to make sure that you're called by your preferred name and that plan is communicated to staff as well there's some there was a I'll also share as part of a plan in in our own policy that the board is has drafted so what's that interface with if a student has an IEP or a 504 plan students certainly have protection as a transgender student but they also have protections as a student with a disability and so a plan may have certain accommodations for example is we want to make sure if through a student's disability communication is difficult we want to make sure that communication we're using a method that's optimal to them if a student has social work in their IEP that might also be connected to this plan so that's that's what

221the plan is and I will say it is not the things that you know we've it's not MediCal it's not devices it's none of that uh one of the other um comments I saw is um and this came from the Yarmouth was no portion of this policy precludes a student from confidentially speaking with a school counselor or social worker about transgender gender expensive issues such conversations are confidential to the extent set forth by applicable law I like having that in there because I think it sort of separates what the plan is trying to address in terms of of a support plan right because even if a parent isn't told about a support plan it's part of their legal record so they they could see it right I mean if they've looked in power school or

222asked they could see a you know they could see those parts of their I mean it's part of their legal record and parents are entitled to those legal records so but that doesn't mean they should necessarily have access to a conversation that a student has with a social worker um you know I I've been thinking about this a lot as I know we all have and you know one of the things I think about as a parent that was hard for me once my child hit the age of 13 is you don't have full access to their discussions with their doctor anymore if my daughter wants to talk about birth control with their doctor I don't have access to that anymore I pay the bill she's still my child she's a minor that but that's

223a that's a confidential conversation and I don't think we want to necessarily eliminate students having access to that with it whether they want a support plan or not so I kind of like that specific call out that says that nothing in here precludes a student who just wants to have a conversation with a social worker or a counselor um just something I was thinking about I would support that as well Susana yeah I would definitely support adding that and I think that that might help shape the question on Parental involvement and whether we want in the other section whether we want more specific language or not because if we else were to say that we can have a I just don't wanna I guess I just want to make sure there is space for This

224Confidential discussions and that may make other pearls to the policy a little bit more clear if we have that in there specifically yeah Michelle you remind me I'm just I'm lost in paperwork will you just remind me where the the um that additional Yarmouth language was around the it is in section um D guidance for specific issues uh no yeah d one e page six of eleven yeah um yeah I mean I think uh um I think conversation should continue I think um I suppose I could at this point say um sort of gather gather some of the thoughts that that I'm hearing um and I suppose sort of put them give them back to you and sort of see whether where we where we're at on those and then continue to explore other aspects

225um I'm hearing that uh that first we might add that add that language even just as as written in yarmouth's uh policy um that is listed under uh guidance on specific issues um one e no portion of this policy precludes a student from confidentially speaking with a school counselor or social worker about transgender or gender expensive issues such conversations are confidential to the extent set forth an applicable law so one proposal might be to um uh to add that to our policy another is to look at the possibility of adding I believe it would be yarmouth's paragraph uh see three or adjusting rc3 um to uh do you want me to read that um I mean I guess I mean there's also the RSU 21 that's they're also is the RSU 21 language as well

226I really like communication yeah the RC 21 language also was quite good but I think that I I agree that the uh the language on stopping or pausing the process um I think was that's that's some good long language so um we uh so again a a possibility um could be to take some of that rsu-21 language as well as taking that um that portion of the uh Yarmouth language and adding that to our policy so it was um for RSU 21 it was C 3 for your notes it was in there C3 or D3 D3 is it D no no it's c well I don't know let me see what D3 is I was thinking Michelle that that was the language that I announced so in C3 it says RSU 21 seeks to avoid

227inadvertently putting any student at risk by contacting their parents or Guardians it is the goal of RSU 21 to support communication between students and their parents about the student's gender identity RSU 21 will offer support to the parents and Guardians and students as needed the student will be notified by the administrator prior to contacting their parents or Guardians and the district will offer resources to the student to navigate the involvement of the parents Guardian just a very technical question as I said I'm a little lost in paperwork where where would we put that uh would that be under would that be under what is Rd um it seems like it could be an addition to D3 at the end of addition to D3 Ora or an alternative language for D3 so again I'm saying this

228to myself as well as everyone else in the world but also mostly to Cynthia um uh that the The Proposal would be to add um the language from RSU 21c3 to our hybridize it with our language for D3 um period and I think uh Michelle I think your point around the the the Yarmouth language of um stopping or pausing the process does not prevent the student from continuing to access School support services including counselors and social workers I think would be important to add as well so that would also be added I think to that I think we could just add that also to three I don't think or we could make it I mean it's yeah I think we would add that to three yeah I have a question um that I did not

229send in advance so I hope that you can answer it um where when you when the policy committee was discussing um the medical uh issue as far as people and medical interventions um I I realized that the that we have a policy on medical like um you know medications as somebody said about the allergy medication would any of those sort of medical things regarding the transgender thing would that fall under the the other policy or did you guys not specifically address that in this policy for a reason um if I understand your question correctly it's um uh let me I'll answer what I think your question is and maybe that will clarify it um this policy in no way allows for any recommendations by School staff or provision of any medical devices um of any

230kind that is that is not allowed under this policy thank you thank you and it seems like reading through all the other policies it's not really referenced in any of them except one except Yarmouth yeah they have a another specific call out that says School Personnel shall not prescribe or suggest medical treatment nor provide tools that promote or conceal gender expression at any time um you know it's it's this fine line right like I think Maddie is is spot on when we try to keep these flexible um but I think there is some benefit to having some parameters around it for particularly for one like this in that um you know where where we where our intent is that that that will not happen maybe we're better off expressly saying that will not happen um

231you know unless we can think of a situation where we would consider that I can't think of one um but if we know that that's not the intent then maybe we specifically call that out yeah and I would I would say if if that is not our intent it should probably be specifically in there which is based on comments that we've heard [Music] even without her mic she agrees I do have another question though yeah um can we just pause on that for a moment I think because I think that's a really good that's a really important Point um and I think again I would I would um agree uh with Maddie's uh description of our sort of policy responsibilities both as a committee but also as a board um and uh and many people

232including our lawyer point out to us uh The Importance of Being of being as as general as possible to allow for the administration to um to do its work however I think I think the addition of that language to the policy um the addition of that um piece from the Yarmouth policy which is again D1 F the school Personnel should not prescribed or suggests medical treatment or provide tools that promote or conceal gender expression at any time I think that is also a very good proposal for an addition to this policy Daniel I didn't mean to cut up here but just to kind of gather our thoughts at certain points to [Music] I don't understand oh all right so I'm my new question um I guess this is kind of more for Gene um and

233maybe eventually for the school administrators um but I'm concerned and I think many of the parents expressed this too about the infrastructure at every school throughout the RSU um I myself and and no uh DCS the best because that's where my children came through and when I got voted on for a school board I did not I was not able to make the tours last year I'm hoping to this year but I honestly don't know what a lot of the other bathroom situations are and for those that don't know about Durham there's a lot of single stall bathrooms that are available for both teachers and for students which makes it very nice so I guess I'm concerned about what's available at other schools and then I will also say that in my email with the

234questions is I am concerned because I have a high schooler about what I'm hearing about the private bathrooms um you know they're not available they're being locked and a lot of bad things are happening in them are happening in them which I think is why they're being locked but how do we make sure that all students the students that don't want to go to the bathroom in front of anyone else the transgender students you know anybody in that school that wants to use a private bathroom has the ability to use a private bathroom [Music] so we did ask our administrators that question for each School how many and it's you're right with Durham there are actually for single occupancy there are 27 in that building they're Mo they're they're mostly the school new school was

235designed that way and as we know the multi-style bathrooms were that's what you find in older schools um I will tell you Moore Street there are seven Mass Landing there are nine tunnel there are two 27 at Durham Freeport Middle seven and at our high school there are three for that currently um and you know I think you know towards your your question like how can we ensure sure that they do that's that's really a question for the administration like how we do that I know we had some a lot of comments about the bathroom just in general um um with drug use in them that's that's a whole nother really important conversation we we need to get down to and there are lots of I said there are lots of people there are lots

236of adults I probably ask them this if I asked folks in this room you know where are you most comfortable um using the restroom most of us will probably say a single soul situation um for people for people um and you know we we have you know you look at those larger bathrooms uh we do have the those multi-stall we do have those all in all our schools we have some multi-stalls as well but I think that's a you know a bigger discussion how can we ensure we need to ensure for any student that they want to use that single cell they have a right to use it and I think um I've had a couple of thoughts thinking about the single stall bathrooms um I mean it is a it is a great solution

237if we can do it right um like logistically speaking we can't just convert a multi into a single stall I mean they're they're ways to I was talking to a friend of mine who's a facilities person who does buildings and retrofits and and he's you know he works at he works at a college but he said you know one of the things they've done is they've increased they've made them sort of more General neutral with like floor to ceiling or close to floor to ceiling walls uh in in larger bathrooms I'm sure folks have seen them in the new hotels that are down in Portland you know that's an idea uh you know I would suggest this is a great thing to put on a agenda for the facilities committee to talk about like what's

238what's the feasibility of increasing the number of single style bathrooms in our schools is there spots where we could do it what would the costs be you know what would the what would be you know what would we lose in terms of other space I mean we don't have tons of extra space floating around in any of our schools so I love the idea I just don't know how how many we could add if you know and what the cost would be but I think it's a great um a great question that we should be talking to our new director of facilities about it at the facilities committee next month um to be looking into three at Freeport High School like shocks me uh I do think just to your comment Danielle I'm not sure

239uh if there's if she's noticed any change this year but uh I know they changed they were having issues with some of the single stalls in the high school getting locked from the inside um so somebody would leave and lock it and then it was useless to everybody until somebody came and unlocked but they've changed it you can't do that anymore like they're single lock you know occupied and vacant now so hopefully that's a little bit better but three is a very small number so for the size of the school so um I just want to ask the question because we got a lot of comments about about the bathroom use um you know what are what are people's perspective on on the policy as it's written um I'm supportive of how it's written particularly

240with the change to the locker room that any student could ask for you know or could access an alternative solution if they were uncomfortable um I think that meets the needs I know there were some folks who disagree with what the the legal requirements are from from RSU 26 I think it was um around that that legal case you know our attorneys have told us that that's the law today right so you can't tell someone they can't access a bathroom you can't force them to use an alternative bathroom differing from from their gender identity so I think the policy supports that but I just want to make sure that in general the board is yeah yeah I'm also in support of the policy as it's written and I do believe it meets the requirements of

241the main Human Rights Act One thing I did want to mention it for discussion is we did have a public commenter that referred to a legal brief mentioning that the policy should not be read to imply casual access of any student to any bathroom and I noticed as I was reading over the sample policies that many of them seem to address this by having language in there somewhere basically saying this is who we consider transgender somebody who consistently asserts that this is part of their core identity so I'm wondering if it's worth us thinking about whether that we should add something like that I noted that too that we most of them had something like that and ours didn't really I was guessing there was a reason yeah we spent we spent some time on

242that because it is a because is it a it is a challenging time in a young person's life and um for us to assume that um that that we should only ascribe certain identities to somebody because they're more than casual is is not our call basically it was the was the way I remember we landed on it it's not our call it's the student's call and what we Define as casual may not feel very casual to them so we we specifically avoided that no I think I think you said it said it really you said it really good um Gene I wondered if you maybe could just speak to a little bit to um sort of from in terms of how this works currently but also in terms of your interpretation of the policy in

243terms of how um what sort of discipline disciplinary and kind of um uh protections of of students privacy like how does that currently take place and how do you see the policy impacting that and I think certainly when we look at it at this for any misbehavior where someone would just casually pop into a restroom um that there that that would be addressed at the building level by the building Administration or by a teacher who with that um and it's it's and I think that there's not this casual going in and out of bathrooms that's occurring now but it would certainly be addressed using their currently their current procedures that they have in place already in their schools so I guess the question becomes how do you prevent that student from going it's my right

244in the policy so it's like it nowhere says that I mean it it just says I mean it doesn't it doesn't say that that it doesn't preclude that casual walk and I think that that's that then there'd be a conversation with that student if that does that student need some support for that I mean I guess Michelle where are you looking because under restrooms what I see is students are prevented to use the restrooms that most closely match their gender identity so I think just turn that off um I think like that I guess for us as a committee I think that sentence in captures that um and I think that um to the point it's that if the if the student understands that to be their gender identity then that is their gender identity

245period and stuff the other one I wasn't sure of and and I don't it wasn't in our policy so I don't know obviously I don't know what the attorney's take on it was uh but it was in Portland's um uh C3 it says in the event that a student and their parent or legal guardian do not agree with in regard to the gender the student's gender identity or gender expression the school shall abide by the wishes of the student with regard to their gender identity and expression while at school it's the only one that really made that distinction that says that um was on page four of eight for the Portland it was section three excuse me um C3 um and I'm curious what the thoughts are were if you guys looked at something like

246that and chose you know specifically not to include it if you talked about the with the attorneys and they were like ah it's best to leave something like that out it just kind of seems like that's where the ownership of even if parents are involved you know who has the final say on on sort of name and expression yeah I thought about that too that kind of jumped out at me and then I thought further that we sort of already covered it in just the fact that we're giving the student a chance to choose what pronouns we use at school so that kind of already says it I don't know it seems after a second thought that it might be a little bit redundant um I think that yes I would I would agree with

247that I think it would be um we on we we I think uh candy and Maddie correct me if I'm wrong but we honestly did not consider adding that particular that particular element I think because we felt that it was addressed by um that uh the the we are trusting the students to initiate the the plan and for them to determine that determine that need and um then the plan if it goes forward sort of unfolds unfolds from there um and um so yeah we we honestly just did not consider including that particularly I was just curious I was I was comparing them all and looking for sort of outliner outliers of things that were in there or not in there and so I figured I'd ask Susana we also have a statement I mean

248going back to the names and pronouns section of this of uh that says the student should be addressed by School staff substitutes volunteers by the name and pronouns corresponding to their gender identity that's expressed at school and so that statement kind of assumes to me that we'd respect the wishes of the student while at school regardless of their parental or Guardian perspective so does this um section 2 in our policy the the paragraph that reads if a student requests a change to their name and or gender in school records without parental approval the superintendent should be consulted and the matter resolved on a case-by-case basis students should be informed that parents and Guardians have a right to access all educational records of their child and this information should be discussed in the development of the

249student's plan so do I read that to say that if a student had a plan that didn't include a name change the superintendent would without the parents involvement the superintendent would not be involved whereas conversely if specifically if there was a name change requested without the parental involvement that the superintendent would be it says specifically in school records which I assume is why it specifically gets a superintendent involved since it would potentially be accessible by the parents right but wouldn't any support plan be part of their School record and any written writ anything that's written is acts it can be accessible undefer by parents so are these written or are these or is that up to the needs in practice talking with our administrators they're they're not it's not a formal written plan it's other

250than if there's a pronoun change then the pronoun would would be or or a name change would be on the preferred fields in school Master would be there but in terms of like we look at for restrooms it it wouldn't it wouldn't necessarily be a formal plan how about the rest well the written down like an IEP or a 504 okay but you don't have to have a plan to use the restroom of your what you identify as right you don't okay you know you don't but some do so the folks that had sent in questions I know we've been sort of hopping around and covering stuff all over the place um do folks feel like they have gotten the answers to most of the ones that they were had or were looking for I

251think maybe the one we haven't heard from I know you said you talked with the um with the administrators around the single stall bathrooms and how it's working um just just for purposes of of transparency were the administrators supportive of the policy in practice they they're already doing this okay so nothing that's in this policy really um veers away from what they're currently doing for their current practice and I think I want to get about the parental involvement piece I mean that is part of when we're working with if there are students and if you usually would be high school level of their students that have not had those conversations with their parents that is the goal so that they do have those conversations with their parents Laura I had a question on uh the

252last section staff training and informational materials I noticed that some other policies used shall in the second sentence the superintendent or and or building administrators instead of May child Institute and service training or distribute educational materials regarding the legal rights Etc personal safety um where are you which section uh second sentence Oh G okay under G on the last page um I just would think that was some would be something that we would want to did you have this discussion of policy I bet you did no I don't I don't think we discussed it I'm I'm laughing because we use we talk about May versus shall all the time in policy but I'm supportive of that yes that was not a principled May uh so we could change it to a principal ciao because it

253also provides some flexibility because it then goes on to and or distribute educational materials regarding legal rights they don't have it doesn't have to be people right that's great if that's pursued but it could be other materials or resources or um just Mars since we're since we're with you just uh you did ask a very good question you ask a question are all the definitions under Section B defined in the main human right Human Rights Act um I noticed they're all italicized it's true we we did rest a little bit with the formatting of that section um basically the uh the only one in two and they're referenced as being defined in the main Human Rights Act um and the uh it is the quoted italicized text not the not the italicized sub-header but I

254appreciate the um uh formatting pedantic check um just while we're on the subject of formatting I'm just curious about the um difference in the fonts and underline on each of the a b c d e all of those some of them are some of them are yeah that's just that's sort of uh it's above your pay grade it was just a minor little thing I know yeah no I think that's ugly and uh that's ugly and should change so um so do we feel like uh with the correct with the change to mirror e four and five right so the mirroring those languages there um using some sort of melded amazing word thing that Colin does around strengthening sort of the parental involvement sort of Baseline like that's our goal um but also recognizing that

255it doesn't prevent any access to other services and we where this does not include any medical treatment whatsoever um with those changes any anything else that sort of content-wise folks are thinking I felt Oliver overall that it was a very solid policy and that most of it was pretty well spelled out or intentionally left vague yeah and and I'm just going to say again that you know we have received 40 plus emails we had I don't even know close to 40 people speak tonight and I just want folks to know that we do read everything we do take notes we do hear what people say are saying um and we do you know put that all into how we think about these policies um you know I think Colin said it best last at the

256last meeting where he said no policy is going to make everyone happy um I mean I think that would be virtually impossible based on the the wide variety of comments we've heard but I do think this policy is is good for children it's good for it's good for all the children in the RSU um I think you know with the The Staggering statistics on on the risks to this specific population of our kids I think it's appropriate that we have a specific policy in place and I know there was some concerns around pausing this policy until there was some more legal you know certainty around how this that's never going to happen I mean it's it's never going to happen in a way that's you know definitive and if it is then we'll adjust the

257policy but not having a policy also puts us at risk that we could also be facing legal legal action for not having a policy in place that supports these students so I think I congratulate the committee I think you guys did a you know the yeoman's work of of putting this together and despite it only being four pages it's a lot you put a lot of work into this and a lot of research and I appreciate your your thoughtful approach and you know and I appreciate everyone who's taken the time to read it and and provide us their feedback on it because it's not easy and I know everyone's busy yeah um just because we know that people put a lot of time into reading it and one of those people was Danielle um and

258Danielle you had a good a couple of questions that I did also just want to address directly um so one of your questions was if a student has an IEP or a four 504 plan in place how we make a support plan without the parent and or guardianship involved and the answer is you wouldn't you would have to involve that is required for the 504 in the on the IEP um and I can pause there if there's a question on that I hate this thing um no I was going to ask that I figured out on my own which is why I didn't ask that question I looked into that my mom's a special ed teacher I think she was embarrassed that I didn't know the answer to that um but my I have two

259questions left and one I think I know the answer because I think we've heard a couple students speak but I again I a question what do the students think right um what was their involvement in on the committee were they given some voice that was heard and listened and are they comfortable with everything the way that it's written and with the three bathrooms that are single stalls at the high school [Music] um I can't speak to the three stall situation because again I don't I think that is beyond the that is beyond the purview of this policy um and so that wasn't something we could really address in this policy the creation of 27 new single cell bathrooms um but in terms of the student involvement um the um the direct student involvement that we

260had was we shared uh this policy um uh maybe candy or Maddie you'll remember when this was exactly but I believe it was an early it happened early and then it happened again later yeah we had at least two meetings but I think I think it was perhaps it was Winter it was last winter um we shared it with the Dei committee so that's a committee that is made up of Administrators community members um uh teachers board members and students so we shared the policy with them um and we sh and uh as part of that process those students also shared the policy with uh with other students and so we received a we received feedback from a range of students on the specific language that we were that we were working with at the

261time that was in the draft and then we worked to incorporate that into into the draft and then when the DI committee met I believe the beginning of June we shared the Lang we shared the draft as it stood then because we wanted to make sure that that committee whose thoughts we had also Incorporated but your question was about students um uh uh and the feedback we got from the students specifically was that they were surprised at how much they liked the policy that was their sort of quote but they were very they're very supportive of the policy [Music] then my last question was in kind of regards to um probably more a gene about again DCS specifically um because again that school is very unique in the fact that it goes from pre-k to

262eighth grade and yes there's a lot of single stall which we've heard but there is also some multi you know multi-stall bathrooms and locker rooms but how does you know the administrators there you know deal with the mixing of such large grade differences because I think a Pre-K student might be a little confused if an older kid is in the bathroom that doesn't match them the way that they would match them does that does that make sense yes yes I don't know how to state that otherwise I apologize I didn't mean to insult anybody so actually if you follow that with principal pitten today about that question because there are some of those those larger multi stall bathrooms you sort of the gym area and so forth and actually the way that their special schedules

263work kids kids it's all with their own grade level so there's not that mix in there um you always think though potentially if there's an after-school event could that happen it could for sure but there could with after school things if you have a concert it could be adults in there too for for that matter so that during the day they really don't they there's not an opportunity to mix yes I I was thinking I was trying to you know kind of visualize all the potential scenarios particularly around the bathrooms right and it could be just as confusing if you're a five-year-old boy and we have a policy that says you have to use the bathroom you're assigned with and you have a a transgender girl who's looks like a girl in the boys room

264like that could be just as confusing and potentially even more so I do think a term they do a good job keeping you know they're on different levels and wings and um like she said specials and lunches they're all they're all different so um and I don't think the younger kids even use the locker rooms so [Music] looking back you know and thinking yes I think that's true and I think I had said that there are probably some Middle School girls that I wouldn't want with my kindergartner either so you know like you know so I get it um just a question because I think somebody in the community had asked that and I thought it was important to address that we're at least thinking about that yeah and I think that that I Mean

265Gene you said that you spoke with principal pitten today about that and I think that is a good ongoing conversation to be to be having I think that um in the course of having the conversation surrounding this in terms of that and sort of um um sort of access I think the the general principle that we arrived at was that um um unless unless the unless the board is is uh willing to uh determine that trans uh gendered students are more likely to commit assault um than cisgendered students um then uh we cannot create any situation where there would be any sort of differentiation between that and as a committee we felt that we could not uh make that distinction because for a variety of moral and ethical reasons but also because there are no

266statistics to support that whatsoever um and so I think if we want to look at for example at DCS the question of the of generally the access of younger of kindergartners and eighth graders being being in the same in the same space we should look at that but again I think it doesn't have to do with the transgender policy yeah okay anything anyone had that they haven't shared yet that they would like to throw on the table so um so how this would work uh is we would vote on the policy um as with the recommendations or requested changes to the policy committee who would take those back and bring them back to the board um for for review to make sure they align with what we thought they were going to say and don't

267you know have inadvertent changes to the intent that we didn't recognize until we saw it on paper for a second read um everyone's comfortable with that and then what is the timing for the second read second meeting in October okay second meeting October so a month from now and you guys feel like that gives you enough time to oh sorry I keep looking at Maddie she's been on policy forever look deeply into curse Soul policy committee meetings next week okay right because it's the sixth right we saw that so um so you feel like that gives you guys enough time to to make those adjustments and come back to the to the board with the change I think so candy yes Kara yes then I would say yes okay and Cynthia's nodding too so um

268do we um do we given we're adding things that could be substantive uh is there any thought or plan to run this by Council one more time before it's adopted I think we we should and will do that okay great we will not may do it but we shall we shall do it yes okay no may but shall okay great I appreciate that um all right ready for a vote great so we have a motion we have a second we have had a lot of discussion uh who uh all in favor thank you not opposed okay so we haven't had this issue in a while but it is 10 24 and we do have a policy that says we will not start a new item on the agenda after 10 pm without a vote uh

269I'm going to encourage us to um to table the remaining items which is the resolutions and the msma fall conference information we'll make sure we get to it at the next meeting because the uh the fall conference is shortly thereafter actually I guess it's probably right after um our second meeting in October so we'll make sure we get to those discussions oh my phone just told me I had to go to bed um foreign tell me about it um so uh uh do we need anything else on here no we did the teacher okay um well we Consolidated the public comment to the beginning that's why that's what allowed for all the extra yeah oh that's right you were here glad you made it um so um yes so we're just gonna ask you to

270come back to the mic tell us your name and same rules apply I am Adam Stone Durham Maine so last week Tuesday the 19th we got a call from the school I'm saying that Oren had broke his arm in that we needed to get there to bring him to the hospital and it was a big bulge