School Board Special Meeting: August 26, 2021

001well good evening I would like to call to order this special meeting of the newport news school board for thursday august 26 2021 on behalf of the school board and the superintendent I welcome each of you present and watching a quorum is present to transact the business of the school division we have one member of the school board who wishes to participate in our meeting electronically as indicated in board policy bee electronic participation in meetings for a remote location the board member must make such requests cite the reason for remote attendance and the board must approve the request by a majority vote of the board members present school board member john ealy has made such a request uh mr ely would you like to please speak to the board I would like the opportunity to

002do virtual head death in my family and couldn't be there tonight but wanted to still be in attendance virtually with you thank you mr eley hearing mr eley's request may I have a motion to approve his request to participate electronically mr chairman I make a motion that we allow mr eley to participate in tonight's board meeting thank you madam vice chair is there a second second second by dr best any discussion hearing none round on course would you please call the roll mr harris for mr hunter for mrs Surles-Law for mrs aman for dr best for mr eley welcome mr grant for motion carry six zero all right thank you the covid 19 pandemic and now the delta variant continues to affect how we conduct business personal barriers are installed between members of the board

003and our staff and visitors are masked in social existence in the auditorium and in our overflow areas we are taking steps to ensure the health and well-being of our staff and the public we value and appreciate your partnership we will begin tonight's meeting with the pledge of allegiance and we'll ask mr harris would you lead us into play one nation under god all right with that now we will move on to our audience with individuals the school board recognizes that during the pandemic some members of the public may not be able to join us in person as advertised citizens may submit comments via web form email or voicemail up to 30 minutes prior to our meeting to be included in the official meeting record we have quite a few speaker cards tonight we thank you

004for joining us in person the board considers us an opportunity to listen to your comments not to react please understand that we are here to listen and consider your concerns to accompany the number of speakers we have tonight we're gonna have a three minute time limit as we normally do as you begin your comments a green light will come on a yellow light signals that you have 30 seconds remaining and a red light indicates uh beep and your time is up to accommodate all the speakers we have tonight we I would ask we were very very grateful for you to comply with our three-minute time limit so we can accommodate as many speakers as we have the we have a 30 minute limit on this on this session absent uh the board approval for extension

005of the of the time session therefore as as was mentioned earlier we are going to call speaker cards first that come from residents in the order in which they received and whether or not their comments are germane to the topic of the meeting what I would ask that you do is once you have finished speaking because we have so many folks who are waiting to speak if you would please continue outside uh so that someone so the next person will be able to come in uh and uh and have a seat while they speak and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna call four cards at a time to allow time for folks to get from outside up up here all right so um the first card I have is natalie chamberlain second darren pittman

006third never yarbrough and fourth gavin gray and please begin whenever you're you're ready good evening I am reverend natalie chamberlain my pronouns are she her and hers and I'm the pastor of hilton christian church as a congregation we strive to be radically welcoming and inclusive our denomination the christian church disciples of christ strives to be a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world we choose welcome to welcome all as god has welcomed us it would be easy to address you tonight on theological terms but the issue before us is not religious or theological the question tonight has to do with the safety and well-being of children and youth entrusted to the board's care this community as represented by this board has a responsibility to care for every student no matter what we might think of

007any individual's race creed color gender or gender identity as a citizen of newport news a pastor a parent and a grandparent i expect that this board would read and understand the policy before us tonight this is about protecting vulnerable children so that they can get the best education possible that is really a simple objective if you need a judeo-christian foundation for doing the right thing let it be jesus words jesus was asked master which is the great commandment in the law jesus said unto him thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all of thy mind this is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself on these two commandments all hang all the

008law and the prophets every other text of our scripture needs to be viewed through the lens of this scripture since jesus himself told us that this was the most important commandment there is nothing that supersedes it not any verse taken out of context not any denominational or individual teachings and not individual likes or dislikes i hope that you will do the right thing and implement the state policy and protect the vulnerable students who should be able to depend on you thank you very much for the opportunity to speak good afternoon my name is darren pittman and I am a proud parent of two young daughters i truly believe that we should be protecting every child i believe that what we did a week ago here in this room should actually stand there are policies and

009procedures when it comes to voting i believe it is it is wrong to allow politicians to get involved in this matter but we're here we're here if you pass this agenda that has been political you will allow it to trample upon the constitutional rights of parents like me protect every child that doesn't mean just one group that means every child if my daughter goes to the restroom who's protecting her are we now going to put guards in the restroom to ensure that a male does not i mean this is wrong we all we have enough issues in our high schools and our middle schools there are several distractions several our teachers are dealing with enough enough they're dealing with vaccinations dealing with mass they're dealing with enough you have amazing policies already in place stick

010with those policies don't allow chaos in our community we know there's people there coming from all over the place this is our city the city of newport news this is our city we will not allow it i don't care where it is coming from they need to go back from where it came thank you my name is never euroville think you've seen you guys one time before i believe everyone should be treated fairly and with respect but when it relates to locker rooms and bathrooms gender has never been inclusive male and female genders have always been separated in these issues by definition transgender is a different gender category here there you go male female transgender genders have always been separated when it comes down to locker rooms and bathrooms it's always been this way i

011can get up and preach to you but you're going to hear that all night long we cannot escape the fact that science the science behind the transgender phenomenon is primarily based on faith or their belief system what is going to happen when a pedophile pretends to be a transgender and enters a locker room or bathroom and attacks a child i know statistically they say this is rare but one child hurt is one child too many it will happen whether it be now five or ten years from now it will take place perhaps the pedophile doesn't attack physically but takes pictures clandestinely can you promise that the children will be completely safe what in this policy changed since the last time it was voted on what new revelation was brought out i don't think anyone should

012be bullied male female or transgender that also includes the new new school board thank you for your time hello everybody my name is gavin grimm thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today my name may be recognized from the recent news of a long uh a landmark uh civil rights case um headed by the aclu where my school gloucester county public schools banned me from using the boys bathroom back in 2015. we enjoyed a recent victory and this morning it was announced that the school board is responsible for 1.82 million dollars in restitution to my lawyers i am speaking to you to make it very clear that discrimination is a open and shut conversation here in the fourth circuit in virginia and it's very expensive first and foremost nowhere in the

013nation this nation europe the world the rest of the world where trans people have not only been using the bathrooms where they should be using them which is where they feel comfortable using them for decades but there are countries that have had model policies similar similarly affirming for a very long time and this spike in crime has simply not materialized it's not true it is a bad faith argument there is no leg to stand on furthermore if somebody is a criminal such as someone who might want to harm children or sexually assault women in a bathroom a sign is not going to stop them and if your argument is seriously that an evil pedophile is going to look at the sign on the door and and say well if I just you know I can

014go in there I'm waiting for a loophole because I'm clearly a law abiding pedophile ridiculous ridiculous argument which holds no water whatsoever predators are still predators and the crime of entering a bathroom under false pretenses to harm people is still a crime people are discussing this as if this is not going to be treated as a crime it's still a crime so I will say that any remaining resistance from the school board on passing this model policy which has reported wonderful results across the country where these policies have been enacted in school performance student satisfaction student happiness academic performance overall there has not been any issues in any of these places these crimes have not materialized and so any further resistance to affirming the transgender young people in this county is an act of aggression

015to these students and an act of political preservation by members of the school board who might fear retribution from a community who is not ready to accept the truth yet i implore every one of you to take into consideration how fully illegal it is as decided by the fourth circuit as decided by many other cases across this country to discriminate on against transgender people on the basis of them being transgender and I implore you to take care of the students that you've been tasked with taking care of and respect their rights and not force transgender students into a place of discrimination and segregation thank you very much our next four speakers are going to be carolyn cox mary edwards cheryl parker and matthew grave good evening my name is caroline cox and I live here

016in newport news with my boyfriend cody and he's in the marine corps so we are going to be here for the next five years at least probably 10. now when I have children they will go through newport news public schools they will be experiencing these policies that are enacted i want my kids to grow up and learn in an environment that is accepting and welcoming no matter what type of person they grow into if my child is trans or non-binary i want them to know excuse me I want them to be in an environment where they are afforded the same opportunities as their cisgender peers and if my children are cisgender i want them to know that different doesn't mean bad or immoral when I was in high school i watched one of my best

017friends a trans man be berated made fun of discriminated called an abomination of god when he was 14 years old in front of his own school board now this is not an experience that i want my children to live through nor do I want them to think that it is acceptable I'm a woman i don't have an issue with trans women being in the bathroom because I go in there i use the bathroom I wash my hands which is probably more than I can say for some people and then I leave trans people do the exact same thing trans people have been using the right bathroom for a very long time there simply is no evidence that there is a problem and trans rights are human rights thank you good evening mr chairman brown and

018members of the school board my name is marie edwards i am the development officer for the family foundation of virginia headquartered in richmond virginia i am speaking on behalf of dr todd gackey director of government relations for the family foundation the family foundation advocates for the protection of the hearts and minds and bodily privacy of all children in public schools I'm here tonight to urge to urge you to reject the model policies for the treatment of transgender students put out by the virginia department of education as well as the policy change suggested by the virginia school board association that references the virginia code section 22.1-23.3 public policies and school policies must be created in a way that protects the bodily safety of every child as well as the constitutionally protected free speech of students and

019teachers which promotes and respects parental authority the virginia department of education's model policies accomplishes absolutely none of those outcomes instead they jeopardize the bodily safety and privacy of young girls they would force adults to speak untruths and violate their freedom of conscience for example two teachers tanner cross and peter vlaming were removed from their teaching positions for speaking the truth however tanner cross was reinstated after winning his court case peter vlaming was fired and never reinstated these policies also undermine parental authority by permitting the schools to withhold information about their children let me give you some additional encouragement for rejecting these policies the founding freedoms law center which is the legal arm of the family foundation filed a lawsuit challenging the deficiencies of of the model policies and we sought an injunction while the court

020did not issue a temporary injunction there were some very important clarifications that were made first the judge referred to these guidance policies not the these are guidance policies we have to take him at his word these policies are not mandatory for every school division to adopt second the attorney representing the virginia department of education clarified is that my time yes that is your time thank you mark van linton cheryl parker matthew degrade my next three cards are mark van linton sheryl parker and matthew degrade parker okay let's give mark van linton just a few more seconds if we can if we can find him okay while we're waiting for uh mr linton uh sheryl parker would you please come forward good evening I'm sheryl parker and I'm a native of newport news and I represent

021here tonight four generations of family and children in the newport news school system I'd like to start with some scripture generation genesis 1 27 god created man in his own image and in his image he created male and female deuteronomy 31 12 assemble the people men and women children in your town so they may hear and learn and fear the lord your god and be careful to observe the words of his law this is god's word it's the same today tomorrow and forever this is the resolution awarded to my grandfather who's passed away dee howe it was given to him by the senate of virginia he was a man that loved children representative bobby scott would know him he had a mascot for the democratic party jack was the celebrity my grandfather also was riding

022with thomas downing in a surrey pulled by horse horses and the j jesse radley as well in fact at the passing of my grandfather thomas downey spoke at his funeral attended by hundreds our family has supported the school system's decisions for 100 for years and our family however cannot support such a bill as this and at this time we must stand we must stand on god's holy word and I stand here I stand here today my mother is out here of 88 years old my daughter is sitting here 40 years old our lifetime resident of newport news my mother attended hilton elementary work high school myself saunders elementary and ferguson high school my daughter hydenwood elementary and menchville high school and her children currently at yates and menchville high school I cannot accept the concept

023that possibly my nine-year-old granddaughter or her 16-year-old sister would share a restroom with any male who identifies as a female or vice versa I'm also very proud to be an american who lives in a city where so much history was born god created us all in his image I will never apologize for who my father increa in heaven created me to be I respectfully request that this bill is that is up for vote will not pass as an american voter a grandmother of children attending newport news schools but most importantly a child of god I ask you each to seek and pray to god and I'm certain he will hear you thank you mr mark van lenten one god two sexes three aspects of human condition based on these three facts I intend to let

024this board know that you have voted correctly the first time around when you fail to adopt policy jp that's your august 17th regular meeting furthermore there's no reason to reconsider nor to have another vote one god says in genesis he created them after his image male and female furthermore he made them adam and eve and I would add and point out that he did not make them adam and steve you as leaders in this decision-making process have no need to coddle those who would complain that their particular sex is not represented by present policy two when a child questions what sex they are the adults in their lives should take that opportunity as a teachable moment I like one comment made of the regular meeting on august 17th the speaker comment was if children aren't

025sure have them check inside their jeans I believe that it is no mistake to use the one word and double meaning to suggest that one follow the scientific method three the human condition is three parts physical mental spiritual one cannot separate or eliminate any part thereof without serious consequences the mayo clinic says adolescents send adults with gender dyspheria before gender reassignment might be at risk of suicidal ideation suicide attempts and suicide focus on the family a nonprofit group has discovered that most of the children who have troublesome issues with their sexuality will outgrow it in five years the mayo clinic concluded in their study after gender reassignment suicide risk might continue I hope that I have demonstrated that our society has effectively created a non-solution to a non-problem that we should have left alone similarly

026this school board should let the original vote stand you should not reconsider the matter and if you persist then make the vote unanimous unanimously fail thank you yes matthew degrave thank you for uh reconsidering this motion from the state um my name is matthew grave uh I am first and foremost a parent of a student in the newport news city public school system I am also a member of a group called the southeastern virginia atheist skeptics and humanists who have membership all over hampton roads as well as in newport news some of our members are even transgender or have transgender children in the school system I'm here tonight to ask you guys to please reconsider this vote the gentleman that just spoke spoke of suicide that often happens because the people are not accepted for

027who they are for the gender that they choose to display on the outside there's nothing in this model legislation or guidance that's been put out that says that you have to lie um that you have to do anything separate than you're doing from now just to respect the boundaries of the student if the student um displays that they come from a family that is not accepting of them the best thing to do in those situations is just to continue as you are let everything go let them express who they are in school and as they are because this will provide a less stressful environment for them all children in the school system spend a lot of time in school they grow into adolescents and into adults in the school system it's the time when they

028find out about themselves and who they are and who they are going to be as adults why block this legislation that just tries to help these students along yes some have mentioned about the school bathrooms and stuff like that and the non-instances that come out but to be honest do you guys post security guards in the bathrooms right now do you think a perpetrator of a violent crime or a molestation is going to stop at the door and be like oh I'm not that right gender so I'm not going to go in there not to mention as a humanist and I hate to bring I don't hate to bring this up because I'm bringing it up churches often suffer the same problem what do we do in those situations we should be bringing those peoples

029to justice we should be arresting those people and reprimanding those people as it occurs I'm really really sincere when I ask you guys to please reconsider this vote I understand that people are upset about it some people may feel like it makes them feel icky or weird or they don't know how to handle the situation but there's lots of studies that show that when you have transgender and lgbt children in a loving and caring environment that they are less likely to commit suicide when you accept people for who they are and how they express themselves we provide a less stress-free environment there's nothing in this legislation that says that cisgender children are going to be affected in any way I read through the model guidance I didn't see anything in there that was crazy or

030outlandish that we couldn't support please support changing your decision from last week and this bill thank you very much thank you sarah kleinman bill haynes and j.r gurley hi I'm sarah kleinman I spoke last week I am still a parent of a newport news public school student last week the school board seemed concerned about the idea that religious parents who didn't accept their child's gender identity would have their rights infringed upon I'm a secular mother it would be absurd for me to argue that every time my non-religious child gets invited to pray at the flagpole at that event or gets invited to join fellowship of christian athletes that somebody from the school should call me and tell me my rights are being infringed upon similarly as a teacher I think it would be absurd if

031I called a conservative muslim student's parents and said your child took off their head scarf or called a jewish student's parent and said your child had pork barbecue for lunch this isn't what we do as a school system children come to school every day and express an identity different from what their parents know about that's just the nature of growing up and being a child the board completed parents rights with the rights of one faith a certain sect of christianity these protections that the video we set as model guidelines are in line with the best practices they're endorsed by the vdoe and the department of education and there should we should be in line with them as a public school with these secular organizations you can't protect just one religious belief it would get crazy

032in this case this is just one particular branch of christianity we're favoring over everybody else that's why we have a secular public school system that's kind of the whole point trans and non-binary kids deserve protection our responsibility as a school is to protect children not their parents as a parent I want my child to be protected by y'all in school even if that goes against what I had imagined my child's life to be the date is clear that these best practices help protect kids that should be our goal in newport news public schools keeping all kids safe thank you bill haynes dear members of the newport news school board first I'd like to express my thanks and appreciation to all of you for what you do for our city schools and for the community I

033know it's a tough job and I'm sure you have many challenges my name is bill haynes I think you all know that I grew up in newport news and I was part of the public school systems for many years I graduated at menchville high school in the year of 1980. it was a lot different world back then and I believe it's changed quite a bit but I believe for the most part that people in our society are very kind they're very honorable and they're tolerant of everyone no matter whether they what they believe in or what they stand for whether it be politics lifestyles religion or even where they stand in their beliefs on sexual preference this is a land of freedoms that people understand and respect I think no different about our public school

034system where there's already standards in place and policies to protect all the students and faculties and keep them from any discriminatory problems but this policy that's being being voted on for adoption to our school system goes beyond the realm of reasonable standards by stepping over the line of human rights and beliefs it does so by imposing the will of a small segment of society which is about 0.01 percent upon the rest of the community at large it forces people to adjust their life and partake of things that they neither want nor truly believe in i would like someone it would be like someone forcing you to shop at a certain grocery store or to go to a certain doctor or to attend even a certain church that you're not interested in or maybe you're strongly

035opposed to if things were left as they were i really don't believe there would be an issue from either side of the aisle i believe the politics of a few are trying to dictate things that most members of society are truly not even interested in doing in the end I think moving ahead with these new policies will do more harm than good the backlash it would create will cause division and more unrest I pray that you will stick with your original decision to oppose these new guidelines and to let people maintain their god-given choices and freedoms that they enjoy thank you once again for serving our community god bless you this time before uh mr j.r gurley comes up I must inform the board that the 30 minute a lot of time has expired and

036so in order to continue public comment uh we need a motion uh to that continuance uh may I have a motion to continue public comment for an additional 30 minutes yes mr chairman I would like to make a motion to continue comments past the 30 minutes time okay all right is there a second let's back up okay second one is eamonn any discussion all right there being none madam clerk would you please call the roll mr harris for mr hunter for mrs Surles-Law or mrs aman for dr best for mr eley for mr brown for motion carry seven zero all right so at this time what I'd like to do so that we can make room for our speakers that are going to be coming in is everyone who has had an opportunity to speak

037I'm going to ask if you would be so kind as to give up your seat now so that we can allow these this next set of speakers to come in and what I'm going to do is I'm going to call the cards so that hopefully folks out outside can hear their name that you're going to be in this flight of speakers so our first one's going to be mr j gurley then irene depot jordan gray christina robinson sharon hicks jennifer kleppes jessica cole ben barrow jaden vandiver and david wilson so that will be our next flight of speakers so those speakers if they can make their way into the auditorium now there's there's receipts for you all right and mr gurley yes please come on please come forward now before mr gurley speaks um we

038do have a sign uh if you would please put your sign away all right thank you thank you please mr come on forward good afternoon or good evening mr chairman school board members um and to the rest of the citizens of newport news as was already as already obvious my name is j.r gurley I am a pastor in the city for over 21 years I'm a resident of the city and I'm also um concerned and so uh before I be well I'm already beginning but before I get deep into what I wanted to say I did want to point out a couple of things because I think one of the reasons we're back here again today is because we're being kind of fed a steady diet of misinformation a couple of the speakers who spoke

039before me stated some things that were glaringly untrue while I sat there in my seat I used my device and I googled the amount of instances that people are actually assaulted in bathrooms by members of the opposite sex and then I localize that search again by asking google how many times it has happened with uh students so just not adults but actually students and I find numerous so the claim that uh this does not occur is actually a it's a it's a grand distortion of the truth but I just wanted to point that out um other than the um other than that there is a glaring there there's a litany of constitutional inconsistencies in this policy that is being handed down by the virginia department of education um and I'll just name five just to

040begin with number one it does as the gentleman said that no one has to lie actually the policy does encourage these schools uh faculty and staff to lie uh to outright deceive the parents by going so far as to refer to the student by their preferred gender at school and keep corresponding with the parents by their birth or or known gender it also number two it opens the door to the state punishing parents as as abusers there's vague language and by the way it's direct language this is direct language that encourages the school system to keep parents in the dark number two it uses vague languages that describes parents possibly as abusers simply because they are affirming number three it requires schools to jeopardize the privacy and the physical safety of students my fourth issue

041is it with it is that it mandates all school employees and students must use transgender pronouns or face punishment um or or uh some type of uh of action or recourse for not doing it um imagine the hostile type of environment this makes for the teacher when corresponding with the students or corresponding with the parents um they're walking on pins and needles already they're already dealing with issues and that the fact that they have a conversation with the parent that and they may reveal by accident the gender of the student they could be fired it is unsolvably beyond the power of language to for me to explain that this policy does not protect it exploits and it does not protect all children I would urge you to let the vote from last tuesday stand and

042I would urge you to move in such a manner as to protect all of our children just not so thank you hi my name is irene depo and I'm a mother a grandmother and a great-grandmother and I'm really appalled of this even coming up for the second time this is unnecessary but I want to let you know I have a handicapped child and I saw perfect coming together the school system to help us all out the system works if we work the system it works we don't need to change and I'll tell you they do help the children that's what we need to do we need to help our children and if there is a problem with the bathroom I saw at kroger they said um you're in a sex bathroom if that's the problem

043I don't know but I do know males need to go to the men's bathroom women to the women bathroom and I'll tell you there's a big lawsuit going on with the boy scouts look it up what happens if we let this go this could be a problem here in newport news god bless you thank you mr jordan gray good evening newport news public school board it's good to see you again unfortunately I'm no longer the employee with you um I've moved on to james city county public schools but uh have been an employee here and so i know the system very well and I've spoken to you before and I'm honored to be here mr hunter was chairman he often said the phrase great things are happening in newport news I'm sorry to say sir

044there are not any more in a school system that's faced with high teacher shortages and by the way all kinds of bus shortages and all kinds of other things what are we doing here tonight we're arguing over whether we're going to adopt a policy that clearly violates constitutional authority of parents I'm telling you right now it's a shame and disgrace that our leadership especially dr parker has not been able to achieve the focuses to keep our division moving in the right direction and heading in the right way and it's even more hurting to me as a former employee and a proud citizen of this community and a proud former employee of newport news I love my time here as you all know I was proud to be an achievable dream and I i can tell

045you this every teacher that I know strives to make sure that no student is discriminated against ever in our buildings and if we catch a student bullying another student we act swiftly to demand that that student is disciplined appropriately and that their parents are informed let me say this if the school decides to step in and override the authority of parents it is acting outside the constitutionality of the authority you have been bestowed upon by the commonwealth of virginia let me just say this as well i think it's atrocious that we've heard in the last week the revelation that certain school board members have been pressured by elected officials from across the state if you are one of those school board members that received one of those phone calls and you accepted that and you

046have been cornered into pressuring a meeting out of the blue in just a matter of a week's time I am disappointed in you and fairly ashamed i am I I'm just shocked and to be honest with you the voters in this community will hold you accountable you can make sure of that and if I were you I'd be worried about my re-election so here's what I want to say to you stand on the vote that you made last week you met and five to one decided that this policy was not right for newport news do not be cornered by dr parker do not be cornered by his administration that he thinks is going to uh push this ideology stand with teachers in this division who know how to protect our kids and have been doing

047a fantastic job long before dr parker ever showed up I'm going to say that in love and compassion as a person who cares about this community and was a proud employee of newport news I'm unashamed of what I've done here and how I've stood for students and I need you as a school board to also stand with students vote no on this policy christina robinson hello everyone I am christina robinson i am a single mother taking care of my children I have three children um my son is 18 graduated from williamsburg but I have my 17 year old that graduates from heritage high school and I have my 13 year old that attends curtin and which is now doing virtual virginia so I have been saying that i as a mother don't agree with changing

048the way the restrooms are the reason being is not only for protection because yes we have posers and we have a lot of predators that come into the school system because they're not registered and the reason they're not registered is because they haven't been caught so that's dangerous for children and adults as well period first and foremost second we have kids that would be free to go into the bathroom and bully any child that they want to because there's no specification as to whether a teenage boy or an adolescent child can go into or can go into the restroom of an opposite sex without being questioned what are you doing in that restroom and anything can happen they can go into the restroom and they can abuse children bully children it can be within each

049other not just adults it's just across the board it just opens up too many things for children to not feel safe we don't send our kids to school to you know have to worry about what restroom they might want to use we send them to school to learn me personally the way I was raised you go to school for education you go to school for friends you don't go to school to be disrespectful you go to do what you're supposed to do you learn you get your education and you go on because at the end of the day using the bathroom shouldn't be a main concern it should be making sure our kids are educated well and properly and safely nest goes for our children and our staff members in the school as well not

050just the kids it's for everybody overall the restrooms need to stay the way that they are and that's my personal opinion so i feel my kids agree all of my children and my family as well sharon hicks good evening and thank you for this opportunity my 87 year old godmother said once to me if america is destroyed it would be destroyed from within tonight you're in the public square you made a decision once stand by it again we're not only asked today to wear a mask on our faces but now we're being told to put blindfolds over our hearts and our eyes stand by your decision how did we get here our media has gone from reporting the news to giving their opinions we've been told that our laws that have been placed since the

051foundation of this country are not only being interpreted but being changed and having faith in god you're told that you are a threat or worse than that part of a hate group I'm here tonight not because I hate transgenders uh even that I denied their existence i do however take issue with this indoctrinating children and not giving their parents a voice i do take issue with excluding parents voices I do take issue with your not being to stand by your own convictions sometimes those who shout tolerant are the most intolerant sometimes those who proclaim we want inclusiveness are the one that wants exclusion america was built on the blood the blood and backs of many groups of people not just a few we can burn buildings tear down monuments and march until the ends of

052the earth but no man no school board no congress and no president can regulate the heart of a man in closing I'll leave you with this this is my opinion your agenda is predetermined by god your rights by the laws of the land and your opinion is simply that your opinion when the dust settle the lights turns off tonight school board members ask yourself this question what will you be remembered in history for when they turn the page on what you do in this room tonight I love my country and I love what you represent god bless you and god bless america jennifer kleppus hello um I'm jennifer claphaus um and I am a proud member of newport news public schools I have been for over five years I started my teaching career here I'm

053an eighth grade english teacher and I love that we brought up the idea of history because I teach at the newly named ella fitzgerald middle school and you know why that's important because it was originally named after j.m dozier who was a school board member member who initially voted against bringing all students of all colors into schools I want you to keep that in mind thank you many students in our community identify as part of the lgbtq plus community it is our responsibility to keep all of those students safe especially those who are at a higher risk of bullying harassment hate crimes and suicide I want to share some important facts with you guys that I researched and I'm going to cite for you too so you know that they came from actual credible sources

054so according to the national the trevor national survey on lgbtq youth um from their survey for mental health in 2021 of transgender and non-binary youth have considered attempting suicide in the past year have you guys ever had a student sit in your room and then the next day they're not there because they killed themselves the night before because I have and that sucks for the teacher the school and the kids that's half of every of all our kids are thinking about it every single day 77 percent experience anxiety and seventy percent experienced depression in addition in the glsen that 2019 national survey which is on school climate and gender 82 percent of transgender students avoided bathrooms and 69 avoided locker rooms because they felt unsafe or uncomfortable they avoided the bathrooms and the locker rooms

055bathrooms this this is more than just about bathrooms and it blows my mind because these students are not the ones doing the bullying and doing the harassing as somebody who's in a classroom and in a school every single day even teaching there and online at the same time I've never seen a transgender student harass or bully another student I've seen students make fun of them just putting that out there 83 have been victimized based on gender 77 have experienced anti-lgbtq discrimination that's about equality got that okay 43 have missed school in the past month because of safety concerns and 24 had changed schools transgender students not cisgender students lgbtq students who experienced victimization or discrimination also have lower gpas it's hard to stay focused on school and do your best when you're constantly being victimized

056lgbtq youth have a 120 chance of experiencing homelessness so where we keep saying that we're leaving parents in the dark we're not leaving in the dark we're protecting children from being put out on the street on their own thank you um jessica cole hi my name is jessica cole and I'm a very proud parent of a rising senior at menchville high school go marx I'm also the very proud parent of a transgender youth my son came out to me when he was 12. he didn't come out to school to his counselor for another two years he was very lucky his teachers at menchville high school have been amazing he has a great group of friends and his immediate family is all very very supportive not every kid is that lucky I i i can say

057that that my son is incredibly lucky but not every kid is is like that you know a lot of these kids don't have parents at home that will just love them for exactly who they are you know it being a teenager is so hard being in high school and trying to figure yourself out I I mean I'm I'm 38 and still have a hard time sometimes figuring out what is right for me but you know it us not protecting these kids at school it's it's wrong you know I I'm having a hard time right now sharing how I feel with you because you know I've I've I've sat there and looked at my kid when my kids said you know I don't want to go to school tomorrow I don't want to go to school

058because you know I couldn't go to the bathroom today I I go pick up my kid from school so I can make sure they can go to the bath they don't go in the bathroom at school even though they were allowed to go to the bathroom that was a special bathroom that's like way over by the nurses that nobody uses my kid doesn't want to go in the opposite they just want to feel like they can be themselves that's it and that it's okay and that no one can say that they aren't allowed these kids aren't fighting to get into a bathroom they're fighting to exist they're they're fighting to to be just like everybody else that's all they want so I'm I'm asking you my kid only has one year left but please protect

059my child that's thank you thank you ben barrow hey good evening name it's been barrow I am actually a local pastor here in newport news but I'm here on behalf of my children I'm just speaking from my heart I'm an encourager so I just want to encourage you all tonight the vote that was passed last week that was great I'm big on outreach loving people encouraging people I will eat next to you at a table no matter what your background is anybody that knows me that's how I roll so what you did last week stand with that I mean I come from a biblical worldview and hopefully some of you all do too as well but you know in your hearts what's right we know what's right and I think about that scripture that just

060says let your yes be yes and you know be know you know so if you've already stood on that you know I just say and I know some of my terms here uh keep it 100 you know do what god's calling you to do don't let anybody get in the way of that just continue to press on I have four children that are all in newport news public schools two of them are just starting and I really don't like to to get into the politics I like to just say jesus loves you man he wants to change your life he changed my life from drugs alcohol crazy life so I'm big on love forgiveness caring for people and so I have people that are friends of mine that do have some of these backgrounds that

061we're talking about but I feel in my heart I have to stand for what is right when it comes to a biblical worldview and so my children i don't want them to be in a place where they're not sure what is happening around them and they're not at that age yet where they can make their choices for themselves to this degree so I just want to encourage you keep on doing what you're doing don't let this stop you tonight sometimes people try to persuade and try to do things you know I'm in the ministry and I know even in church sometimes in life but what you're doing stand on it don't change be who you are and god will bless you for it so thank you just let me come up here i want to

062thank all the citizens who have made room so we do now have some room here for our speakers to come in I'm going to call the next 10 speakers and if you hear your name if you would please make your way in so jaden vandiver david wilson natalie ashby russ harper florence ian bohr michelle michael battle tanisha press joy kint kalea holmes keshona smallwood and autumn cuevas so those those folks if you would uh make your way into the auditorium now great and so there are our next three speakers I'll give them a minute okay let's give them a minute to make their way in we have jaden vanderbilt why don't you come on up please hello my name is jaden as a work high school student i don't think this is right at all

063because if you think about it you already have a bullying problem what's you putting a sign up to stop someone from going in there and bullying a child again into somewhere that they can't like an adult really couldn't go in there and be like oh stop this it's going to be a more big problem because it's secluded area and it's going to be multiple kids on one child coming at them for who they are i don't have a problem with anybody who wants to be transgender or another thing i see it all the time it's not my thing they do them and I do me but I don't want people to get based for who they want to be or what they're trying to be like it's kind of like it's being pushed on the

064kids like social media pushes all this I'm not gonna say that it doesn't because I'm on social media every day I see the things that happen I know what happens like i have friends I have a friend that killed herself because of the situation like this like it was being pushed that she didn't i mean she had to be in the group with the transgenders but she just wanted to be who she wanted to be with everybody else she just wanted to change and think that would be better but no people didn't want her to change they wanted her to stay how she was and that's not something that should be a problem if you want to change you should be able to change you shouldn't it shouldn't be it shouldn't be something that's so

065attention based or opinion based if you see the facts you see the facts but if not then you don't see what the truly the thing is for what it has to be like I don't need like back to the thing I don't need a older person going in with my sister and she's six I don't need that I don't need to not know that she's going to be safe in a bathroom where she has to take care of her business or if an older man or older woman went in the bathroom with me that's just weird no one wants that I mean it's okay that someone older is in the bathroom but that's just like a different gender no you don't need that you don't that shouldn't be something that's happening or something that should

066happen it's just stupid I should say it's I don't mean to bash on your opinion or what y'all did because i know I wasn't here but still it's not right at all if say if one of your children went in there and then a grown man was in there watching your child or something I'm not saying that it didn't happen or could happen but it might happen you never know things happen all the time for I guess the people say reasons but that shouldn't happen for any reason at all it's just how things go but that's not how this should go if it worked before don't change it if it kept working don't change it thank you next card is david wilson school board um first off I want to start by thanking you for

067what you do um yeah I do have my respect you know I don't envy your position right now um but the truth of the matter is I don't say this right I'm not here as a politician everybody will tell you that boy can deliver a speech i don't have a speech right now I'm not here as a politician I'm here as a father I'm here as a son I'm here as a person who grew up in the city of newport news my entire life with 13 generations of my family coming from this city right here in newport news i just watched a warwick high school student tell y'all that he doesn't want this in his schools that's a student my children box and my son right here is 17-0 with boxing they've been training their

068whole life to box he loves boxing they both love it we travel all across the state we traveled to loudoun county and they told my son that he had to get into a ring with a transgender and my son got into that ring he said daddy that's a girl you say don't hit girls they said it loud and they tried to bash my son and call my son homophobic because he looked at this little girl whether she want to call herself a boy or not and he said that's a girl ain't nothing wrong with my son I don't teach my kids to demo to discriminate against nobody but I'ma tell you one thing that my grandmother once told me your belief don't change your biology and what you try to force on other people needs

069to be stopped I'm a parent and I don't feel like it's right for nobody whether you get elected or not to take my right on how I want to raise my children away from me i raised my children by the bible and i raised them by the bible because i wasn't always a good person I used to be a bad person but my lord and savior saved my life and then it used me to touch other people so right now y'all are under pressure y'all being pressured to change y'all vote y'all be impression like peter was pressured three times and I'mma let y'all know right now that by the time six o'clock comes in the morning if you deny my lord and savior jesus christ and don't do what you know the bible says do

070that rooster gonna crow this is not right these people know it's not right because we represent the city of newport news and they flew people into this city right here that don't even live here from all over just to come and tell y'all what to do for us they're not even from here this city is overwhelmingly against this and I'm telling you right now if y'all know who I am I'm nobody but a humble servant I swear if this thing gets across this board and i got to hear it from my kids y'all not gonna hit the end of me and ain't these people that just flew in here to talk I'm right here in this community every single day every election season getting people together gary I promise you you will not be elected

071next time I i promise y'all he will not be elected that's for that one vote thank you mr wilson thank you natalie ashby good evening i attended um last week's school meeting as a citizen of newport news and I was heartened by the common sense approach to not only protect our children but also to affirm the parental rights for our children I raised four children i have eight grandchildren three are middle school age and three are in elementary school i have worked with youth and families for many many years i realize these are challenging times but it is in the best interest of this community to reinforce the family unit the schools are not parents but I realize there are some parents who are quite happy to have the schools raise their children but I

072also know that is a small percentage it is a fallacy to believe that if we disagree with this policy that we do not love all people even those who are different from us the bottom line is this is not good policy you already have sufficient policy i do not care for the fact that we nearly had a closed door session without our our ability to speak up and without the board chairman who previously opposed the policy further I am highly offended that a virginia state delegate and a u.s congressman would try to strong our community into making a decision that clearly the majority of our citizens are not in favor of i do not like coercion manipulation i do not like deception as these things prove that representatives are not representing us i believe the

073virginia state delegates and the u.s congress have other priorities they need to tend to without dictating what is best for our community i pray for boldness and courage over you that you will stand for what is right and supporting and affirming our families thank you russ harper good evening courageous responsible unflappable tenacity strong brave valiant attentive and thoughtful receptive and understanding the will of the parents the words that I use to describe the actions of the newport news public school board last tuesday when they voted not to accept the transgender policy being promoted from the virginia department of education but today I'm not so confident in those words today I hope that we are not here to change the powerful stance that you showed last week I pray that you have not been pressured blackmailed

074or coerced in any way by any politicians or special interest groups wishing to serve their own agenda i want to believe that last week's vote was a sincere vote I want to believe that you voted because you saw the damage that this policy could do to provincial rights student safety and teachers well-beings I want to believe that you understood that this policy defies logic and is impossible to safely and competently implement but most of all I want to believe that you voted against it because you understand that it's not a fair not a well thought out and it's an unbiased policy and its effect if allowed will be harmful and far reaching to students parents and teachers and I understand that there's been much pressure to meet again by people who disagree with your stance

075but usually from my experience when that happens it means that you're on the right track for a great philosopher once said beware when all men speak well of you the philosopher was jesus by the way truth is those groups and organizations have pressured you they do not care about you or your kids or my kids or anyone else's kids they don't care about our families they don't care about the parents they only care about an agenda and they will push that agenda at all costs the truth is these politicians don't care about our children or you or me or parents either they only care about getting re-elected and they fear a vote against this transgender policy will damage their chances and they can't afford that but when all is said and done and by chance

076you vote for this policy those groups and organizations that are pressuring you won't be here when your children and our children are hurt both emotionally and physically by this one-sided policy those politicians that are shaming you and pushing you and bullying you won't be around to help you when your daughter or my daughter fails to get a sports scholarship because of biological male beater a scholarship which if she doesn't get by the way she won't be able to attend college they won't be here when cps is possibly called because i want to firm my child's gender choice these politicians groups just want their agenda for field but we will be here the parents of the children of newport news public school system parents which elected you to represent us the very prominence that this policy

077alienates and tries to exclude and that's why we're here tonight so I ask you to do what you did last week have the courage to vote no once again and let me leave you with this when you stand for what's right you often have to stand alone still I ask that you stand thank you at this time i must inform the board that I've exceeded the 30-minute extension that was provided and so in order to continue public comment it would require another extension of our of our time is there a motion to extend public comment so moved second all right and is the uh to clarify and statement the motion to extend public on by 30 minutes yes thank you all right first fight with the same and seconded by uh madam vice chair uh

078and uh so uh there being no discussion uh madam clerk would you please call the role mr harris or mr hunter four mrs searle's law four dot mrs ayman core dr best four mr early four mr brown four motion so we do have some room here now so what I'm going to do is I'm going to call and try to do another 15 speakers and call call your names now so you would listen carefully please and then make your way into the auditorium so our speaker is going to be florence ian bohr michael battle tanisha press joy kempt helaya kishonna smallwood autumn cuevas scott furman william clark mary horning mary voss shonia gray cheeseman shania great cheeseman tanisha williams guy and robin levy and wendy stuck so if you would make your way into the

079auditorium now those folks who had your name called and then we'll continue we'll go ahead and continue miss foreign please good evening everyone um we do appreciate you guys for all the jobs that you have guys have been doing I'm a foreigner from another country so this um the first place I landed was newport news and I have been blessed in newport news i am a proud mother of a young child who is going to high school i stand against this policy this is not my belief and this is not what I want newport news public school to induct into my children i want to know today as a mother what would you tell me if anything happened to my child in the bathroom would you call me and tell me that my child get

080molested in the bathroom what would you tell me as a mother for those politicians who are getting involved in this let me let you know this is your last election we're not going to vote for you all anymore because we're tired of this we actually place you all in your position to support us struggling mothers single mothers this is another reason why I woke up in the morning and blessed my child to go to school i blessed my child to go to school to learn and to sit also in the same position where you're sitting today i refuse as a mother and as a foreigner to accept this this is not my belief i know how it feels I'm also part of newport news public school I know how it feels when you're being imposed

081to do things out of your will please turn in the fact of truth and refuse to let any politician tell you what to do the life of our children generation is in your hands i don't want to wake up in the morning and cry over my child I refuse i don't want to cry over my child somebody bullying my child in school i don't have a problem of any child that choose to be a transgender that's okay I've seen a lot of them would love them because that's their choice but please don't impose anything that is not what I have been called in my child for you to put it in my child I refuse i want my child to be taught i want my child to be learned i want my child to be

082educated this is not the reason why we're here please turn on the truth for those politicians that are getting involved mock this this is your last position i am not in support of this how do you want to explain to me when my child go to school I teach my child one thing and newport news public school is teaching my child another thing thank you michael battle good evening i want to start by first addressing transgender non-conforming students you are loved you are here by design you hail from a legacy and lineage of resilience beauty and grace and you are not alone to families of trans folks you are not alone you have the opportunity to be a revolutionary warrior to learn a deeper level of love a love that helps you to overcome all

083of the fear i want to thank the board for reconsidering the new virginia state law mandating protections for trans students and I want to especially thank mr hunter for being the courageous one and being the sole person to vote in favor of this last week I'm michael david battle founder and executive director at garden of peace we exist to center black trans and queer youth elevate and empower the narratives and lived experiences of black youth and their caretakers and guide revolutionary spaces of healing and truth through art education and mentorship our work began almost nine years ago and over one-third of the folks who contacted us were from this area we began in southwestern pennsylvania by the way it was both shocking and alarming to see that over one third of the folks reaching out

084to us were from hampton roads we were a small organization with two people on staff folks contacted us with everything from their child experiencing harassment and structural barriers in the school systems to guidance counselors reaching out for housing support for students after being kicked out of their homes on average trans and gender non-conforming students are kicked out at age 12. so as we're talking about the parents who are so concerned about their children they are throwing their children away 72 percent are homeless and housing insecure and couch surfing they're street homeless and it is our job to protect them in 2020 my family and I moved to newport news to build safer spaces right here in our communities to be seen heard and loved according to the national transgender discrimination survey of 2016 the majority

085of respondents who were out or perceived as transgender while in school k-12 experienced mistreatment verbally harassed 54 24 were physically attacked and 13 were sexually assaulted because they were transgender further 17 experienced such severe mistreatment that they left school as a result on average sixteen percent of us drop out by sixth grade as educators guides and mentors it is our role to provide care and protect our children we are powerful each and every one of us comes to earth with a gift as adults we have the power to deeply affirm shape and hold these young people and help them to reveal their gifts we also have the power to deeply destroy the fabric of who they are and who they have come to be thank you mr battle thank you tanisha press hello and thank

086you for the opportunity my name is tanisha press I'm also a mother of a first grade student in newport news public schools I'm also a member of a faith-based organization we're god centered where we um we're just committed to meeting god where he's working to help turn this nation back to him one today at a time and so we do that through I'm sorry healing peace and justice strategies and so it's god's desire to connect with every person every individual he wants us to be made whole he wants us to be healthy he wants to have healthy relationships with each other and in order to do that we have to see him clearly we have to we have to be able to see his ways and be able to walk in his ways and as

087we do the express will of god in our communities and in our nation we begin to eat the fruit of life we begin to eat the fruit of truth and liberty we enter into his shalom and that's really just a state of peace rest and wholeness with one another and that'll be for our children for their gen their generations after them their children and their children and so it's our our responsibility to instill godly kingdom standards in our children we have to teach them this nation was founded on biblical values it wasn't perfect it isn't perfect but we can't throw everything away we can't destroy the foundation we have to keep sight of the vision that god gave us and begin to build on that to perfect it and so we have to employ god's

088standards for life peace health wellness and liberty and to be able to see that to be able to see that in our community it starts with us it starts with our education system it starts with our children in our schools we have to invest in good and godly things in our children in order to reap a pleasant and beneficial future for all if we depart from god's principles if we adopt policies such as this that we know is against the known will of god then all we are going to do is continue to reap destruction and reap further confusion in our school in our youth we cannot continue down this path but we have this this great opportunity here today to to turn back to god to just to just return to his standards to

089his way of living if we say that we serve the god of abraham isaac and jacob then we cannot enact policies that are contrary to what his word says we can be a nation we can be the city where the good news comes forth a city that that will proclaim his goodness proclaim his life and his truth thomas jefferson once said can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed from them the only firm basis a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of god that they are not to be violated but with his wrath indeed I tremble for my country when i reflect that god is just and that his justice cannot sleep forever so if we continue to remove god and his words

090his instructions for right living the found out of the foundation of our nation i too tremble that the hedge of protection will be removed thank you thank you joey kempt hello first I want to say that nobody has to go to the extent of falsely claiming to be trans to bully harass or prey on children there are plenty of cisgender people preying on children in society and in the church without oversight or accountability excluding trans children from the bathroom does not protect any children no matter what change occurs in a society there are always people who find change to be a scary scandalous thing it was in a lifetime of my parents and many of you in here when little black children had to be escorted by national guard into the previously segregated halls of

091school buildings sanctioned by many churches and bible verses today we look at the jeering faces of the adults in those black and white photographs as bullies what we don't see is the same tactics of alarm and fear are being used against non-binary and trans children today it is a job of educators and authority figures to keep children safe there has been a lot of fear mongering about keeping children safe while neglecting the trends in non-binary children that already go to newport news public schools in the bible jesus condemns those who stranded gnats and yet swallow camels in the bible we are told that speaking with the tongues of angels and men mean nothing if we do not have love yet time and time again I see people uphold a tenuous morality that cost the lives

092and mental health of non-binary and trans people daily people who speak of moral obligation to deny trans children the support that they deserve and require while swallowing the camel that is the suffering of non-binary and trans children who are often rejected from their families tormented at schools unsupported by administration abandoned by society and slaughtered by hate this is the reason for the separation of church and state school administration is charged with the welfare and safety of all of his children in its care including the non-binary and trans children this is the reason why we must adopt the state law mandating protections for trans trans students because it is a matter of accepting supporting and caring for children in the unique ways that they need may need care a pronoun costs you nothing but it's suicide

093prevention for some children a name change doesn't hurt you but it's dropout prevention in some children you see we are not here to argue biblical morality but how to best serve the children of this district how to best say all of the children including non-binary and trans children thrive it is time we truly put children first here in this school district which is the job of a school district administration not the catering to the whims and desires of adults to whom these matters are not life and death thank you hella homes hello my name is helene I'm 14. I wanted to talk about my experiences and why i wanted this policy to be adopted my experience is you might be thinking oh they're just 14 they don't know a lot i can say with the

094most confidence and respect that that is wrong my family especially my parents work hard to help trans people feel more comfortable in a world they live in because of that I'm around a lot of people who have come to my parents for help because of that they can't because they can't get certain health care jobs I'm around a lot of people who are scared angry sad and many more emotions just because people don't accept them or because people don't respect them i personally get how people will dislike a person because of the gender i personally wait excuse me i personally don't get how people will dislike a person because of the gender they identify as I might be it might be because I'm young but I personally think that it is not affecting you why

095go to your way to hurt someone I feel like most of the disrespect towards trans people come from adults I have yet to talk to a child or a teenager who has a problem with trans people it might be because of my most of my generation gen z is accepting when it comes to the lgbtq plus community but I still don't get it I have a question though how would you feel if you came out as trans and there are people who are being shaded disrespectful and just plain outward how would you feel if you walk around there are people there are just people making faces and giving your sat giving you sad ads just because you came out as tran so you would feel more comfortable in your body as the person who is

096gender gender fluid identifies as trans I think it would be great for schools to accept that trans people should be able to say and do I'm a guy I use the men's bathroom I play boys basketball I use he him pronouns I'm a girl I use the woman's bathroom I play women's soccer i use she her pronouns just like other girls and boys I would like for my friends to not come to me crying or sad because they get they're getting distracted because they're trans i would like for I like my friends to smile and not cry every other day because they're getting distracted have a lot of trans friends who don't feel comfortable because of how they're getting treated they come out as tran because they came out with trans this is why I

097would like for schools to doubt this policy thank you thank you kashana smallwood I'm here because I believe I'm in a very unique religion I am an elementary school teacher I've been teaching with newport news public schools for this is the start of my 17th year um my children have attended newport news public schools from kindergarten all the way up I have college high school middle through their whole lives and I have a trans child all of my kids have been successful in school all of my kids have been surrounded by supportive helpful caring adults at these schools um for this reason I was as a mom that mom that was here earlier i felt what she felt i know exactly where she was I was mortified by some of the things that i heard

098about my child um and then I kept saying to myself well if they were there when my child came out they'd understand it there's no way that people would say these things if they understood and so i wish that I could come and tell you that story and I came here today to tell you that um but then something kept stopping me from writing it down and then I realized this because my child's coming out story isn't for school it's not for someone at school to give to us that was something that was personal that was my child's choice my child's timing um that was a pers that was personal that was for our family um this sport is supposed to be a reflection of us newport news public schools my children have had tolerant

099supportive teachers that I don't feel would have any kind of issue with this policy and I believe that as a reflection of us the vote should match with how we would feel the teachers of newport news public schools thank you autumn cuevas hello I am the pride sponsor for heritage high school I'm also a proud world history teacher heritage high school I'm also a citizen and a lifelong resident of newport news i have to say this has been an eye-opener of a night for me when we make the decision to work in education we make the decision to work with and for the well-being of all students all parents all colleagues we're told to leave it at the door you know whether we're having a bad day if we're having whatever you know whatever we

100have going on we leave it at the door for the good of our students to that end I suppose it's a good thing that we have a separation of church and state in the constitution that everyone's been referencing tonight I've heard a lot of folks making statements tonight about the will of god but what about parents students educators staff who aren't christian we represent and we take care of all of the students all of the parents all of our colleagues all of the teachers when we do or when do we take them into account if you make a vote on this from a place of religion are you not establishing a certain religion above others in the community or establishing above the lack thereof in the case of some of the speakers some of the

101speakers tonight have said that they're arguing against this bill for the teachers I want you to know you don't speak for me and please don't think that you do matter of fact you don't speak for most of the teachers that I know to those who claim that we don't care about anything but an agenda first off how dare you claim to know what what teachers are thinking in general if you haven't been in a classroom but especially to know what's going on in my head tell me have you ever had to sit with a child who is afraid to go home because of who they are have you ever had to set up a meeting with an administrator because some of your students the ones that you've developed rapport with the ones that trust you

102that you have put time and effort into building that relationship with that essential relationship that we talk about because there we're having food thrown at them in the cafeteria have you ever set sat up worrying about a student over winter break because she was on the edge of a mental breakdown pretending to be something she wasn't this isn't about bathrooms and everyone's getting that convoluted it's not about bathrooms it is about and it's it's not about parental rights it's about student rights when did we forget that students are people too when did we relegate them to props and what about the children quotes we say that we want them to be college career and citizen ready but then when they speak up or when we have a chance to allow them to express themselves and

103to properly venture out into the world saying here I am this is who I am this is who I want to be this is what I want to study in college this is what I want to do then we shut them down and say I'm not not like that thank you thank you ms cuevas scott fuhrman first off thank you for your time i definitely don't envy your position tonight I'm only here because I was disappointed that we're backing up because of bullying from bigger politicians I teach my kid against bullying I feel like we should set an example as a board y'all have already made a vote to me a pretty strong vote was what six to one stick to your guns stick to your words as a dad of a seven-year-old little girl

104i can't imagine a little boy going to the bathroom with her nor can I imagine if she does want to be gay which my brother is gay so it's not to get that I'm against gay people or against lesbians that's irrelevant but that's my place as a parent to talk to my child not yours not the teachers not this young lady I was just talking if my child wants to go to her in her class and feel uncomfortable then maybe she could call me but it's not her right to parent my child I send my child to school so I get an education not be fair to she's parented by her by me and her mother um a little nervous um I've seen a lot of things that have already been said but I'm not

105here to bash y'all at least yet if we stick to the course but I can assure you if this reverse is back I'm going to do everything I possibly can to make sure that none of you are reelected because you're getting bullied that's not what i want for my children and I don't think that's what we should show them as leadership especially from our school board thank you william clark good evening everybody oh I'm like him I don't even envy you guys at all right now I mean it's it's pretty bad you know we were was it six to one we had um i just wrote that you know as we stand here tonight our country was built on beliefs and freedom we say the pledge at our schools courthouse any federal public gatherings in

106the pledge it says one nation under god god makes made each of us unique in a way that we are born we are male or female god made all of us to fit his agenda not man's or political stance when you go into a hospital wherever you may go to birth a child determine that determines at that time that he is male or female these behaviors of kids don't just come onto them it is taught to them in so many other ways and schools should be focused on teaching the young minds reading writing and arithmetic our kids have been through so much this past year and they don't need to feel uncomfortable when they go into the classroom bathrooms or anywhere else inside the schools it is the school's responsibility to make sure that our

107kids are safe in the environment and having boys and girls in the same locker room bathroom is not safe we don't need our children to be exposed to things they may not be ready for a majority should rule in this matter and newport news should follow the direction of the other local schools and say no to this ridiculous policy schools have been here for many years and there has never been a crisis on children's identity this agenda should not be focused on kids teachers or the parents we are already walking on eggshells about the way we talk to people and this will make things way worse than it already is I hope newport news will stand tall and say no to transgender policy thank you mary horning good evening my name is mary horning and

108I'm a middle school teacher here in newport news public schools as I begin I'd like to give a shout out to our trans and non-binary students we see you we hear you and we love you i was taken aback by some of the comments made by some members of the community and indeed some members of this board at last meet at last week's meeting admittedly the distinctions between gender identity assigned sex at birth and sexual orientation are complex but a lack of understanding of these complexities does not afford this board the right to abrogate statutory or state law nor does it afford this board the right to substitute their own religious beliefs for public policy we have trans students in newport news public schools and we have non-binary students in newport news public schools i

109know because I've taught several of them and here's the thing it's just not a big deal students don't kick up a fuss about each other's pronouns and I'm unaware of bathrooms ever having been an issue where by the way indeed students enter the student bathrooms use the loo wash their hands and return to class our trans and non-binary students exist they are real their identities are not a phase or a fad trans and non-binary students are among the most vulnerable young people in our society they are at higher risk of homelessness victimization depression and suicidality than their cisgender peers and so the last thing that we should be doing is propagating a policy of epistemic violence that in turn facilitates and normalizes physical violence acknowledging the fundamental humanity and dignity of our trans and non-binary

110students is not a violation of anybody's right to believe or to worship as they wish and nor does or should anybody religion anybody's religion justify morally bankrupt and legally indefensible public policy the law is clear and we should be too we must protect trans kids thank you miss mary boss hello mary vas an nps teacher and parent and a proud member of vcore which is the virginia caucus of rank and file educators a caucus of the vea before delving into tonight's topic i want to very briefly share concerns that fellow teachers and staff have asked me to share about the plan for large class sizes and three students to a bus seat during covid we've already seen districts across the country have to close because of covet outbreaks as the delta variant overfills local pediatric

111hospitals many parents are interested in a more flexible more easily accessible virtual learning program which would also help reduce overcrowding in classrooms and buses where kovid is inevitably inevitably going to run rampant also many classroom teachers won't have an unencumbered lunch break this school year because they'll have to monitor their students in the classroom during lunch which will make it very difficult for those educators to get a much-needed mental break during the day or even bathroom breaks during the day without having to ask other staff members to cover their class working with children and youth all day long without a real break and without convenient access to a bathroom is a recipe for teacher burnout some principals are making unencumbered lunch work for their staff by having other staff members rotate to give every teacher

112a real lunch break every day please uh consider making that district wide so that we don't burn out our classroom teachers so badly that they consider quitting amidst an already sizeable classroom teacher shortage on to tonight's topic please pass the state mandated protections for trans students and also implement all of the vdoes model policies for working with trans students I'd also like to point out that when trans and non-binary kids use the bathroom it is just to use the bathroom a 2018 study by the williams institute found no increase in crime in bathrooms in areas with trans-inclusive policies however research does show that trans teens are at great risk when they are denied access to a bathroom or locker room that matches their gender identity with nearly one out of three of those trans teens

113reporting being sexually assaulted in the last 12 months when they didn't have access to a bathroom that matches their gender identity so let's stop buying into these bizarre bad faith arguments that scapegoat trans kids when in actuality trans kids are far more likely to be the victims of bullying violence and sexual assault than being the perpetrators the trevor project's 2020 national survey on lgbtq youth mental health found that trans and non-binary youth who reported having their pronouns respected by all or most of the people in their lives attempted suicide at half the rate of those who did not have their pronouns respected this is literally a life-and-death issue for trans kids the vdoes model policies for trans students point out that privacy and conscious on confidentiality are critical for transgender and non-binary students who do

114not have supportive families disclosing does that mean over thank you miss monster okay thank you please pass the please support the videos policies thank you very much all right at this time I am coming close to the end of my uh of the allotted 30 minute time extension and I will inform the board that we have we have 13 additional cards so if the board is willing to provide an additional 30 minutes we may be able to complete all the cards that have been passed forward is there a motion to extend time yes mr chairman I make a motion that we extend the additional 30 minutes all right thank you there's a first is there a second okay all right second by ms amen any question all right there being a medal clerk would you

115please call the roll mr harris poor mr hunter or mrs earl's law four mrs eamon four dr bess four mr ely mr ely mr brown four motion carry six zero all right so at this time I'm going to call uh the names of the speakers that are remaining so essentially if you filled out a card it's now time to come on into the auditorium because we do have room for you our first speaker is going to be shania cheeseman tanisha williams guide robin levy wendy stuck issue fitzgerald sebastian moore fred levy craig holly william leroy deborah mitchell and sandra to maniello pronounce that correctly rose cam and robin field so hopefully you heard your name and please make your way to the auditorium at this time and we're going to go ahead and continue our

116comments with miss shania cheeseman thank you I appreciate you guys allowing us to come here and speak again this is our second time I just want to thank you all for all that you do so thank you i am a citizen of newport news been a citizen newfound news for years my daughter has attended mitchfield my nieces my nephews and they are very successful because of you all they already have already um graduated they have their bachelor's degrees and they already have attended military my daughter did 22 years retired military as we speak so thank you for all you have done for my family I am speaking to let you guys know that you all have done a great job the policies the procedures regulations that you have in place that you have been in

117place for years have been impeccable you have been doing a great job because what you have done your policy and procedures it parallels it mirrors it matches it goes with the independence declaration of independence it goes by the amendments and it goes by our rights all of our rights every one of us doesn't matter if it's for personal reasons private reasons biblical beliefs and religious beliefs and biblical uh values it goes all across the board and we thank you we actually continue to please with your regulations rules policy and procedures that are working that are impeccable and that will continue to be impeccable and um will also impose the lives of all our children all across the board the protection of all children your policies and procedures have done and will continue and we thank

118you if you will continue to keep it in place as you already voted for and we thank you for all that you do this is not easy for you all to sit here and listen to this over and over again and for you guys to come out here again and to listen to us one more time we should thank you so we just ask you to please continue with your policy and procedures that you do have in place and we thank you for all that you do and god bless you because all that you have placed it parallels it matches it mirrors the declaration of independence amendment rights all of that I could just keep going on and on okay and it also comes under one god one nation under god with liberty and justice

119for all this is for all of us for all our children's protection for them all so thank you and we ask that you continue with that so thank you very much and god bless you thank you tanisha williams tanisha williams all right we'll hold that we'll hold that card all right then we're going to go to guy and robin levy thank you for to the newport news school board for your willingness to meet this evening and reconsider the issue of approving a transgender policy for our students the fact that we are here this evening speaks volumes about the amazing elected and professional leadership we have come to know for our newport news city public schools it represents the fact that our uniquely fabulous educators are able to guide 93.9 percent of our students in 2020

120to graduate in four years when robin and I were public students on the peninsula in the 60s and 70s our society was not the informed tolerant society we strive for today if you are a member of any non-majority group there is a good chance you face personal challenges in school that we just all accepted as reality but the reality is we are a better and more protect productive community when every member of our community has the freedom to exist and hopefully thrive just the way they are why do we even need a transgender policy when we are already recognized as one of the most tolerant and inclusive school systems in virginia why can't we just be good educators and move on aside from the likely draining of our valuable resources to oppose a transgender policy

121we should have a policy so our educators can assure safe and supportive schools for our students we should have a policy so everyone in our newport news public school community can understand the challenges of a transgender student we should have a policy so all of our students can learn about how to be kind and respectful to their teachers and their peers we should have a policy so the freedoms and opportunities we are entitled to enjoy in this country are extended to every student including our transgender students we should have policy so our transgender students graduate on time and make our world a better place because we help them and every student to thrive thank you thank you brought to my attention that there may be a few cards that were filled out but we don't

122have them up here so I'm going to call those names that I have mr tom amen is going to be my first good evening it's uh been a long night i think everybody's heard a lot of interesting points and counterpoints um I just want to kind of remind us where we've been where we're going ten days ago we were here making a decision on the transgender policy we had 30 or so members of the community speak on the issue we then heard we then all heard the administration describe the policy and after that the board had a chance to speak on the policy following that a vote was taken with a five-to-one result with one abstaining and the policy was voted down the issues that concerned most of you were the same issues that concerned

123the members of the community as well now we are back again to vote on a policy again that has already been voted down we are not here because of a huge crowd groundswell from families supporting the policy but rather because of undue influence from a handful of people and special interest groups and that's really sad i have read the proposed changes to the policy and none of them addressed the issues cited last week by many of the board members number one it still allows the school system to keep secrets from parents with regard to how their children would be addressed regarding their gender at school number two it still allows or even encourages a child to explore transgender lifestyle even if the family did not believe in this lifestyle number three it could also possibly

124have parents labeled as abusive and have cps get involved in a family matter over a simple situation that should be handled in the family not the school system number four it also has not addressed the major distraction for teachers as they try to teach and at the same time worry about the proper pronoun to use for a child the straw man that if we don't approve this policy the transgender child is not protected from discrimination is categorically false newport news public schools already has a no discrimination policy in place and from all accounts this policy is working very very well please remember parents not the government or the school system are in charge of their children please respect that parents should know if their child is having gender issues and children should not be being

125taught gender expanding concepts in the schools please don't allow for political pressure from powerful people or special interest groups to change your mind stand strong with your vote you did it right the first time stand strong thank you very much have a good night thank you mr raymond I'm going to call susan young bluff next I believe she filled out a card earlier susan young bluff in the audience all right while we wait for miss young bluff then we will call it wendy's stuck good evening I am wendy stuck and I was the 2019-2020 teacher of the year for my school thank you for extending time for everyone to speak i am disappointed that you voted against accepting the virginia department of education's model policies for the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and

126secondary schools quote the 2020 legislation requires local school boards to adopt policies that are consistent with but may be more comprehensive than the model policies adopted by the vdoe by the start of the 2021-2022 school year said vdoe spokesman charles pyle on june 24th our school system told newport news public schools stakeholders that we were not going to follow a legislative mandate legislation required us to have an inclusive policy for transgender students and we refused nnps policy jb does not specifically protect transgender students rights stakeholders may now choose to disregard school system policies and procedures that they disagree with we learn students names we can learn pronouns we learn their nicknames transgender students do not change randomly it is not confusing I had four last year multiple school board members cited christian values as a

127reason to vote against the policy does that mean that newport news public schools rejects non-christians lgbtqia is not an agenda it is simply an identity if nnps rejects one identity as a public school system then we reject all identities these students wish to pursue an education safely as for small children newport news public schools shut the door in their faces they ask questions all the time what happened to just listening we do contact parents guardians and legal caregivers when we are concerned a child will hurt themselves or others we don't contact those adults if they are the ones who may cause harm this does the vdoe policy does not go against ihamb uh because providing inclusion does not instruct sexuality I read through the policy and I do not see anything about hiding information from

128parents I do not read it as assuming parents are abusive we are a public school system therefore we have to open our doors to all people whether or not we like or dislike them or anything by rejecting the vdoe's orders to forge a model policy for our school system newport news public schools allows our stakeholders to reject students and teachers that they dislike nnps rejected the commonwealth's legislation to project trans people this is not about forcing anyone to go against faith religion or moral code it is about inclusion and the safety of all of our stakeholders yes sir while many of us agree or disagree I'm so pleased that we're not cursing or yelling at each other I love my newport news public school school board co-workers neighbors whether we agree or disagree have a

129peaceful night everybody good night it was an accidental buzz thank you i watched it I understand not a problem sorry about that uh miss fitzgerald good evening um I'm not gonna re go hash what you've heard 500 times tonight as I understand the decision that you made last week you decided to take the year that the state has allocated you to design a plan that works for newport news i have two children who went through this school system I am blessed to build military black brats that we were in and out of here I have five grandchildren in this school system I volunteered in this school system for over a decade transgender kids are not new anybody who was around with woodside high school open so a whole lot of new stuff it's not new

130the school system has been handling it for years it wasn't it's a non-issue that has become an issue it is an issue when you take a when you say this group of children has more of a right than this it is a yes it is a christian yes I'm a christian believe I'm right and wrong but I got a new slash for you we're not the only religion in town who is not going to be happy with you because I assure you the muslim community will not be happy with you either the point is you made a decision and I think an educated intelligent decision to step back look at your school system and figure out what works for us what works for your teachers these guidelines are set by the state punishes teachers for

131communicating with parents the state does not have guardianship of my grandchildren my children or anybody else's children unless they are in the system the city does not you are an elected body and you're an elected body so that you can act separately from city council and other politicians please continue to do your job because i was really proud of you all thank you very much and dr parker every teacher I know and I do know an awful lot of teachers say you listen pretty well to them and did you sit back and you think and i appreciate that as a parent and as a grandparent thank you all very much please stand your ground you drew a line to stand stand tall thank you I had susan youngblood she in the audience i ask again

132that you not vote yes on either the proposed transgender policy nor the procedure the policy and the model procedures issued by the virginia doe was conceived without any thought or guidance as to how it will be implemented by the school boards proof of that a major concern with the policy and procedures the fact that the procedure on page 1a states that the doe shall develop and make available policies in accordance with evidence-based best practice is exactly that based on scientific evidence documented over time with a definite correlation between practice and outcomes not only did the doe not give you guidance to a procedure you were about to develop they have no evidence-based practice nor do they require it just go to page four under student identification the first step towards social transitioning the procedure states

133students will schools will allow students to assert a name and gender pronoun that reflects their identity gender identity without any substantiating evidence nor any required minimum duration of expressed gender identity now I'm not a lawyer but i am a master's prepared nurse with 44 years experience I'll tell you this would never occur in the sequence in medical professions social transitioning is not the first step in the journey of transgender individuals best practice begins with professional counseling from seasoned practitioners specifically schools in these issues followed by medical and psychiatric diagnoses of gender dysphoria involvement of a child's parents and the social community outside this school and then the social transitioning continues and beyond 80 to 95 percent of children who state their identity with another sex pre-puberty will rejoin and choose their birth sex and their

134dysphoria subsides away not all children who state they want to be the opposite sex in their formative years will transition it is a very small percentage most of the severe mental problems we've been hearing all night occur at the point of facing elect elective transitioning surgery to which they know there is no return so with no exam no medical testing against proven parameters no psychiatric intervention no parental notification or consent which is not best practice for any pediatrician and no parameters set to measure the outcomes of this untried procedure you as a school board are willing to okay a teacher to take on this decision in their own hands i submit it's ludicrous but it is exactly the experiment you are about to embark on one in 30 000 males and 1 in 100 000

135females assigned at birth have a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria are we to believe that the newport news schools have such a high rate compared to the national statistics that we have to go to these lengths I'm appalled that three politicians who do not elect you and have no business interfering your decisions i have not changed my convictions i wonder why you haven't thank you all right we're next going to call miss peterson rose hello thank you I'm elizabeth peterson rose and I live in hilton village um I'm disgusted by the board's previous vote so not only do I want the board to follow the law but I'm asking that you adopt the video ease model policies for the treatment of trans students using somebody's pronouns and their name has a hugely positive impact on

136the individual and harms nobody if you are worried about being unsure about pronouns nobody will fault you for deferring to they them my partner and I have lived here since 2017 but he's in the military so we've only recently established residency this year as I said I live in hilton village which is in the central district so I'm looking at both of you mr earleslaw and yuma zayman i want you guys to both know that there is a group of over 300 of your constituents that have been organizing for the last year to advocate for social justice in our community mr liz law the consensus among the group that I've seen so far seems to be that people have been surprised and were taken aback by your bigoted vote I would like an apology from

137you and I would like for you to do the right thing going forward ms eamonn i looked up your election results the other day you're sitting in that seat with 30 of the vote so just for emphasis that means 70 of the voters did not want you there our group will be adding the vote you took the other day to the growing list of reasons that we are planning to organize against you um all it takes is for us to not split our boat four ways which I'm sure we can do hopefully we've learned um obviously I want you to do the right thing going forward and then mr gary hunter thank you i am surprised to be thanking somebody for voting to not discriminate against children that said here we are I'm grateful that

138you're on the board I'm grateful that morality and evidence-based practices have a voice here and I also I want to apologize for my representatives i assure you that in 2022 and 2024 we will be working to make sure that you are not alone thank you for your time next card I have is sebastian moore how y'all doing tonight uh thank you for letting me speak first of all I want to say it's clear that there's no separation of church and state here to a lot of you up here I used to want to be like y'all I'm from newport news born and raised I'm a veteran I'm married I have kids in the school system and I'm also educated within the school system i want you to reconsider your vote and vote yes mainly because

139right here in the school board it's education and the number one thing that I see here is a lack of education a lot of these people are speaking and they speak uneducated about what it is to be trans and what transgender kids are and who they are about what they are about and i understand the fear that all these parents have but I want to let all the parents know that not one of these transgender kids are going to walk into a bathroom and hurt someone's kid the biggest thing that you need to understand is that these kids they have a fear of themselves of being hurt which is the most harmful thing that we're sitting here discussing a policy when everyone thinks it's against their kids so I would like for you to all

140take the time to reconsider and read my email and there's a lot of people who have emailed you all take the time and learn what it is to be transgender it's okay that you don't accept it because you don't have to accept everybody but as educators it's okay and you have to learn what it is because there's students in our school system who are trans and they go to the bathroom every day and it's hard for them to go to the bathroom but right now they're sucking it up and they're going to the bathroom and there's plenty of people that I've seen walk in the bathroom all day well all night here and little do they know they've been in the bathroom with transgender people so I'm sorry to tell you that all y'all you

141know a lot of transgender people here so it's time to make the change and it's time to vote yes thank you levy thank you so much for taking this time to reconsider your vote from last week and um this is something I always hope for in our elected officials which is open-mindedness and wanting us to consider differences um I am also very appreciative of the tone of tonight's discussion uh unlike some places in virginia some places around the country which is a tone of respect and civility there have been passionate and strong agreements and disagreements but um there has been no uproar no outbreak of crosstalk uh and I very much appreciate this is like for everybody um who has participated has cooperated in making sure this atmosphere has prevailed um i also want to

142say as I'm preamble to getting into the core thing that I want to talk about this evening which is I'm a proud parent my wife and i have lived here since 1984 we put two kids through the newport news school system uh the kids got as great in education as i could hope for my son went to amherst and uh and harvard divinity and then university of illinois uh doctoral program in history my daughter went to guilford college and is currently a pastor in a presbyterian church in tulsa oklahoma I might add that we are a two religion family I'm a reconstructionist jew and my wife is a presbyterian and yes it is absolutely possible even beneficial to have a family where differences are celebrated um the uh we've heard a lot of things tonight

143people making uh claims which I think have been very frightening but I found most of these to be speculative um and that's a concern for me because there's enough statistics and data and human stories to talk about that are more reflective of what's happening as opposed to fear of what could be and i think that's the biggest thing that i think is important to really focus on about what's happening with real people in real lives um there's been a lot of talk some people are very religious some people are devout christians some people are pastors who've spoken up i want to speak to another piece of this now understanding of course this is not a theocracy that we live in we have a constitution we have laws we have civil laws which really govern the

144law of the town and the law of the land but when we think about some of our scriptures I'm very impressed by abraham who we know from genesis right um was uh oh am I done already your time has expired you want to wrap up that thought oh absolutely it's that we were enjoined uh 36 times in the torah to uh be kind to this stranger we weren't strangers in the land of egypt and I think that's something we just need to be mindful of that minorities are important it doesn't matter their numbers everybody needs to be treated with decency thank you so much for letting me speak thank you mr levy craig holly hi good evening and thank you very much for your time um thank you very much for what you're doing on

145behalf of newport news public schools uh your time is very much appreciated first the representative from family foundations asked that I finished her statement because time had expired on her that is this during a lawsuit challenging the the deficiencies of the model policies a virginia department of education attorney clarified that not only would there be no penalties for not adopting the policies but funding will not be withheld from local school divisions she wanted to encourage you with that speaking on my and my five children's behalf ages 6 4 2 and newborn I just want to address one point of the model policies the encouragement of this policy that teachers and administrators would refer student by his or her gender preference at school and not disclose this fact to a parent or guardian to protect the

146student notice that nobody flinched when I said that I speak on behalf of my children why because they are minors and parents speak on their behalf all of the time i sign consents for doctors appointments bank accounts even sometimes when they're playing it is very well established that I sign these consents for things of far lesser importance than one's identity yet the model policy encourages schools to hide just that from me if there is a problem within a home that leads a school to believe that disclosing a child's preferred identity creates an unsafe environment does one really believe that deceptive letters or sneaking around and hiding this fact will make situations better of course it will not so I end with this that child may one day walk across the stage maybe get married or

147perhaps raise a family of their own and it will be the parent who is standing with them not a school not a teacher no one here probably even on this board as that we protect that there are other ways to create safe environments but no long-term good has ever come from lying or deceiving thank you very much for your time thank you mr hawley at this time we are nearing the end of the 30-minute extension that was provided by the board and i wanted to form the board we did have some additional cards that were passed forward in this last speaking period so we do now have 10 cards remaining to go through and I do estimate that we likely could finish that in a 30 minute extension is there a motion to allow for

148a 30 minute extension so mo all right thank you mr harris is there a second second second by mr hunter thank you any discussion mr chairman yes mr chairman I was going to ask for a uh five minute research yes I was about to provide that yes uh so uh madam clerk will first please call the roll mr harris for mr hunter four mrs searle's law or mrs amen for dr bess four mr ely four mr brown four motion carry seven zero all right so at this time uh to accommodate a bio break uh the board is going to go into recess for five minutes and then we'll resume our public comments at 8 50 80 52. i try to think of how scary it is uh for a kid who knows if their parents

149don't accept trans people who may rail against them and I try to think about what it is for that kid to go home and hide who they are i think their gut crunches up like mine does in front of you all i went to newport news all through grade middle and high school my children are in newport news and I think I know myself pretty well I'm the only one that's been with me my whole life and I don't think at any point there's anything my children could do that would make me reject them not if my daughter told me to stop calling her by her name and called him by his name but I don't know my future and I know that if someday my daughter is afraid to tell me something because she

150thinks it will put her in danger and I don't think it's anyone else's job to come and tell me that i am willing to let newport news public schools lie to me to hide from me who my daughter is if my daughter believes that I'm a danger to her it breaks my heart to think that one day she might be that way that she might feel that way it breaks my heart to think that maybe one day I might be that way but I don't know the future i have changed a lot i don't think any of you taught me which is probably why none of you are making angry eyes at me but I have changed a significant amount i sent you all an email apologizing for not being here and as many people

151have pointed out they were here last time and you took a vote and in my email I began by apologizing for not paying attention because it did not affect me so far as I know it will not affect me so far as I know but i have had as a newport news substitute teacher to make three separate reports regarding violence that a student has spoken about in their home because they have said something off hand to their friends yes your time has expired mr laura you want to finish that thought yes and it would kill me to think that I could have to make that report again and that they would go home one day and their parent who's been beating on them now knows that they don't identify as the son or daughter they

152were and they may be thrown out of their own home thank you mr leroy next speaker is gene magruder I'm going to try this with one hearing aid thank you mr superintendent chairman uh thank you for keeping me up past my bedtime okay growing up in high school I was humiliated t some of y'all might know some of this and made fun of it because i unfortunately had lost my hearing in my younger days due to about with mops it destroys you so I know what it's like to be a person who is different from others i felt the pain of the inability to do anything about it and just had to accept it and move on this whole room all the speakers no students that have been put in my position at school i

153will simply say is not the transgender student that will do anything to your children it will be your children harming and teasing the transgender child that's how it is in high school that's how it is every school we went to this has always been how it is and it will continue those that aren't a majority always have to uphill climb they will always be in danger at school from those who don't think they belong this is a policy question tonight it's not a procedure question the procedures can be ironed out at a later date this can end tonight with one vote any other vote besides the vote to follow the policy will mean many more hours spent on this not only for the school board but also for defending their choice to the courts which

154mode that make no doubt will about it as school board to vote and adopt a state policy and thank you and y'all have a great evening thank you for hand next speaker is miss holly kidd good evening school board members and thank you for staying so late and allowing us to speak um appreciate you hearing the public and hearing us um a couple things I want to mention um i do appreciate the fact that many of you are voting from a point of being christians and I appreciate that we are a public school and we have students who are not christians we have students who are other religions and I think that christianity and that type of voting and putting those values on to others belongs in a private christian school i also am disturbed

155and bothered that there's an implication that transgender students are not children of god and I think they are i think those children are students of god and they deserve your protection and I can only imagine that it's hurtful to them to hear implications that they are not children of god because they're transgender I've taught many many years probably over 2 000 students in the newport news schools I'm also a citizen of newport news and I have two stories I want to share with you that struck with me with this with this law i taught high school so I taught older students not elementary age and one student I was having trouble with in the classroom he was not turning at work his grades were failing I was concerned i called home to talk to his

156parent his mother which he was a single mother about what could be done to help him and help him improve with his schoolwork and his grades he didn't come back to school for two or three days and when he came back he had a black eye and a broken arm so the guidance counselors immediately handled the situation I was told that i could no longer call home and speak to his parents because they were abusive and this school and this school division has fabulous school counselors please let them do their job they're not lying they didn't lie to his parents they handled the situation they kept him safe they saved that child they're great school counselors and they know how to handle these situations the second story I have is another student I was in

157the library tutoring and I looked over and I saw one of my students there that I had taught before i said what are you doing here I was so happy to see him I went over and talked to him I looked down he had a suitcase what are you doing with your suitcase here in the library he said this kid my church has kicked me out my parents have kicked me out I'm living in the street i said what's going on he said I told them that I was gay and he had nowhere to turn I offered to help him he said don't he said I have found a place to stay I found a place that's safe from everybody in the alley he was sleeping outside in the alley at 40 degrees thank you

158miss kids so I ask that you please consider the protection of the students and get to know a transgender student because they're great kids thank you they are children god thank you christina selis gosh I hope I don't get nervous good good afternoon I'm a teacher here at newport news I'm also a mother to three amazing children a senior and a sophomore at warwick and a seventh grader at booker t and i think my main thing that after I mean I've been here as long as you have listening to everything I'm tired too but it's amazing my main thing is that we it's not about us it's not about the adults this isn't about what we want it's about how do we make our students the children how do we make sure that we protect

159them that we guide them that we allow them to thrive i asked my kids because I needed to hear from them i needed to hear how do they feel about this situation and I asked my son no if um if a trans um a trend I get confused sorry because I'm probably from you know a different generation where all these words are confusing um if a trans uh boy goes into the bathroom what how would you feel he's like I do my business he does his nothing and I go well what if you see one of these uh kids getting bullied or mistreated in the bathroom he says i I you know I'd speak up for him I'd beat the kids up I'm gonna be a senior I'm like oh my gosh no don't beat

160anybody up but he would stand up for that child I asked my daughter right there I said what do you think she's like they're people what do you mean what I think what to to them what we ask them is is crazy they're like what why can't you adults accept who we are this generation is amazing like I I'm ready to pass a baton I've done so many protests but I'm like guys you are amazing you I'm ready to pass the baton to you guys and then i asked my uh seventh grader's friend who's they them and she has to correct me all the time because I forget again we're of a generation that we're not used to this language and i said can you explain to me why is this important why are pronouns

161important to you guys and um she says well let me ask you this uh what do you identify as I'm I'm a woman a female she's like well what if people started calling you him uh he him whatever and I'm like that would be weird that would I offend you I'm like probably and she's like well that's do you get it now because they identify as something else it's not for us to understand i mean it's not for us to live their lives it's it's their lives we are here to protect them to help them to help them thrive and it's not about us it's about them so if they need protection if they if we need to fight for them that's what we need to do and as a teacher and as a mother

162that's what I'm gonna do thank you thank you miss ellis I'm megan adams hey everybody in the top quake we got three minutes uh my name is megan adams I was born in newport news as my mother was both at riverside my grandmother was born down the street at her mom's house i want to thank you for holding this additional board meeting so quickly to address complying with the additional policy requirements passed on from the state i also want to thank mr brown who took the time to respond to my email that I sent everyone also to gary hunter who also responded and did the right thing by voting the way that you did thank you very much i want to thank the newport news public schools administration that spoke last week they seemed extremely

163compassionate and ready to tackle this new policy changes i want to applaud all the teachers tonight that spoke up for all these children i have a transgendered son who came out to us about six years ago when he was starting high school and we supported him as we do all of our children and started therapy at chkd and then continued on with hormone therapy and then he continued on his transition using binders i can tell you his high school experience was absolutely terrible he suffered terribly from utis and we spent many nights at the urgent care because of this um the ordeal with the bathroom was terrible with him at work high school um sometimes he was allowed to use the nurse's bathroom it depended who was working and then pretty much his entire senior

164year he wasn't allowed to do that um it was terrible it was absolutely terrible we were all so glad that he finished high school and moved on with his adult life since graduation he's furthered his transition with having his male chest reconstructive surgery and continues hormone therapy I cannot find the words to express his transformation um his body language his confidence levels are through the roof and he's a completely full and vibrant person now um in regards to the privacy portion of the policy i only see um that if the child would like their transgender status to be kept secret from other students and their parents the staff member has to honor that I don't see how that affects parents rights that's pretty much protecting the students um i feel really sorry for these kids

165that don't feel they can go to their parents a child that I had the pleasure of knowing came out to their parents in high school their freshman year that they identify as a they and they preferred girls to boys their parents beat them until they crawled out of their house to find help and then their parents later abandoned them to the state they then went into foster care stay with many families um due to all this trauma they still suffered today from ptsd i wanted to thank the woodside staff that collected money years ago so they could get a suit for their prom i think if your child is keeping a secret that they feel they're transgendered from you I think you have a bigger problem I think um that everyone really needs to just

166listen to their kids I'm going to close with a caption that I read on mr eli's instagram I'd like to close with to be yourself I hope that didn't mean be yourself unless you're transgender goodnight steve stern steph stern yes hello sorry my handwriting is atrocious steph here i appreciate the time you're taking and extending the time to hear from all of us I'm a non-binary leaning masculine individual yes I'm trans i met a newport news teacher today and he spoke on how the treatment of trans students here is reminiscent how the untouchables are treated in india outside of this building just this evening I've heard a lot of quoting of the bible so now it's my time to say one galatians 3 28 says there is no male or female i am a previous

167resident of chesapeake one of the poorest regions the city south norfolk my child went to norfolk highlands primary I volunteered as a historian of the pta from years 2010 to 2013. at that very school I helped organize events and became a youth advocate to kids in my poverty-stricken neighborhood i walked children in my neighborhood including my own to after-school events clubs because I didn't have a car and neither of their families did we were conveniently down the street that became a bridge to the next generation regardless of their gender sexuality race or even religion or disability led them to better appreciate it from learning without judgment let's ponder on that I am trans but yet I inspired our youth to want to read to want to learn and how to add and subtract they asked

168me back then are you a boy or a girl I respond I am neater but I am a person and that's all that matters wide-eyed they smiled and they cheered they told me we love you steph we don't care what or who you are you love us just for some background none of these kids have parents that had any time for their education or just a hug i gave them a safe environment and yes I'm trans heads up I'm a prominent member of the growing non-profit that's expanding from phrygian beach to all of hampton roads we're coming check out our facebook page find us at the name of virginia beach coalition thank you deborah mitchell good evening and thank you well I'm very disappointed that we're back here again to revisit this issue i have

169to believe that your earlier decision was well considered and well thought out and you voted along with your heart taken into consideration your responsibility that you have to every child in the school division even so I am appealing to you to stay the course with that a couple of things still concern me you all were accused in the media of failing to protect the transgender child my question is how is allowing a child to go into the restroom the locker room opposite of his biological gender protecting them how does changing the name and the matching pronoun protect them it seems to me it's sending them out and putting them in harm's way in their defense my other thought was if a teacher and I'll call him mr butler he leaves school on friday and he

170returns on monday announcing that he's no longer mr butler he's mrs bubba and he wishes to be called a she and he's no longer a he what would the children do and what would you do what would prevent this or does this policy include instructors as well a wise man or woman looks down the road he perceives trouble and he avoids it but a foolish man continues and he's destroyed I believe you are among the wise there's a reason that children are given to adults and not the other way around we are wiser we have experience so we protect we guard we instruct we teach and we guide when they get out of alignment with anything our job is to help them navigate their way back so they can be successful the goal has to

171be to help the transgender children without sacrificing the well-being of all the other students as adults all of us have made some choices and decisions we have regrets personally we pray for crop failure but this is different this is not personal you're making a decision that will impact every child in grades k through 12. parents are leaving their children in your care every morning they trust you but if you allow tommy to be teresa while he's in your care but at home and every day and on the weekend he's still tommy guess what he can be tommy with you also in other words do not agree to keep this a secret be a part of this deception and betray the parents insist that they tell the truth is there any other situation that they will

172be allowed to lie about and not be in trouble where does this stop we were always told when we got in trouble you better tell the truth that's where the conversation started no teacher deserves to be put in the middle of this know that one day all of us will stand and give an account of everything that we've done it's called the judgment you will be asked what did you do with those children that were entrusted to you individually you'd be asked not the board not the representative but what did you do thank you sandra too many yellow thank you for being here it is late I'm sorry that this had to come back to a vote because I stood with the first vote i have the advantage of probably being the oldest person in

173the room I have been a guidance counselor for 40 years 30 of them in newport news I've been at a variety of schools I was in ethiopia at the american community school I was in texas I was at hampton roads academy for five years i was at huntington middle school for five years then gildersleeve so I've been around the block a few times and I've worked with thousands of kids and this new situation that's been thrust on us is new and people have said well there have been transgender students around forever maybe but in all of my years I've never heard it like this this is just beyond crazy and I will say that at gildersleeve i was there my last 15 years and the worst time for me was when the kids were going

174through their family life for sex ed because everybody was just really into sex that's all they thought about all they talked about so I can just imagine with this kind of stuff being pushed by the state and it's an agenda that's being pushed so don't don't be confused by that I can only imagine the conversations and I worry about the trans kids who felt that they'll be even more of a target because there's going to be so much attention on it and I really think that all kids are to be protected and to be loved and I can honestly say I don't think there's a student that I ever had that didn't think I loved them and I had kids with a whole lot of problems but I would never want to usher went through

175their confusion and most psychologists and psychiatrists agree that most kids go through some gender confusion as adolescents until they get it sorted out most of them is sorted out before they're adults and I'm just worried about all this that the schools in that society pushing this choose your gender change your gender early take these drugs have this surgery now there may be there are very few people who need that there are some and I think that we should love every person no matter what and that this shouldn't even be coming up we should be talking about academics in school a lot more time should be spent on math science english social studies on proper manners work ethic that's what the time needs to be spent on and that's where we we're not doing that good

176a job if you look at our test scores compared to the rest of the world we're like 45th and 70th in the different areas so we're not we're not doing a great job just saying that we pass the kids through that that doesn't mean we're doing an outstanding job but when I was yeah nick gildersleeve the big push came to close the gap at that time then the focus was on the minorities of the whites and it the white scores were here the blacks were here all they wanted to do was close the gap that didn't mean a thing we need to love kids god had a good plan male female man wife to nurture the kids thank you mr meow rose cam good evening mr chairman and the rest of the board members and

177to everyone else who's a symbol thank you so much for being here with us on tonight and hearing us i thank you as a parent I have been given an important responsibility to raise individual as god created them to be children are a gift from god he has entrusted us as parents to love god empower encourage and protect each one god created all mankind male or female in his image created he them genesis 1 27 therefore the gender of a child was already established in psalms 139 13 in the womb of the woman before birth but as expected parents we are the ones waiting to know once the announcement announcement is made of the gender it becomes our obligation as parents to nurture them accordingly to provide an environment of safe safety stability encouragement and

178an opportunity to experience learning while love while be learning with love as a boy or as the girl grows to ensure morals and values throughout their lives that will lead to exemplifying excellent character and integrity within the home the school the church and the community today we are discussing the topic of transgender policy for the children in our school system the family of god the family god created is under attack just the mere fact of this dialogue on this subject is appalling to me as a born black female with christian values real christian values and beliefs this policy infringes on the protection safety and bodily privacy of my nieces my nephews and my friends children as well as an adult female I am not willing to share bathroom facilities or different things like that with

179someone who was born a male but decided outside the will of god he wanted to be a female and appears in my personal space the action promotes more perversion including rape all types of things could happen and it can happen with that and without that instability of mind body and heart and it is an abomination unto god it is common knowledge if you were born a male you go to the male bathroom if you were born a female you go to the bathroom designated as such this principle we have instilled in each one of our children throughout the years the real discrimination is being mistreated lack of equality by human being by humankind because of the color of your skin the sovereign god created himself and created us to be not because I'm not satisfied

180with my sex or my gender thank you ms cam robin field is thank you board for having me here tonight I want to thank you and let you know that you came from a very well respected decision uh on the 17th of august and we're here to try to let you know that uh please stand your ground as a parent and a professional it is my choice when if and how I teach my children about homosexuality bisexual or transsexual people or whether or not we have systemic racism in our society these things are causing division in our society however I just want to say that I raise my children knowing that there are two sexes male and female and this is based on science and to love one another be kind to each other I

181don't point out to be kind to the transsexual girl or the black boy because this is actually racist and bigoted speech for which hate culminates and that's why when we put these labels on having a special uh circumstance for transgenders or all the different labels we can use that causes division my children have learned to judge someone based on their character not their gender or sexual preference or color i am to teach those values not the school it is my child to teach the value system I think is best according to our uh values not the school if a child is not learning because you think his sexual identity is hindering this that is a concern for the parents to seek professional counseling teachers are not qualified nor have the time necessary with such a

182complex issue as mental health according to the cdc the percentage of gender dysphoria students is .06 percent nationally opening this type of information into our schools our classes is not only counterproductive to the rest of the population in school but it's damaging to us as a society it will give way to other students to question their identity of which they were secure in we value and respect everyone and we don't need to know how you identify sexually teachers are here to teach reading writing math and science if a child is having difficulty comprehending maybe the teacher is not as knowledgeable to teach individual students in a different manner to help that student succeed at their fullest potential this is what teachers should be doing with many students falling below their capabilities and our national averages

183being below what we once were it would be best if teachers and schools focused on those subjects academics instead of bringing confusion and convoluting the education of our children I want to thank you board I know you have a difficult job but I hope you stand by your decision and know that we as a community respect what you've done thank you miss field thank you tanisha williams all right that was my last card so I'll ask are there any additional cards any additional cards please pass those forward to the clerk mr black won't you come forward thank you for allowing me to speak I really appreciate it I don't envy the job that you do but you have been chosen joshua 24 15 tells us choose you this day who will you serve I would

184caution you to vote no on the transgender issue and the crt which promotes hate I am not an oppressor we all know there's enough hate in the world it does not need to be taught in our schools if you can't tell what sex you are take your clothes off stand in front of a mirror look down you're male or female girls should stay with girls boys with boys no shared bathroom showers for the sake of convenience or political correctness this all started in 1962 when when they took prayer out of schools our parents dropped the ball by not speaking out against it now about 60 years later look at what our schools have become whatever happened to teaching writing reading writing and arithmetic the basics of life I have personally seen this firsthand the kids

185of today are not being taught this in school when you have college-age kids coming to a post office and they can't even address an envelope correctly let alone count change I was taught this in grade school as well as how to write a letter later on we were taught how to how to write a check why have we forsaken truth for untruth you teach students about every religion but the true word of god don't you think it's about time we get back to basics and open the book that tells you the whole truth and not some fabrication of man's ideas who gave the government or anybody else a right to take parents rights away from them I beseech you members of the school board do not make a choice today that will have repercussions on

186your children and grandchildren the choices you make today you will have to live with the knowledge that you had a chance to step up and correct the wrong done many years ago you made a decision once don't backpedal now and and stick to your guns you have an anti-bully policy in your schools why are you allowing politicians to bully you thank you for your time and attention thank you mr black are there any additional cards any additional cards there being no additional cards I want to thank the public for their time we'll move on tonight's agenda to a presentation by the superintendent thank you mr chairman I will call mrs brooks to the podium to uh recap the policy um and uh procedural updates um at our last meeting the board requested for more further

187detail on the procedural aspects while the board does not app the procedure is not before the board for approval this evening we wanted to ensure that the board had adequate information to um to uh apply to the policy that was brought before the board on tuesday of last week so mrs brooks has brooks says further information we our teams have met to add further newport news guidance towards the model policy policy and procedure that uh that the vdoe developed and she will take it from here great thank you dr parker good evening mr chairman vice chairman members of the board and again dr parker I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to come before you this evening regarding the proposed policy revision and to provide additional information regarding the procedures that will work to

188guide the implementation of the policy now the school division is committed to providing safe supportive and inclusive learning environments for all of our students to that end the revised policy and procedures address the treatment of transgender students as required by the code of virginia to be in place for the start of this school year they also reflect the eight components that we are legally bound to address in keeping with the state code now we've shared these eight areas with you before but I will mention them very briefly for our audience and viewing public the areas pertain to first complying with applicable state and federal non-discrimination laws to ensure that our policies and procedures align with mandated legal requirements second maintaining safe and supportive learning environments that are free from discrimination and harassment for all students

189third preventing and responding to bullying and harassment and as you are aware that's an ongoing activity for our youth development department fourth maintaining student records as required by law fifth identifying students to the extent possible that reflects the student's expressed identity six protecting student privacy and the confidentiality of sensitive information seven enforcing gender neutral dress codes and lastly the state co requires the school division to address student participation in gender specific school activities and events as well as the use of school facilities now to implement the general assembly legislation as you know the virginia department of education convened a statewide committee that worked for over eight months to review policies and resources from across the country pertaining to the treatment of transgender students in public schools and we use that document to update the school

190divisions procedures regarding this now for many people their gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth for others their gender identity does not necessarily correspond to their self sex assigned at birth so I wanted to share a working definition of transgender which is a self-identifying term that describes a person who identifies with a gender that is different from their sex assigned at birth now to comply with the legal requirements of the state code regarding the treatments of transgender students we have updated our current policy on equal educational opportunities to add that the school division will not discriminate against any individuals based on their gender or gender identity so our school division is committed to providing educational programs and services designed to meet the varying needs of our students to ensure that all students have safe

191supportive and inclusive learning environments now last week we shared the initial working draft of the procedure to implement the policy that was consistent with the code of virginia requirements and was also aligned to the department of education policies document since that time we've worked to provide additional information on how the procedures will be carried out in our schools and in a consistent fashion with our statutory requirements so if the policy revision is approved we will use the procedures to develop a guidance document or handbook with more specific steps that school staff can follow so this is a visual representation of our equal educational opportunities policy showing that we've added gender and gender identity as required by law now this evening's presentation is designed to provide further clarity on the eight components that are we are

192required to address by law so for each component we will have a slide on the draft school division procedure which will demonstrate the alignment of the of our school division procedures with those outlined in the virginia department of education model guidance document and then we will have a draft procedure implementation slide that will address how procedures could be implemented in our schools so upon board approval of the revised policy jb equal educational opportunities a larger committee will come together to finalize a guidance document or handbook for the school division this document will ensure that procedures are consistently implemented with fidelity and serve as a resource document for our schools now I would like to briefly review each of the sections in our draft procedures that are aligned to the eight state code components and worse

193to address the implementation of the law now the first section is on bullying harassment and discrimination and as you know we have several policies in addition to our equal educational opportunities policy that prohibit any and all discrimination harassment and bullying based on an individual's actual or perceived race color national origin religion sex sexual orientation gender identity disability or any other characteristic protected by law and any act incident or complaint of discrimination harassment or bullying will be given prompt attention including investigating the incident and taking appropriate corrective action complaints alleging discrimination harassment or bullying based on a student's actual or perceived transgender status will be handled in the same manner as other discrimination and harassment complaints the school division's title ix coordinator will be available to hear concerns from students or parents when complaints are not

194resolved at the school level so in newport news public schools we will review other school board policies to ensure compliance with state and federal laws and we will also work on our equity policy that will be aligned to our strategic plan which is journey 2025. now for our students and families we will continue to include bullying prevention as part of our character education programs and we will ensure that our student rights and responsibility handbook prohibits bullying and includes prevention and intervention protocols our youth development department will continue its focus on bullying prevention as well now to handle complaints or allegations regarding discrimination on the basis of an individual's gender identity the school division will use our current grievance procedure which includes informal and formal processes to ensure that any complaints filed are handled according to

195the statutory guidelines of title ix when a complaint is filed it will be thoroughly investigated and any recommend excuse me any recommended corrective action will be taken now our second section addresses student privacy and confidentiality all school staff must adhere to the legal standards of confidentiality relating to information about a student's transgender status legal name or gender assigned at birth and adhering to confidentiality school employees will treat information related to a student's transgender status as being particularly sensitive and will not disclose the student status to other students and parents and only disclose it to other school employees when there is a legitimate excuse me educational interest the student and or the parent may choose to allow greater disclosure in their discretion so in terms of implementation our school staff will be encouraged to refer students

196to licensed mental health professionals on our staff such as our licensed clinical social workers who are trained to address the social emotional needs of students and families and to handle sensitive and confidential information in a safe and supportive way to support students in communicating challenging information with families train nmps staff will exercise empathy patience and understanding provide a safe and protective environment for students to share their concerns as it relates to communicating with families and offer to schedule the meeting date and time and to be present during the conversation with families now if a student prefers to facilitate a conversation with their family members on their own staff members trained to engage parents around sensitive issues will work with students on strategies for communicating with their family members now this may include a session to

197allow students to role play different responses and scenarios but in a safe space as always our school division will remain focused on safety on the safety social emotional well-being and the confidentiality of students while remaining responsive and considerate of the needs of our families now regarding the identification of students the draft procedure states that schools will allow students to assert a name and gender pronouns that reflect their gender identity without substantiating evidence or any required minimum duration of expressed gender identity and as requested school staff will address the student using the asserted name and pronouns that corresponds to the student's gender identity so as our trained mental health professionals work with students in expressing their identity schools will allow students to discuss and express their gender identity openly and decide when to share information with

198whom and how much to share schools will allow students to be addressed by the name and pronouns that correspond to their gender identity now to do this a court-ordered name change is not required by law and the student will not need to change their official records however the school division will maintain a permanent record for each student that includes the student's legal name and gender for use on standardized tests or reports to the virginia department of education now next is the section regarding school records and I referenced some of this information before when I talked about student identification because they work very closely together now according to the draft procedures the school division will maintain a record that includes a student's legal name and sex assigned at birth and may be required to use or

199report the legal name and sex assigned at birth in some situations such as for standardized testing and as requested schools will use the student's asserted name or gender on some school documents such as student work now however a student's name and gender designation on official permanent records will be changed only if it's verified with the submission of a legal document such as a birth certificate a passport or court order so again in support of a student's gender identity a legal document will not be required for students who choose to use their asserted name or gender on some schools documents such as student work and our school division will maintain a permanent record for each student as I mentioned before that includes their legal name and their gender and will only change that when the appropriate

200legal documents are provided now our next section is on student dress according to our school division procedure dress and grooming codes will be written without limits on gender expectations students have a right to dress in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity or gender expression schools will administer and enforce dress and grooming codes consistently across the student body regardless of actual or perceived gender identity or gender expression requirements for attire for school related programs and activities and events will be gender neutral so in keeping with the procedures student dress codes will be gender neutral or without reference to gender specific attire for classrooms for classrooms and school related programs activities and events so for example schools may require formal attire for students participating in a concert but will not specify that girls must

201wear dresses and boys must wear ties now our school leadership staff has already conformed our student dress codes in the student rights and responsibilities handbook to reflect the state requirements and will work to ensure that other documents such as our school board policy on student address will conform to those laws as well now next according to our draft procedures on access to activities schools will eliminate or reduce the practice of segregating students by gender to the extent possible as long as there is an educational purpose for example an organization like girls who codes works to address the underrepresentation of females in coding so this would serve as an educational purpose now for any school program event or activity including extracurricular activities that are segregated by gender the school division will allow students to participate in

202a manner that is consistent with their gender identity now in terms of athletic participation that is regulated by the virginia high school league or vhsl as well as middle school activities all of those activities will be in compliance with the policies and rules that are outlined by the vhsl now in terms of our implementation and regarding access to activities the school division as I mentioned for athletics will follow the virginia high school league regulations regarding middle and high school athletics and as previously previously mentioned students will have the opportunity to participate in activities and programs in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity regardless of the gender listed on their student permanent records now the next section addresses access to facilities with the understanding that all students are entitled to have access to

203restrooms locker rooms and changing facilities that are safe sanitary and adequate so that they can comfortably and fully engage in their school activities and programs so to this end schools that maintain single user gender inclusive restroom or locker room facilities may allow student access but not mandate use so a pum request such facilities or reasonable alternatives will be made available to any student any student who seeks privacy and any options offered will be non-stigmatizing and minimize loss of instructional time and access to facilities such as restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to a student's gender identity will be available to all students now in implementing this procedure in our school division students will be allowed to use the same restroom facilities as their peers that corresponds to the students gender identity unless the student requests

204alternative accommodations our school staff will identify single user gender neutral restrooms at each school with specific signage indicating that restrooms are available to students restrooms will be accessible to students without use of special codes or keys and all students will be advised of the location and the availability of these facilities for locker rooms students will be allowed to use the same facilities as their peers that corresponds to the student's gender identity unless the student requests alternative accommodations now although nnps students are not required to dress out to participate in physical education accommodations will be provided for any students who wish to dress out for pe now the last of the eight sections addresses professional development and training all school mental health professionals will be trained annually on topics relating to lgbtq plus students including the

205safety and support for these students professional development for other school division staff will be provided in compliance with the virginia department of education guidance documents now in terms of specific training our mental health professionals will receive training courses in the areas of trauma child protective services reporting protocols suicide intervention and prevention protocols and critical incident response course work on inclusivity will be added to training requirements for all mental health professionals the goal of professional development for all staff is to ensure that they understand the rights of all students to have safe learning environments and the school board's expectations regarding the treatment of transgender students now professional learning components may overlap with or intersect with other professional learning topics such as bullying prevention mental health awareness and suicide prevention equity positive school environment or trauma-sensitive practices

206so the school division will coordinate the various professional development activities for consistency so in terms of our next step we are requesting your approval of the revision to the equal opportunities educational opportunities policy this evening next as I mentioned earlier once the policy is approved we will use the procedures to develop a guidance document or handbook with best practices and more specific steps that school staff can follow so and once again I would like to share this representation of our equal educational opportunities policy showing how we have added gender and gender identity as required by law and so this concludes my report this evening and joining me to respond to questions of some of the experts who are currently working in the areas that we have addressed those eight areas in the draft procedures and

207they are mrs linda askew is who is our student support supervisor mr wade beverly who is our planned services executive director mrs nina ferris our human resources director dr shamika jarrell who is our director of equity assessment and strategic operations mrs amy jones is here our health and pe supervisor mr tachan ophelia our employee relations coordinator dr jaron ransom our youth development supervisor and mr lynn wallin our director of legal services so as you can see it takes a team to do this work and we will continue to work together to complete the and meet the needs of our school staff so thank you all right similar as we did last time let's have one question at a time if there are questions and I'll ask the borders or any questions at this time i

208have a couple very some basic questions I think we're going to follow the virginia high school league policy i know it changed several years back is it if can anyone speak to what the current virginia high school league's policy is with regard to transgender students participating in sports yeah they have several steps that you must follow if you want to participate in terms of your gender identity and it's a process that parents have to complete so I can provide that information to you in detail but it's a detailed process and it also has an appeal process as well so it's written out very thoroughly but it's like a three-step process that students and their families have to follow to make that request okay let's just go around are there any other questions from other board

209members at this time all right let me save it please go ahead that's a nice question oh I just wanted to ask this jica the student dress in italics is that new no in fact that that's the outstanding policy that we've had for a while all right any other questions yeah that guy warms up mr harris i don't know if anyone here can answer it but the uh virginia high school league right athletics yes it appears that they are the only i guess organization that didn't have a dog in this fight or something they didn't say how they agree yes or no or you know there's a lot of changes but it specifically said well we don't want you know the kids to choose a particular sport that they might want to choose right but

210now they do have a process if you want to participate in the sport in accordance to your gender identity there is a process that parents and students must follow to make that request to the virginia high school league do we have any history on that i am that we know of any other school division or this school division that has undergone that process I am not aware I don't know if any of my colleagues are dr gerald do you mean of any other students who have partitioned right to use that process I'm not aware okay oh we're adding mr right to our team all right sure good evening board uh we're awaiting information from the virginia high school league on where they stand and or any processes that school divisions would need to use if

211they were to receive requests as such at this time we do not have any information from the virginia high school league all right thanks any other questions all right so with that then now we'll ask is there uh any motion to reconsider uh yes mr chairman I make a motion to reconsider the revised policy jb educational opportunities for students all right we've heard it first is there a second a second second from dr best any uh any discussion you mean locks yes any remarks doctor best you go ahead please okay thank you good evening in july 2018 as a school board member i took an oath to uphold the laws and constitution of virginia although I was elected from the south district I'm entrusted to uphold my responsibilities as relates to a public free education

212for all children in the city of newport news on august 17th the board was charged to vote on the matter of the equal education opportunities policy jb to clarify i had and I have no problem with voting yes to this policy for days leading up to this vote I had questions that were not answered to my satisfaction regarding the procedures as it relates to the policy one question in particular I asked was if we could vote on the policy without these procedures the answer was no we will be opening ourselves up for a lawsuit if you recall I was that board member who abstained from voting at that time the rationale in my mind was that I needed more information clarification and was just not comfortable with some aspects of the procedure in addition the

213motion was already defeated having four votes against before my name was even called one of my fellow board members described it as taking the easy way when I first heard that I was somewhat offended but upon further self-reflection that assessment was correct by abstaining I did not leave my lend my voice to the matter at hand which is exactly what I was elected to do that evening my assignment was to vote on the policy a policy that in essence said no student in newport news public schools will be discriminated against a policy that is virginia law a policy we are ordered to have in effect by the opening of school when I did not vote I let down my constituents and every student in newport news public schools we are school division that encourages every

214student to register to vote as soon as they are eligible and to exercise their right to vote every available opportunity they have to you i apologize when I did not vote those in opposition to this policy may have been happy but to transgenders their supporters students parents relatives classmates friends and employees it felt like a punch in the stomach and one described it as i have felt very depressed since watching the previous board meeting but from watching it and other events unfold i also can't help but realize the brutal unfairness of expecting children to bear all of the burden for all of the misinformed rage directed at them for being different and if even one transgender student went to sleep that night believing that they would not receive equal protection in newport news public schools

215to you and to your supporters i sincerely apologize as for the matter at hand again our task as a board is to vote on the policy and that is exactly what I intend to do thank you dr best uh mr ely i just want to take this time to thank all the presenters um thank everyone who came out to spoke to to speak tonight it was your voices were definitely her i definitely appreciate you um and like dr beth said we as a school board is here by law to vote on a policy we don't have anything to do with the procedure the procedure is set by the school board and his staff and by policy in the state of virginia we have to pass law stating that we would not discriminate not against transgenders

216but discriminate against anybody in our school division and i definitely understand a lot of people hear concerns tonight but those concerns started in july when those bills are passed and as school board members we must uphold the law and follow the law if we're not in compliance with the law we're breaking the rules the same rule of no drinking and driving the same rule of no conspiracy there's a lot of laws that are out here and we must follow him and we must follow this far too I just want to take this time to thank everyone who spoke tonight thank the school board for let me do virtual and just thank all the citizens of mr news for having our uh back and listen said and we will continue to do the right thing to

217make sure you can lose move in the right direction thank you all right thank you mr ely miss amen oh sure wasn't jovery you're going back and forth thank you and thank you to everybody who came out and um shared your thoughts with us um you know as I mentioned last week and we've discussed and it remains true today we're voting on a policy but the policy needs to go together with a procedure because the policy change is very very minimal what the model policy is put forth by the virginia department of education is is much more detailed and we've pushed that to the procedures so I think as far as compliance we are taking a vote on the policy and the procedures if we want to consider ourselves in compliance the proposed procedures have

218been revised we got them about 24 hours ago and there's a lot of change a lot of yellow which you know although it is legal that we get it at the same time the public gets it even though they're it's short notice it doesn't provide much time for the board or the public to review and consider it which concerns me although the time was short I did take the time to review the vice documents the revisions do not resolve the legal and the legal concerns I articulated last week which ironically did not include bathrooms in fact some changes gave me greater pause for concern and in hearing mr grimm's speech I appreciate him coming down and speaking the liability risk is significant if we get it wrong on either side if we get it wrong

219with respect to discrimination if we get it wrong with respect to perhaps parent or staff legal rights constitutional rights and given the way the litigation went and the way it was dismissed for lack of standing I'm not convinced the model policy as structured is free of concern so i as a board member for the school system i feel an obligation to look at the model policy to see what we might be getting into my concerns remain that the procedures which will be implement I know their draft but with several iterations this hasn't changed does still provide an opportunity for parents to be not informed of important issues facing their children the added language still in the end allows the division to treat the students one way and communicate with parents another way you know looking

220at some of the best practices and how the process possibly professional counseling suggesting that first before we get into identity at a school level would be a better approach but we are where we are with the model policy i noted in the student identification section we still have we note that the division if it gets to an impasse must decide whether to respect the student's request or the parent's wishes and res and requests and wishes or are two different words and I think it um kind of suggests where we're uh focusing on the students when the parents may have legal concerns with with how their students identify and what they're teaching in the home and what's being taught at school you know parents students are minors they're legally minors they're legally not able to enter

221into a contract to buy a car and we're talking about not discussing something very significant and concerning and important in a child's life if there is concerns about abuse we have been hit we have handled that maybe we look at our current policies for how we handle that and we add this to um to the list of if an issue comes up we've got a process in place but we're just putting a separate policy in without looking at our other policies that maybe quite possibly may not mesh well with this new one um the vagueness as far as gender identity technically the wording still hasn't been clarified or made more specific so I am concerned with the vagueness how that applies on a human resources level i am concerned with with the procedures being in

222a way that parents may not be informed of what's going on with their children and those are laws in place too the minority of children they're so important that we even have special laws that allow a pregnant minor to access medical care for herself and her unborn child otherwise it would be her parents that would decide the medical care for her so i think that is a very important distinction that I would feel more comfortable if that were ironed out in the procedures before we're asked to vote on the policy all right thank you miss hammond uh mr hunter ready now okay uh mr harris no comment madam vice chair um I just want to thank everyone who took time to come out this evening to share your thoughts and concerns regarding the policy that

223we have before us understand the passion and appreciate the decorum for this evening this is newport news i like to extend sincere gratitude to dr parker and his team for preparing presentation for our review in the midst of preparing for students return in just a few days the policy that we have before us this evening is an important one the hearts and minds of our students are important i have sworn an oath to foster an equitable safe and educationally enriched environment for all students this policy supports that oath and my oath shall support this policy educational programs and services should be designed to meet the varying needs of all students and will not discriminate against an individual for the reason of race color national origin sex creed marital status age pregnancy sexual orientation sexual identity

224gender gender identity or disability in any of our programs or activities thank you mr chairman all right so I'll try to be brief because I got a lot of certainly got a lot of uh phone calls and emails in the in the last week and I would say that I've experienced a significant amount of prejudice and bullying against me so let me just I'll just share briefly because there's a lot of comments about me not knowing people in the lgbtq plus community which is completely false couldn't be more further from the truth I would dare say that I'd probably have more lgbtq plus friends and just about anybody having grown up near san francisco where I'm from and born and raised and I do do know trans male and I emphasize the word did know

225a trans male did know because that friend killed himself did know because that friend regretted making a transition from female to male it and this is in their words ruined their life um this was in their experience led them to be homebound homebound because of the shame homebound because of how they felt and this was this is in california where there's no discrimination where there's not really anyone who's going to look at you funny where this was the own their own personal hell that they felt that they were in and i said to myself at that time that I'm going to make sure that I represent that friend all right so when people in the community have attacked me personally called me names because I was a bigot and I shouldn't be the the chair

226of the board because I have a religious point of view uh those those calls were unfair just as just as uh you're asking for um uh tolerance I I do feel that there was a lot of intolerance expressed towards me in the last week and I and I and I wish it wasn't so but it is so now in my opinion the board has failed to live up to the obligation that we established with our vote on august 17th on august 17th the board voted five to one five to one that we owe the community additional work in the form of a more tailored and compassionate local policy that would protect the rights of transgender students yet tonight here we are in a redo should this board reverse itself on a five to one decision

227it will renege on the promise that we made should the board reverse itself from such an overwhelming majority I fear that it's going to show that the word of the school board has little to no meaning in less than a week all right I guess I'll say it's just a little more than a week less than 10 days the board is reversing itself and and if we do this tonight should we have another vote next week this is just in my opinion uh a bad way to do business and I've said as much and I want to make sure I say that on the record this is not the way to do business you don't revoke on something that you've already done you go back and do the work and what we said that uh

228last tuesday on the 17th was that we would do the work to work on a local policy yet here we are not doing that and talking about adopting the vdoe model policy and what's changed in less than 10 days since our vote nothing were any of your concerns on the inflammation of policy jb resolved no they were not because nothing's changed and yet some of you are here to reverse yourselves anyways and that's why we're here tonight so I've heard from a lot of citizens and many of them are confused as to what the controversy is so let me just please clarify the controversy as I see it from my perspective this is not about bathrooms students can use bathrooms of their choice in newport news public schools and have been able to do so

229for years this is not about bathrooms there's a lot of problems with the vdoe model policy and I'm not going to try to list them all tonight I'm just going to talk about the most egregious one that I find and it's prejudice against all teachers and prejudice against all parents the vdoe model policy asserts that the only way any teacher is going to use the preferred pronouns of a student is through the coercion of firing them it's not enough for students to simply ask nicely it has to be in their contract that we're going to fire them if you vote for this tonight you're affirming the prejudice of the vdoe stance against our teachers I ask my fellow board members to contemplate ownership of that prejudice because when you vote for it you're going to

230own it the vdoe model policy prejudges every parent as a child abuser every parent the vdoe prejudges parents is so abusive that boards must keep their child's gender identity secret from them no exceptions do you think parents want us to keep secrets from them are we really going to keep secret files on people's kids and not tell their parents ask my fellow board members do you truly think the vdoe's prejudice is the only way the only way to ensure transgender rights when we have a path before us that we could move forward with the local policy is this the only way do you really think that the only way the only way to keep a child safe is to betray the trust that parents grant us to educate their kids and notice that I said

231grant us the kids don't belong to the school board you did not birth any of these children and you don't raise them parents do that and not you the board would do well to remember that fact I have refused to believe that prejudice intolerance for the sake of tolerance is necessary I refuse to believe that prejudice intolerance is the only way to support transgender students I instead believe that we should author a local policy that will put transgender students protections in place and I extend that invitation again to the rest of the board to engage in that work to get the work done re-voting tonight we'll break your word in support of prejudice and I don't think it's the solution but with that madam clerk would you please call it roll there hasn't been a

232motion made yet has it there's a final motion is to bring it back back to action okay excuse me the motion to reconsider the revised policy jb equal educational opportunities yeah that's good that's correct that was a motion second with dr best that's dr best mr harris against mr hunter for mrs searle's law for mrs aman against dr best for mr eley for mr brown again motion passes four - three to reconsider the revised policy jb equal educational opportunities all right at this time we'll have an opportunity for school board member comments uh well mr brown that was a motion to reconsider the policy you have to now actually vote on the policy okay vote on the on adoption of the policy so we've now had a motion to reconsider is there a motion to

233adopt the policy uh yes mr chairman there is a motion to adopt the policy that's on the floor okay so a second second all right any further discussion who was the second second for mr harris any further discussion all right there being none madam clerk please call the roll mr harris against mr hunter for mrs Surles-Law for mrs aman against dr best for mr eley for mr brown against motion passes I'm sorry I have harris says no aman is no oh mr brown okay so motion passes 4-3 all right so now we'll move on to matters by the school board the opportunity to uh for school board members and make comments we'll start with dr best um good evening again and I would also like to thank the staff and dr parker for your hard

234work I would like to thank all of the public that came out to comment and especially to the teachers and our student I'm wishing everyone a great school year and I'm looking forward to exciting things this year thank you all right miss aman just again thank you everyone for coming out there is a big crowd many opinions and I think we did a great job of expressing them great newport news way so thank you all right mr eley i just want to thank everybody once again for coming out and tuning in with us and like so many ... said before the the proposed plan was from it was the law and we have to follow the law and if you want to have a bigger voice you need to talk to your congressman talk to

235your legislators about what you want to see for us before bill's being passed but we have to follow along and tonight was um with us following the law before school passed there was a lot of stuff in the policy that I don't agree with but we have to pass the law and we have to make sure we don't discriminate against any student in this in the state and especially in the city of newport news all right mr hunter thank you oh thank you uh thank you mr chairman um again I just want to thank everyone for coming out and um just want to thank um just the public you know for courteous and really speaking their mind and um again we're here to support all students and that's all we really wanted to do and

236that's my fault last week and my votes begin today and that's what you guys elected me for for all students thank you mr hunter mr harris uh thank you mr chairman um I'd like to thank dr park and his staff I know it's been a long 10 days and we're proud of that you all put a lot of work in and uh I appreciate that um I know situations like this sometimes brings conflict but you know this is democracy you know sometimes that is best and sometimes at its worst I want to thank the public for coming and speaking on this matter uh I just say I wish they also would come to speak on other matters uh jermaine to the school business uh you know educating our kids and safety and and teachers pay

237and things of this nature as well uh it is also important um I guess having you know a military background and following orders and things of this nature but I guess when you get elected you are you take all that in but at the same time it's still just you and your vote and your conviction I'm not the one to point fingers and say what was bad or you know who sent us this or who wrote that bill or whatever the case may be you know I stand on uh my vote and I have to stand on that and I have constituents that you know that have uh you know let me know either way uh but what I can say is that this process starts sometimes here and go forward and sometimes the process

238starts there and come down I just ask that every citizen make sure they participate in this process regardless of where I sat and I think um I think you're better able to understand from this perspective anyway what we had to deal with but again thank you for coming out participating again staff I really appreciate all the hard work dr parker keeps us up to date uh and he also let us know how hard you are working and he he's always been a buffer uh between uh school boards and and you all and uh thank goodness you know I'm not one of the ones that issue tasks so you don't have to worry about me because I understand but I appreciate all the hard work and uh uh I know the school division uh would do

239the right thing whether through the policy and it definitely procedures uh to ensure every child is is protected and safe again thank you thank you mr chairman all right thank you mr harris man vice chair I just want to reiterate as before just the appreciation of the community coming out um it is important we've had so many calls so many um emails as well as the display tonight and on the 17th so thank you for that and dr parker your team is phenomenal um and moving into uh getting ready to get students back in school in a few days here you know best best wishes but I know that uh you guys will do a phenomenal job so the board's responsibility is to vote policy period we trust that the division the district will implement

240the policy in earnest and in truth and that it can be changed and we can be used best practices as you explore and go for forward especially with new policy so that's where that's where we lie right now um we voted the policy we did what we needed to do to be compliant in the state but the way we interpret that policy really still is on us to be able to meet the needs of our students and as I said on the 17th i trust dr parker and his team fully to be able to articulate this policy for the best use and the best purpose of our students so thank you all very very much all right well thank you all for spending your evening with us and I do want to thank all of

241the public that came out and spoke we had over 50 four cards and I want to thank each and every one of you for representing yourselves civilly and expressing your opinion I'm very excited about school getting started now so now this this business is uh behind us and it's time to get school started I know that dr parker is planning a facebook live session early next week to answer your questions so then I know that with all this going on there is still a lot of work to be done for getting school started a lot of parents have a lot of questions about how operations are going to go for the start of school so I want you to watch our website please and make sure you tune into that facebook live session we also

242have the state of the schools coming up it's a lot of great work has been done and we have a lot of great work to feature for the public to let them know the good work that we are doing and so the state of the schools is going to be I believe it's august the 30th august 30th sir august 30th so please uh watch that online uh tremendous amount of work has gone into showing showcasing uh the great work that has been done in newport news public schools even during the pandemic so with that we want to thank you all again for coming out and we will see you again september 19th