001um my name is Abby Berg I live in madaan I wanted to talk about um the security measures that's going to be on the um on our on our election so after the meeting on Tuesday I really went home thinking like what something was missing right I was like I something felt like it was missing I couldn't connect the dots and then I realized that what was missing was this and maybe my thinking is incorrect and if I'm wrong then I'm wrong but 99% of the townships and in this County the township and the police department help pay for security because they understand that we need safety in our schools and we live here right but our town said no no you as the board members have to ask everybody else in the town to
002fund this and it makes me kind of wonder why why is the town and why and I feel bad for the board because they handed you a big old pile of poo and say sell it and it's not fair because if you say no right oh they don't care about safety in the school right but if we say yes then everybody's taxes go up and people freak out and the police department and the townships are like not our problem and I think that's really disrespectful to everybody who lives here and I found it to be really offensive because it made me feel like well we'll we'll we'll have the contracts we're going to tell you how much you're going to give us this is what going to pay not only that you're going to absorb
003the SRO and we're not going to tell you what we do with the money that we're saving and you're going to like it and we're going to charge you 15% on top of it so that's what I wanted to say and if we're going to talk about security I wanted to bring up drop off at the schools in the morning this school in particular okay you have the entire sixth and seventh grade standing in a big line for 25 minutes exposed completely okay and and I don't like to put things in the universe but if someone wanted to do something that's the time to do it they're outside not only are they outside and completely I mean yes there's a police officer here a police officer there but it's like Mad Max in the morning
004I don't know if anyone's driven between the high school and the middle school I swear like I am so happy that I have the front end of my car like every single day cuz I do both those the drop offs the middle school and the high school not only that they're out there for like 30 minutes and if it's pouring rain or snowing they're just standing out in the rain there's no over at least the eighth graders have like the overhang in the front of the building but there's nothing to protect them so I think if we're talking security let's make sure that's safe and maybe can we get like an awning or just something so these kids are not drenched in the morning before it rains and to get in that's all I have
005to say thank you thank you and thank you for bringing up the additional things that we should look at from a security standpoint because I do agree there are other my favorite term low hanging FRP that we could potentially address security wise in addition to class 3os I mean I have a list I can like send it to you guys just as so I mean not that I'm like trying to nitpick but like but as someone who has family who doesn't live here who deal with security measures outside of this country on a daily basis there are things that they teach me to look for um they're living in Israel right now they teach me my sister has been there for 25 years so they're teaching me what to look for you know what to
006feel uncomfortable about I'm not necessarily a good ruler because I am like pretty much scared of everybody so I think everyone's trying to get me all the time it's just one of those things growing up I think as a religious Jew you're going to get a little nervous you know um but I think that if you guys want you should reach out also to other people that maybe are not who don't feel so comfortable you know because maybe a different perspective from people who are like are in a place where they can see different things would be helpful as well to see what we really really need and what maybe is not so necessary thank thank you share those yes thank you my name is Beth Brown I live in uh the Cliffwood section of
007aine I grew up in mwan and attended the Manan aine School District when it came time to raise my family I chose to stay in town because of this school district I'm also the mom of a transgender daughter and a gender questioning child thankfully my children live in a gender affirming homes a study conducted by cats and wives in 2015 found that only onethird of transgender youth live in a gender affirming home onethird of transgender youth experienced parental rejection and the final onethird did not disclose their gender identity to their parents until they were adults my oldest child came out to me at age 16 at which time I found out they had been out to a group of friends for over 2 years my child was afraid to come out at home over fear
008of Parental rejection as so many of their trans friends have faced according to Ryan at all into a 2009 study trans youth that experience parental rejection have a six times higher risk of developing high levels of depression and eight times more likely to attempt suicide let's talk about suicide risk in transgendered youth the Trevor Project estimates that 1.8 million transgender youth ages 13 to 24 seriously consider suicide each year and that at least one transgender youth attempts suicide every 45 seconds two Studies by John's at all in 2019 and 2020 found that lgbtq youth are more than four times more likely to attempt suicide as their cisgender peers it gets worse in a 2021 study by the Trevor Project published in the American Journal of of community psychology identified four areas of stress that increase
009suicide risk for lgbtq youth by 12% compared to youth not experiencing sorry lgbtq youth not experiencing these same stressors the stressors were discrimination housing instability physical harm and change attempts by parents those are a lot of scary statistics about suicide risk in lgbtq and specifically transgender youth what can we do data collected in the 2023 US national survey on mental health of lgbtq Youth was analyzed by the Trevor Project this survey contained responses from 28,5 24 lgbtq youth of which 18, 378 were transgender or non-binary the good news 79 9% of youths surveyed reporting having at least one accepting adult in their life of those 79% 19% still attempted suicide in the previous year of the 21% without a supportive adult 25% had attempted suicide in the previous year notice I did not say that
010one supportive adult was a parent it was just an adult so up sorry [Music] yes being transgender is real being abused rejected and being kicked out of one's home because they are transgender is also real we are parents we are supposed to love our children no matter what if statistics show that only onethird of transgender youth are accepted at home how can children not be nervous about coming out to their parents as a school board I'm asking you not to risk outing a child toay parents who may not be accepting and increasing their suicide Risk by 8 to 12% I ask you as a school board to recognize the fact that having a gender affirming teacher lowers suicide Risk by [Music] 43% the science is there the research is there the suicide risk is there
011please do not fail their children these children when they need you the [Music] most hello my name is Hannah so I wanted to talk about uh the girl bathroom over here by the gym cuz uh both of the Stalls there's only two stalls in there and neither of them have doors one of them has a door and the other one the door doesn't work cuz um one time I asked to go to the bathroom and the eighth grade bathroom was closed for some reason so I came um down here to go and then um one of the doors that like like doesn't close I I was going to use that but then um someone walked in so I had to go all the way around to the seventh grade um Wing to go to that
012bathroom which was fine and then um when I got back to class I got yelled at because you know it took me a long time I was like at for 8 minutes so I was wondering if like the bathroom be yeah what is the name of that bathroom which bathroom specifically what's the name of the bathroom you're referring to where's the location eth grade eth grade Wing no no um oh the old [Music] lock room yeah okay thank you very much for coming up it's very brave of you thank you I appreciate her bravery and I think there should be administrated responsibility about ladies rooms and Men's Rooms doors locking and closing that's just responsible I experienced that 50 years ago I'm sure it's not why I'm here um I wrote down a couple notes
013first of all I apologize my I we normally shower and I injured my head today so oh I'm letting it dry St bleeding so that's why I look like I sorry can we just get your name and and which sure I'm John V all no and okay so uh couple points first of all the children are already confused enough without sexual confusion towards upon it by social media by you know the society years and God Prov by an organization oh I'm sorry I'm a musician so I live in fear of my ears breaking from a administrator yelling into micophone so I want to be cool is that good Sor right yeah so the first thing I just said is children are already confused enough they don't need the addition of sexual confusion just like the
014military doesn't need sexual confusion it's bad enough whether they delever die we need to know whether someone wants to date them you know it's just it's wacky but that's grown-ups it's a different story children really need to be protected children who are not parents need to be protected by parents and adults who are not parents and don't have the best interest of the children at heart need to be kept away from the children who are innocent and uh malleable and um they have enough trouble believe me and the oh I want to address the uh one of the strawman arguments that I've heard a lot is that somehow transgender kids are the only ones being bullied or that somehow that should be accepted or Allowed no one should be allowed to buly I was I
015had a lot of problems as a kid I was bullied I had no father my mom was a school teacher she was never there and um I could have easily gone crazy and and done something which by the grace of God I didn't but I live lived in fear and Terror in school I hated it just about every minute my mom wanted me to go to MIT or Harvard anyway be that as it may when you hear oh well they're going to be bullied and somehow that that's just going to happen and no one's going to Care no teacher no administrator is going to stick up for them no other children who are honorable with their you know of the same feeling I would youly defend anybody just like I think anyone has the right
016to believe what they want to believe this is America and we can disagree without coming to fistic us anyway the other thing I wanted to say uh the school lunch thing is easy I mean I couldn't graduate without paying a $7 Library fine when I was a kid so this is ridiculous $100,000 of stupidity in a wealthy area like lth County cre in a curve if you live in my neighborhood or home do somewhere you know pay up if you have a single parent family and you know give give them a ride but there's no reason that I mean that's just insane that's it shouldn't even be an issue also the main thing thing is I refuse Phil Murphy's religious confusion offering sexual confusion to children by decree by signing by Fiat and somehow we
017all magically supposed to agree with what is his religion I think I established earlier I don't know if anybody looked into it but this whole business of changing your sex is an ancient religious thing and The Establishment Clause The Constitution forbids anybody from imposing their religion upon us I'm a Christian I'm I going to impose that on you I'll say hey it's a good idea look into it but you have have to live your own lives you have to make your own decisions as a child I have to protect my child it's a whole another story about making your own decision when you're a child you don't want someone to decide for you and then um of course I made some notes that I can't read without my glasses I talk to I don't like
018Phil Murphy's religion children are confused enough God knows oh yes of course then the military industrial pharmaceutical Community who was only to happy to use tax dollars to operate Andor give uh drugs to your child which is ridiculous starting with ADHD and then going right down to the sexual issues nowadays I think that we have to protect our children from any Machinery that seeks to profit from them thanks for your time and I got to say to you that guys whoever you were or your predecessor did a great job my kid went through the school system we never had a problem she graduated from IV league university and she's doing very well so we've always had a good result from the people that were elected to this board whether they be volunteer or paid and
019I'm happy about that and I think it's very important we have to put our foot down and say we're not going to stand for whatever this garbage is we need to vote against any thank you encouraging of sexual confusion to children thank you AR rally Cliffwood Beach I have two children uh that are special needs they have ADHD my youngest is lot of sensory issues I'm here to talk about um my oldest um he has he's an um pull out resour P few ours he did not get to go get the chance to go to vocational this year that's a whole different story that's a transportation issue I'm not here for that right now right now um he's in you know like I said P our classes and now yet go into the um electives
020now I don't find it I find it very weird that children that have special needs there's no elective classes that are set up for children with special needs or for p out resource rooms he has to be expected to do the same amount of work as all the other children and held up the same standards of them there's no modification there's no nothing so he's struggling he's literally failing we had a whole discussion this afternoon with his case manager and uh he's going to be taken out of one of the classes that he's literally failing in and he was told that he's going to be switched out to a different class and that class now he's going it's it's already started and he has to make up all that work he's held the same standards
021that everybody else who's got learning disabilities it's not okay that being said he was a few weeks ago he was so upset that he was behind in all of his school work he had he couldn't go to school because his stomach was so upset he had issues with his stomach and he said I would have no problem going to school if I could use the bathroom all the bathrooms are closed in the high school except for one and there a pass and it's a 30-minute wait he was afraid he was going to have an accident in high school so I kept him home I called his case manager I called his uh guidance counselor I emailed I think get responses back for almost a week I don't think that's acceptable at all if you could
022email me it's n perz m.org um so we can address your concerns specifically for your sign of the high school and we'll make sure we result thank you hi I'm Kim Linley I'm from M brdge I'm a former special education teacher a parent taxpayer um a few concerns that I have regarding 576 one of them greatly as a former teacher is the communication between a parent and the teacher that there's trust a trust issue is at stake that if a teacher our parent doesn't believe the teacher because he's not sure what's going on in the classroom that greatly affects the learning of the child and then it doesn't make it easier for the child to come in especially element you know Middle School is a different area but the elementary the children all look up
023to the teachers you're with them all day long they're loving them teaching them and then they have to dispite between the difference between the parents and the teacher if they don't have to say anything but another important aspect that I would like to uh read off of the article of the mental health daily it's about the development of the brain the brain isn't fully developed they were saying 25 some say so um also there's a few things I'm just going to read rebating from them and try not to make too much of your time I just hit the quality points and the brain is still mature specifically known as a prefontal cortex changing occurr between 18 to 25 are essentially continued a process by brain development started during puting when you're 18 you're roughly halfway
024through the stage the prefrontal cortex doesn't have nearly the functional capacity at 18 as it does at 25 this means that some people may have major struggles with impulsive decisions planning Behavior to reach a goal the brain's reward system tends to reach a level of activation during Pew breing that gradually drifts back to normal activation when a person hits the age of 25 so that you know the the age where identifying oneself generally would be in the teenage years as I'm sure all of you know or haven't haven't had a chance um also the prefontal cortex some highlights that I would like to review is the attention the ability to focus on one thing without ignoring distractions that function the pre fundal cortex um those were the attention deficits ADHD uh have abnor abnormalities with
025the pre pre fundal cortex so there's one two there's four topics I want to hit complex planning the pref fundal region is responsible for complex planning planning anytime you set a goal that requires some degree of planning your prefontal region is at work planning out task in your day developing a business plan this is a region is responsible and undeveloped prefontal region which means that your planning capabilities haven't been solidified um another aspect that I want to get into is logical thinking justifying behaviors based off emotions rather than logic is common among teens when the prund cortex fully develops a logical thinking simultaneously improves this means that you would better at rationalizing making smarter choices it also means that your ability to write and Sol W up if you can start wrapping up oh sure
026so basically there's a lot more information here as you can tell and it's it is um Beyond a teenager comprehension so we as parents are responsible for those decisions so this just backs up uh me um scientifically not just by a parent or how My Views may be but by the mental health daily so when you're asking the child how they feel what do they feel like you know this just backs it up that they're fully developed they may still feel that way at age 25 but they may not so thank you for your time and efforts I'm wrapping it up thanks my name is Patty and I'm uh I live in madaan I have two teenage boys that have gone through the mwan uh system until recently I'm also a teacher and I've been
027a teacher for 23 years I teach mathematics I teach 8th grade of to high school math um I think the bigger issue with everything is you know I know my students I know who's dating who I know every relationship and I love them and they tell me everything but at the end of the day I'm their teacher I'm not their parents and I think what this initiative really brings about more so is the state involving itself into um you know maybe some parents may get upset with something like a transgender or something but you know um there's there's bigger issues too what happens if the teacher doesn't want to tell me that my son's on drugs because that might upset me it will upset me you know or that they failed their math test like
028my son got a 68 on his Algebra 2 test last week I was really upset about it but there shouldn't be up to the state to dictate what I know what's being told to me these are my children I support them I bore them I pay for them I educate them at home so I feel very passionate about when the stedum New Jersey doesn't want to tell me facts about my own children and as a teacher myself I understand both sides of the coin of this um but again there there these students that I love that I'm with for years sometimes sometimes I have them for two years they they're not my own children and it's really important especially with where I hear every day at work parental involvement parental involvement I work for the
029City of New York uh we have 50 minutes of par involement time now where I have to make sure I'm reaching out to everybody so do I start to pick and choose what facts I tell the parents and what facts I don't tell the parents um it's a slippery slope here that's my bigger thing can we just get your last name I'm [Music] sorry good evening Dan finy aine as a board it's really important that you discern fact from fic fiction and emotional arguments from logical reasoning I um I actually have a son who committed suicide in 2007 and it had nothing to do with lgbtq or gender dysphoria or anything of a sexual nature but it did have something something to do with mental illness heredity is connected to mental illness on my wife's
030side of the family excellent but it was a tragedy then it's a tragedy whenever a child you know harms themselves but kids are struggling today for a lot of reasons and one of the reasons is because of social media over sexualization confusion and and a lot of other things we really need to get back to basics we need to love them through the truth and through um helping them to learn responsibility and that not everything in life goes the way they want anyway thank you for your service nobody with a shred of intellectual honesty can say policy 5756 really offers a benefit or protection that is not already ready provided Elsewhere for Trans kids and certainly not the 99 x% of other kids lying to kids about the fantasy of changing Sexes is as a
031solution to gender dysphoria or that they can create their own gender identity is grotesque lying to parents or teaching kids it's okay to lie to parents is diabolical and affirming or celebrating a well-documented mental illness without question or diagnosis by teachers and staff that are completely unqualified in this area is beyond irresponsible further the policy goes beyond accepting a child's ideas about gender to demand that teachers and staffs affirm their gender identity without question most of these kids don't even have a clinical gender dysphoria rather it is born out of social contagion online influence and now our local schools if not stopped this is an agenda field movement encouraging kids down this path and they are committing suicide after they start down that path and you can start looking at the real statistics although they're
032hard to find because of the narrative and there was no narrative like this when my son committed suicide here's what's going to happen if you don't stand in the gap for our kids and take action many lives are going to be harmed physically and emotionally and some of them are going to be suing the snot out of all the adults involved some are worried about lawsuits the frivolous and unwinable lawsuits from the state are not the ones you need to be worried about you are going to have lawsuits all right and they won't be long in the coming if you can start wrapping it up sorry how in the world do you think it is appropriate to put any teacher or staff in this position to practice medicine cuz that's what it is and involve
033themselves in this area completely out of the wheel House of public education God help us not to mention that you know uh they're not here all the time at school thank you again districts across the state are taking action to repeal 5756 how Township and others just last night and by the way not one of them is replacing the policy because there's nothing valued added in it thank you so much hi my name is Katie Williams from mwan I have two children in the district I am also a special education teacher currently for 17 years um one thing that keeps coming up and I'm hearing repeatedly is that it sounds as if people think that there's a curriculum telling children to change their gender which is wild and false um nobody is saying that only
034transgender children should be safe in fact every Seal program that I have ever worked with which is a lot over 17 years speaks about protecting all children all of them um currently transgender children are at a higher risk and if you are afraid that your child is not telling you about their status um I think that some reflection needs to be made on why they won't speak to you and as a parent of a child on the lgbtq Spectrum I am grateful that my child was able to come to me but if they weren't I would be nothing but grateful for the people at school that kept them safe if I was not a safe place teachers have so much on their plate nobody is practicing medicine in a school at all except for the
035school nurse um people seem to think that teachers can wave a magic wand I teach first grade I would I am lucky to get them walk in a straight line I'm not trying to change anybody's gender and neither are the teachers in this school district all we are doing and all they are doing is being respectful and upholding the law you're worried about lawsuits that's going to come from the state if we don't do that um I I just don't I don't understand that aspect of it and uh I hope that some self-reflection on why your own children wouldn't come to you might help my name is Jennifer Woodruff and I live very close by but in Morganville right over the aine border and I'm a business owner in Matan um on behalf of the
036school district the students and the parents of the students here we thank you for your service and your time and your efforts as board members we appreciate it I previously voiced my reasons why I'm against the 5756 policy and rather than be repetitious I'll just make some points um the 5756 policy was implemented in but was brought to everyone's attention recently and now we learned that instead of it being a mandat policy there had to be a lawsuit that went through against hover Township to find out by the attorneys that it is just a recommended or a guide so we now know that it's not mandatory so we can talk about it um if you've ever read the 5756 policy which I'm sure you all have because it's so controversial now and it's become in
037the news um you will find that this policy is a job in itself the teachers and the administrators are to establish policies and procedures that are supportive to transgender students this includes being familiar with the terminology used by advocacy and human right groups on gender identity along with other terms that the child may come up with to identify themselves the teachers are to use these names and pronouns preferred to the child's gender expression the student doesn't have to meet any threshold diagnosis or treatment requirements to have this gender recognized the 756 policy state that children have the permission to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their expressed identity can participate in sports of their gender identity and are permitted to attend classes in their gender identity even when the classes are purposely separated by
038the two genders for privacy concerns and [Music] protection students are not uh students schools are not design designed to be selfhelp areas nor a place Define oneself the 5756 policy seems to put control in the hands of the children and their ideology when did teachers and administrators start taking orders from the children on how they want to be addressed and treated and what about the majority of the children and their rights when did the minority rule this is so backward there already is um anti-bullying um procedur in place I I don't know why we have to have this this additional policy um that is for a small amount of children that will probably outgrow this confusion and have been indoctrinated by the internet um on this new ideology most children will grow out of it
039by the time they're 18 many of these children have not even going through puberty if you can start to wrap it up okay thank um a politician defending this policy and a sexual curriculum stated the right of parents is not to dictate what children are taught only to where they attend well our taxes support public education not private education unless the state allows the voucher system to send children to private schools in New Jersey it's not affordable by most families thank you okay thank you thank you hi my name is Stacey Schiller I live in titf Falls um I'm a high school teacher I'm an educator at consider myself an ally to the LGBT community um and had a lot of interaction with uh students who identify as trans um their stories are real not
040ideological um they matter and I feel compelled to um speak about some of mine because I feel like their stories May parallel some of the stories of the transgender students in this District I want to start by telling you about Kay who was my student about eight years ago before K transition they struggled in school and my class their head was down they turned in very little work spent some time out of school getting treatment for suicide ideation during the second half of the Year K came out to me as transgender transgender in an assignment we talked established a Chon the name and pronouns to use and then something really miraculous happened the very next class Kay was a different student not just doing their work but head up participating asking questions engaging learning that
041continued for the rest of the year I wasn't the only student that supported K's transition but all of us created a space for K to feel safe to be themselves and for them to get an education and learn since then I've had around uh 10 or so other transgender students and they come out to me in various ways and my heartbreaks every time I see the pain in their eyes when they say please don't use my name or pronouns when you talk to my parents this year I work with five trans students who I know about and the difference between the ones whose parents support them and don't is drastic those with parental supports are honor students challenging themselves academically excitedly planning for their future the ones that don't have support I see them struggle
042academically socially and or psychologic ically they' cried to me they've avoided class because there's a substitute and the substitute will use the name they don't want to be called and so they're missing out other education as you already heard the presence of one supported adult decreases suicide risk and I of think it gives students a space to learn all of these students are creative and intelligent and warm and sensitive and they love to laugh and they love to be teenagers just like so many of the other students I teach but my trans students also carry them the knowledge that their existence is under attack and that there there are people in their community and elsewhere who don't want them to be safe I've been teaching for almost 30 years one of my very first years
043an administrator said to me if students don't have safety at home they have to have it at school or they won't learn it is my professional and moral obligation to make sure my students have safety at school and I suspect that that's the intention of the guidance from the state on this issue to make sure students feel safe enough to learn at school I hope that you see that as your obligation as well and don't enact policies that have the potential to take away their safety and their access to their [Music] education good evening my my name is Carolyn and I'm from mataan um Matt um I'm one of the parents that's here in opposition to 5756 I think there's a lot of good reasons to um oppose it um I think you've heard from
044uh um a number of well spoken parents as to why it's harmful um I I think it's okay to uh disagree um with um children who for whatever reason um I you know I'd like to know where the idea comes from that somebody would a child would a girl would think maybe I'm really not a girl or that a boy would think maybe I'm really not a boy I I think to suggest to a child that um maybe they really are the wrong gender is one of the [Music] cruestv or XY XY is boys XX is girls and no surgery will change genetics there's no there there are no drugs that will change that there are no hormone blockers there is no surgery that will change it and to suggest to any of these kids
045anybody who does that just puts them down a deadend road and and we do we are finding out that a lot of these kids later regret their decision as uh one lady before me said they often outgrow the gender disphoria uh to encourage the the dysphoria with the suggestion that uh they can change their gender is uh incorrect it is not science it's not science-based there is nothing even in uh European countries they are closing their gender clinics because they are finding that suicide actually increases with these kids after they've been through the quote transition that changes nothing uh what they really need help with is uh whatever the issue is they need help from a professional um and I do also there was a a story in the news today I don't know if
046you saw it but it's a dad that is suing the New Jersey school district he's uh he's the father of three in Cherry Hill he has three Cherry Hill High School students and he has filed a federal lawsuit against the school district and against the New Jersey Department of Education over its guidance on not notifying parents when their children request accommodations related to being transgender um in the suit that was filed October 12th the father says the policy violates his 14th Amendment right to raise his children and make decisions about their mental healthare um he says I would feel pretty bad for a parent if their child lived a double life uh he works in a texti in textile manufacturing and he said everyone always says parents would be mad at the kid or beat
047up the kid but I'd be so mad at the school that the school hit it if you can start wrapping it up thank okay um so uh what else do I want to say here oh there are other lawsuits being filed uh similar to this one uh one in Wisconsin where a judge decided that the schools violated parental rights by adopting a policy to honor a minor student's request to change their gender identity at school without parental consent so I just want to remind you of the actual science and also that there are lawsuits that are beginning and there are students who went through gender transition who are now saying where were the adults they regret the decision thank you hi I'm Dara Simon I live on myle street right over there in um so
048I really do appreciate what our school district has done for students uh trans people are not a huge part of our population but they are a part of our population and just because they maybe weren't known or really thought about 30 years ago does not mean that they're not here they are here and they come to these people come to school and what they want to do is they want to feel a connection and this is where they come to this is where we're supposed to educate people everyone it's a public school so it's not that we get to choose who we educate we educate everyone and these students they should be be able to come in and let themselves be themselves that's what this is about it's about learning that's what school is about
049I'm sorry but I have not had a I haven't had a teacher call me to tell me that my kids did their homework today or that they got a 100 they call me when there's a problem and if my kid is thinking and evolving their opinions about who they are to me that's not that's not a that's not a crisis that is them being them if we really want to wait until they're 30 years old maybe we should let them go to college because we are asking 18 year-olds what they want to be when they become you know before four years of college what do you want to be where do you want to go and we let them make those choices this is part of that it's it's part of becoming yourself not everything
050you're going to go to your parents and ask them or tell them you you need to figure it out for yourself that's becoming Being Human Being you have thoughts from the time you are old enough to go off to school you have your own thoughts you have your own opinions and you have to be the one that defines yourself that is not anybody else's job even your parents there are times you are going to not agree with them and the school is not here to get involved in that all they want to do is educate the child so let's let them educate that child that's and [Music] um one more thing we're not yes this policy does focus on trans people but school is not just focused on trans people we want everyone to feel
051equal and um for those that keep saying that um trans people when they get to be 18 25 30 have changed their minds I'm just wondering did you actually keep up with these people did you actually you know find the person that was 13 years old who you know had this feeling who had these thoughts and then check in with them 10 years later um schools are not giving out hormones they're not doing any of that they're just here to support your students to support your children thank [Applause] you Casey Bara Farmingdale uh Union president um just to reiterate again there are no staff members in this District attempting to convert students from one gender to the other second thing I want to posit for people is teachers are mandatory reporters which means hypothetically I'm
052required to call a parent and a student tells me I am defly afraid of my parents if you call them the next call I'm making is to DCP and P that's the cop showing up at your house to protect that child I have to do that by law or I lose my job so this isn't as cuton dry as we're hearing there's a bit of gray here now I didn't want I don't want to get into a back and for politically but the policy online States it was written in July or created in July of 2015 then edited in June of 2019 now I'm not I know there's people that were not on the board at that time was anybody on the board in 2019 I can't really remember that far okay so a couple
053so I'm curious as to were there any drastic changes to the language and if there wasn't it wasn't Phil Murphy's Board of Education that created this policy it was Chris Christie's so I think it's important that we have facts when we discern what we're going to do so this can't be perceived as it's someone attempting to put forth their faith or anything like that because if that's the case then we have to go back to the Christie Administration and like I said I'm not trying to get into a political argument I just think we should have the facts as we need them I also think it might be mindful to you know we're having these open dialogues but is yeah the woman that spoke first talked about surveying students this impacts students now I'm not
054saying we should be surveying a group of elementary students obviously but if we're seeing these concerns in high school high school students and I'll just Ed myself short story my mom couldn't stand me crying as a baby so she stuck me in kindergarten at 4 years old I left high school when I was 17 that means I was old enough at 17 to leave my house and go to college no one supervising me doing whatever I want to do now I understand that 17 in high school is different than 17 in college but it's still 17 it's still the same brain so if we're going to send 17 yearolds off to college I think the least we can do or 18-year-olds is ask them their opinions as to a policy that impacts them directly now
055I know we may need parental permission for that because I believe that is something we have to do if we submit surveys so it's just something out there like I said I I don't really have a dog in this fight I don't live in this town but I do work in this town and the one thing that concerns me is when I hear that the this district has an agenda pushing children in One Direction or not okay I teach seventh grade man here are the conversations I have I don't have a pencil okay why don't you have a pencil I forgot it but did you bring your phone to school yes so you can remember to bring your phone to school but you can't remember to bring a pencil those are the conversations I have
056in addition to you add and subtract positive and negative integers I am not having conversations about gender identity ever and if I did I would direct them to the school counselor who knows she's not a medical professional and would then seek guidance from others thank you thank [Applause] you my name is Curtis I'm from mwan uh first all name I'm sorry sorry you're state so first I'll echo my wife's earlier statements otherwise it's going to be a very long right home I agree with everything she said um two two real quick points um I don't think this is necessarily a religious or a um ideology issue that should really be before the school board let's face it the state kind of threw this on you guys I understand what it's like to serve on boards
057you get all of the blame and none of the credit that's the way it works when you serve on these kind of boards the thing is in this situation it really comes down to a philosophical one do you think it's the school's responsibility to get involved with any of this or do you think you notify the parents and let the parents raise their children that's what it's all about this is about taking rights away from parents and putting it on the school putting it on the state this is a very dangerous time in our culture we really think about the ideology of that because it's taking the ability of people to raise their children the way they see fit whether it's a Muslim Jewish Christian or otherwise and it's putting it in the state it's
058putting it on the board it's putting it to the school the other quick topic I'll say is somebody had made the comment earlier about knocking part of the curriculum I can tell you that it has creeped into the curriculum my my two sons who are both now in high school one of them in particular last year had told me he came home after he was told to choose a ribbon that determined his sexuality in public school so he was told that he either chose the the rainbow ribbon if he was if he was part of the LBG Community a purple ribbon if he supported the cause or he didn't get a ribbon if that's not indoctrinating into the school I don't know what is so I can tell you that my wife and I this
059was kind of the last stop of this my wife and I had determined at that point it was just more appropriate rather than fighting about this or anything like that we actually pulled our kids out of the school dist year they're both now in private school my parents were so upset by this situation that they actually to pay half the cost for it and here we are so I just want to move that everybody's attention thank you good evening members of the board uh my name is joseas I'm a happy father of three kids two of them are uh your students I just wanted to say a few things very I don't mean to interrupt which town are you from here Matan mwan yeah first of all I want to say that the dedication of
060the teachers to the kids is palle and very grateful for that uh very very very very grateful uh the students achievements are proof and whenever one of my kids has fallen behind the the the effort that the teachers put to get us involved and get my kids uh up to par it's amazing I'm really really impressed clearly every single one of the teachers board members actually care and that to me and my wife and I think in general everybody feels it we're very happy about it however um to me come from a different country and uh my experience is growing up in that country versus what I see right now being seeing my kids educated by you guys um there are some differences that I've noticed amongst them I believe that whenever there's a serious
061issue looks like U the first step of the people here is to get some sort of authority involved is that instead of just going into more just talk to the parent get them involved as soon as possible make them part of the team okay and it seems to me that this policy is doing that precisely I disagree with that um things that seem to be very important like uh being bullied or uh academic uh achievements Etc the parents are involved relatively quickly something more serious there seems to be this type of situation I don't like that particularly however I haven't had any major issues thank thank God but this is my experience uh coming from a different country and what I look uh um what can I say the freedom to raise each kid okay
062and the way in the family in nuclear family's ethics values and morals are the right of that family those two parents one parent doesn't matter that's their right I believe that when people say parents rights is really a misnomer parents rights equal family rights family is the basic unit of our society don't forget that and like I said at the beginning we feel and we recognize that every single teacher board member really care for our kids but to stress they are our kids family parents Mom Dad okay so that I think it's very very important and just one last thing to make it clear social transitioning is iatrogenic events and that's what what's been seen in different countries and up the study show with transgender events in children or minors thank you has everyone had
063a chance to speak once it's been almost an hour so it's almost double what we said so I think we're going to wrap it up based on what we said earlier okay um so unless you have a different topic or if someone hasn't spoken we're going to move on to taking action um and before we take action I just do want to say I know I've said this at past four board meetings but we really are listening to all of the emails all of the um people that come here and speak obviously you can tell from tonight it's a very sensitive topic it's one we are discussing quite a bit um amongst ourselves as well as with our um our lawyer here to understand the risks because there are um as someone stated lawsuits they're
064actually on both sides um so we need to understand that because all of us the taxpayers in this town will be responsible for that if we are um sued if we don't follow the law so we are evaluating a lot of things I don't know if you want to have any anything no I I just to speak to the litigation and the board has to make the decision and as the board has said many times and as the as many of the audience members have recognized that is in the best interest of the district and the students and in I just will point out that in a situation like this it's the the underlying issue of of the policy itself is clearly complicated and difficult uh but on top of that there's other concerns like
065finance and uh the costs that are associated and I think it's clear that the board is taking all of that into account as well so um it's it's it's there's multiple legal issues and financial issues in addition to the underlying issue that the board is deing with right and we are having a lot of discussions um we want to get it right so we're taking our time we do not want to rush it and make a decision that isn't the right decision um so we are taking our time so thank you for your patience with this just so you understand a pro from a process standpoint um for the board when it comes to policy um once there is a policy or you know an update on that policy it is put on the agenda
066which is on the school's website each week you know right before each meeting um policy goes up for first read where it's pres you know we discuss it any questions comments then right before the second read it's actually shared with the public so that you can all come in or write in and give any feedback on that like what you think is right wrong come ask questions before we take a vote and that policy becomes you know the policy that we have I think we can always revise policies but um it does a first read and a second read so just wanted to make you aware and when those those calls to reads happen we will make sure those are public um you know that we alert you to the dates um of those if
067they have if they had an agenda that being said now we are going to take action on um curriculum and instruction student services Personnel Plus the walk-in item on personnel and finance Miss viot Miss gersner yes Mr montone yes Miss pal yes Miss Scot yes Miss Miss War Miss Martinez M uh yes at same personnel number the eight L right um now we're going to move to um unfinished business um yes I don't know if this is unfinished or new business um wanted to U I think it's unfinished because I think I'm asking again um there are other policies that we want to talk about and we typically do it you know for the public benefit we typ typically do these ones as a a four person policy committee um so I think so the
068the subjects so everybody knows there's there's lunch Deb and um naming rights or naming procedures and um I'm talking about naming of of like buildings Fields things of that sort um dress code and substance use specifically talking about vaping um so I I think we're okay on lunch T I think we have three now in addition myself um but just looking for any other volunteers for um space naming dress code or substance use if anybody just wants to shout out hey already done now or wow thank you okay all right [Music] awesome great thank you okay so basally everybody's you have me any down yes they [Music] do thank you okay yes just a quick question to re re reiterate about the lunch debt so there's two issues I think one is that um it
069doesn't appear to be that these um bus accounts and a are have to do with um reduced price lunch right just maybe an oversight from the parent or Guardian about paying it it's mostly allart items that AR okay so just to be clear these are items that um may be part of the policy St if there is a negative lunch balance the student would only be allowed to purchase lunch and not snacks and ice cream and soda and other drinks and things like that so that's one and then the second sorry uh if you you go on school pay pay school and you go ahead and go on uh the app you can always restrict what they purchase or you can email uh see Grant at MD and tell her what you want your restrictions
070to be cuz you can always see what their Pur we have worked with Char in terms of trying to help them as well right through the years in terms of restricting the extra little goodies that they go up and try to purchase that it you know does sometimes go through but we have had conversations so that's why we have wanted trying to find other Solutions um because the bills are getting too high and we we don't want to hold the children back you know into it because it's it's really not a six-year-old's you know fault if their parents aren't paying their lunch bill um so and then a followup to that is um I know that somebody on the board had brought up about it's a little complicated to fill out the reduced price lunch
071form do we know if that's one of the reasons or is it really just people who maybe are just overlooking the payment uh with Co and uh it being free it's everybody kind of got out of the habit of filling out the forms um if they need to they can always go on pay schools and fill it out or there's 1 1800 number that's available 247 or if you'd like a paper copy you can always call the business office or ever has a copy of it and you can always call the business office [Music] and um one thing related that I do want to point out too is with the pay schools with the lunch accounts they do send out we get one for my daughter who graduated because I forgot to take her name
072off but um if you have a low balance so not even in a rear so there are emails constantly going out if you're under $5 or whatever it is so it's not that they're not the parents aren't being told they actually are being being told quite a bit um so putting that so for the last many years that I've been here um I believe done part of the lunch policy part of the committee and so it the first thing we always did was go through it and make sure with pa um that we didn't miss families that were not able to afford and we made sure they signed on and then everybody who's there after is the people that we knew um needed to be told or just didn't realize or whatever the reason being
073um but because of Co there's been such a long there was a long break where people were eating for free so we really got behind in our process of keeping up with it so it's going to be a little harder now just because it's gotten a little bit past us um but any help from the community and then like we said the first thing is make sure that everybody on that list is on um if if they're supposed to get Services free and reduced to make sure that is so um just unfortunately I don't I don't think that's a huge chunk but um moving forward we're going to start working on that again um so let's hope we can get it done and maybe uh Miss um Lindy can help us with that well we're
074definitely taking help with that because of the pre ruc and and and what not so thank you any new business M um just as an update the cultural awareness committee um our calendar with company inform to [Music] leers thank you um so then we are going to move into executive session be it resolved that a closed session be convened for the purpose of discussing privacy personnel and attorney client matters the subject matter of these discussions will be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality decides although the board cannot guarantee it the length of the executive session is estimated to be minutes 30 minutes after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business action will not take place um can I get a motion in a second to enter
075EXA second all in favor