It’s The Law

It is as simple as that, they’re just doing what the law requires and of course the conservatives are hopping mad.

Canton Schools Consider Policy Prohibiting Harassment Of Transgender Students
The Hartford Courant
By Ken Byron
November 29, 2017

The board of education might soon adopt a policy specifically prohibiting harassment of transgender students and requiring that school staff be sensitive and supportive of those students.

School Superintendent Kevin Case outlined that policy to a board subcommittee on Tuesday. No action was taken on Tuesday but committee members said they want to present the proposal to the full board in December.

Case said on Tuesday that no one incident prompted the district to consider adding this policy. He said the district has no rules now to guide staff on working with transgender students.

“We review our policies every year and one of the policies we realized we don’t have is one on transgender students,” Case said on Tuesday. “We wanted to be proactive and have something before any concerns arise and to protect the rights of those students.”
[…]
Vincent Mustaro, senior staff associate for school policies for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said CABE has had a draft policy available to districts since 2013.

“Initially there were not a lot of requests for the policy. There has been an increase in the past year to 18 months,” Mustaro said. “It’s not a question of if but when, and it’s better to have direction in place in the form of a policy rather than not have any guidance to go by.”

Robert Rader, CABE’s executive director, said adopting policies on transgender students is a step in the right direction.

This past summer the Connecticut Department of Education issued guidelines and FAQ for Connecticut schools.

Then up in Maine…

Portland school board adopts comprehensive transgender policy
It joins about a half-dozen other Maine school districts that have approved such policies since a landmark state supreme court ruling in 2014.
The Portland Herald
By Noel K. Gallagher

The Portland Board of Education on Tuesday night unanimously approved what’s considered one of Maine’s most comprehensive transgender policies, requiring staff training, using a student’s preferred name and personal pronoun, and taking the student’s side at school if there is disagreement with a parent’s wishes.

“This is a watershed moment in the state of Maine,” said attorney Mary Bonauto, a Portland parent who helped the school board craft the policy. Bonauto, the Maine lawyer who successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court for same-sex couples to have the right to marry, has two high school-aged children in the Portland school district.

Portland is one of about a half-dozen Maine school districts that have adopted transgender policies. The first, in Millinocket, was adopted in early 2015 soon after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued the nation’s first state court ruling affirming the right of a transgender student to use a bathroom corresponding with her gender identity.

Once again this is in response to the state law and Maine Supreme Court ruling.

Meanwhile down in Maryland,

Legal challenge to transgender policy in Maryland school system withdrawn
The Washington Post
By Donna St. George
November 28, 2017

A Maryland family that sued over school measures to protect transgender students has dropped the lawsuit, citing stress and potential humiliation that stemmed from the legal action.

That means a district policy described by advocates as among the most progressive in the state will remain intact.

The legal battle started after the school board in Frederick County, an exurb of Washington, voted in June to adopt a comprehensive policy on school practices that affect transgender students.
[…]
The lawsuit argued that the policy violated the teenager’s right to bodily privacy, saying she fears for her safety and feels humiliated to undress in front of “the opposite sex.” It also claimed that her mother’s parental rights to control her child’s upbringing were violated, and at points made references to totalitarian regimes and Nazi death camps.

All the school boards are just following the law.