Kathleen Rooney to Board of Ed: I should be learning about LGBTQ+ rights from administrators, not just from my kids.
In eighth grade, a transgender boy’s standardized test scores tanked after his former name appeared on every window on the computer-based test — a former name he’d wanted to keep secret from his classmates.
“He had gone through a great deal of change to get to that point,” said his mom, Kathleen Rooney, a math teacher at Hill Regional Career High School. “This is not trivial; this is a huge issue for that child.”
Rooney said that her two kids taught her about the rights that students with different sexual orientations or gender identities are guaranteed under state law, including about name recognition for transgender students.
But Rooney said that she hadn’t heard much at all about those regulations from the district.
“As a group, we really need to be more clear about what those laws are,” she said. “The diversity of our community is wonderful. We need to celebrate that, but we need the tools to deal with the different kinds of speech that our students use in terms of race and gender. We need real clear guidelines in our community about what’s not tolerated in any way.”
Rooney, along with a half-dozen other activists, delivered that message at Monday night’s regular Board of Education meeting at Celentano School. They said that a half-century after the rebellion at Stonewall, the school district needs to do more to train educators about the LGBTQ+ students in their classrooms.
LGBTQ+ kids — the initials stand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer — report higher rates of bullying, harassment and discrimination. They often don’t feel safe in the classroom, and they often don’t see themselves in the textbooks.
New Haven Academy’s Alan Veloz, Fair Haven Community Health Care’s Krysten Wagner, Stetson Library’s Phillip Modeen, and Lincoln-Bassett’s Lorrie Quirk.
For more than a year, the New Haven LGBTQ+ Youth Task Force — a coalition of students, educators, city staffers, pediatricians, social workers and youth advocates — has been fighting to change that locally.
Their advocacy led the Board of Education to update its nondiscrimination policy; to train social workers, physical education teachers and wellness facilitators; and to send high schoolers to the annual True Colors conference.
Another set of trainings is in the works for Central Office administrators, principals, health center nurses and school counselors. Superintendent Carol Birks said that the online training module, known as SafeSchools, could eventually be shared with all teachers.
David Weinreb: Why so silent?
Task force members returned to the Board of Education on Monday night, though, to tell them that they now need to make sure the policies will actually be implemented.
The task force members said that a complaint form to report discrimination is hard to find on the website, that specific questions about the LGBTQ+ experience weren’t included in the full climate survey, and that principals and teachers haven’t yet been trained on their legal responsibilities.
“We live in a royal-blue city, yet our district seems to be publicly silent on LGBTQ identities and issues,” said David Weinreb, a Fair Haven School teacher who co-founded the task force. “I’m not sure schools have ever received a clear mandate or any kind of guidance from city-based supervisors to build safer schools for LGBTQ students. We are here to encourage you to do so.”
Research has found that schools with resources for gay and transgender students, like supportive teachers and inclusive lessons, have seen decreased absenteeism. Gay-straight alliances and anti-bullying policies were especially helpful for transgender students, a study from 2013 found.
The task force members asked the Board of Education to do a better job of clarifying its rules in the unified code of conduct and student handbook, listing LGBTQ-specific resources in the family guide, organizing professional development for staff and including awareness of sexual orientation and gender identify in the curriculum.
“As we continue our work with students and adults, we continue to hear heartbreaking stories of discrimination in our district that must stop,” Phillip Modeen, a librarian at the Stetson Branch, read from a letter signed by 23 task force members. “We care about the success and happiness of all students in our district and are committed to seeing that LGBTQ+ students are represented in the district’s new vision of #OneNewHaven.”
After public comment ended, the board members asked Superintendent Birks what questions were asked on the climate survey and when trainings would take place. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur, the board’s secretary who chairs the Governance Committee, said that additional policy guidance would be on her agenda at this month’s committee meeting.
The LGBTQ+ Youth Task Force meets every second Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the New Haven Pride Center at 84 Orange St. The next meeting is scheduled for June 13.