At Richards Middle School in Fraser, Michigan, instructors were told not to tell a student’s parents about a change in the student’s gender identification if the change occurred during the student’s time at the school.
Schools in the state of Michigan are allowing transgender children to use different names and pronouns, and they are asking staff members not to tell a student’s mother about their transition into a different gender.
According to an email that was acquired by the media, a school counselor advised teachers at Richards Middle School in Fraser, Michigan, to only use the student’s “birth name” and “refer to the pronoun ‘he'” when speaking to the student’s mother. The email was included in the student’s file. The student is identified as a transgender woman in an email that was sent by a counselor to instructors; however, the counselor clarifies that the youngster’s parent is unaware of this information.
An official spokeswoman for Fraser Public Schools simply stated that “the district is conscious of and compliance with its requirements.” However, she did not deny that the school district was hiding the gender of a student from the student’s parents. Instead, she observed that “the district is conscious of and compliant with its commitments.”
It is not apparent which clause of Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools, the district is complying with. Even though numerous court rulings have argued that Title IX protections do extend to gender identity, the Department of Education’s instruction to transgender students maintains that such rights do not exist.
