SCHOOL BOARD MEETING ASSIGNMENT

School Board Meeting Assignment

CCSD Special Meeting Gender Diverse Discussion

Sarah Kerschgens

EDU 210 Nevada School Law

Dr. Dale Warby

March 9, 2018
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I watched with great interest the Special Meeting of CCSD regarding Gender

Diversity. The question was “ Should Clark County School District adopt a written policy with

regulations and guidelines regarding Gender Diversity”. Transgender is not a disability so it

not covered under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 so the schools are not obliged

to provide an appropriate education, identification and nondiscriminatory evaluation. But

these children are protected under the Nevada Anti- Bullying Law NR. 388.122. Here

Bullying is defined as : “Bullying” means written, verbal or electronic expressions or physical

acts or gestures, or any combination thereof, that are directed at a person or group of persons,

or a single severe and willful act or expression that is directed at a person or group of persons,

and includes: Actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, gender

identity or expression, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability of a person, sex or any

other distinguishing characteristic or background of a person”(stop-bullying.gov).

There were a lot of concerns from parent regarding the safety of their children in

locker rooms, toilets on field trips etc , if children were allowed to choose the gender that they

feel comfortable with. The main concern was about CCSD Regulation No. 5137 and parents

felt if was unfair to extend protection to a specific subgroup of students. On the side against

new laws for Gender Diversity was the overall feeling that everyone should be treated equally

as stated in the First Amendment and that not just one group should be segregated and treated

differently. Many felt these children are already protected under the Anti-Bullying Law and
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the state of Nevada is in compliance with these laws as they stand at the moment and there is

no need for change. There was an interesting fact from one parent who was a Doctor and he

noted the statistics that 70-90% of gender diverse students spontaneously lose this feeling

within a few years. I researched this subject after listening to this discussion and found that the

word gender has been used since the 14th century as a grammatical term, referring to classes of

noun designated as masculine, feminine or neuter in some languages. The sense denoting

biological sex has also been used since the 14th century, but this did not become common until

the mid 20th century, Although the words gender and sex are often used interchangeably, they

have slightly different connotations; sex tends to refer to biological differences, while gender

more often refers to cultural and social differences and sometimes encompasses a broader

range of identities than the binary of male and female.

Gender Dysphoria does exist. It is estimated that about 0.005% of people assigned

male at birth and 0.002% of people assigned female at birth will be diagnosed with Gender

Dysphoria world-wide. This is an interesting topic as it is a new topic that scares and

concerns many. The term Transgender is being used a lot nowadays, is being hyped by the

Media and has gained the attention of the political arena.

All parents seemed to agree that all students need to be protected at school. There was

one young African American male who felt that Transgender should be placed on the same

scale as the back's in the 1960s where African Americans fought to be allowed to be educated

at predominantly white school's , back then people were fearful about the consequences and

were afraid. For him the same was to be said about allowing transgender students to be
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publicly called by the pronoun they choose, to use the restrooms and locker rooms that they

choose. He felt there was no need for fear . We all can agree that times are changing , 100

years ago a women's role was to stay at home, now women are CEO's or are supporting their

families. Sixty years ago African Americans were segregated, up until 1973 children with

disabilities were not protected. But to be taken into account are the children themselves, there

was a seven year old that spoke before the CCSD and she said she would feel uncomfortable

in the toilets or locker rooms if a boy to her was in the room with her, and on the other-side

was an 11year old transgender child that assured everyone she was not a monster, she just felt

uncomfortable in her body.

But to sum up the CCSD special meeting the general consensus from schools is that

they need Guidelines in writing about Transgender so that everyone knows their rights on this

topic and to ensure that all children are protected.

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SCHOOL BOARD MEETING

REFERENCES

Gender Definition

Oxford Dictionary

Retrieved February 15, 2018

Stop-bullying Laws Nevada

https://www.stopbullying.gov/laws/nevada/index.html

Retrieved February 15, 2018