For its 126 schools and more than 84,000 students, Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland will require staff to get parents’ or guardians’ permission before using transgender students’ preferred names or pronouns, CBS News reports.
The district issued its guidance last month in response to a letter by the Trump administration that threatened the district with legal action and the loss of federal funding.
“As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents,” The Advocate quoted US Education Secretary Linda McMahon as saying. “This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents’ rights under federal law.”
The federal action followed a lawsuit by two parents who claimed school staff had assisted a student with transitioning and withheld information from the student’s parents. “ED’s Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) is partnering with the US Department of Justice to take enforcement action against Anne Arundel County after determining the District improperly classifies information about a student’s so-called ‘gender identity’ as ‘confidential medical information’ that cannot be shared with parents,” the Department of Education stated.
According to an article in The Baltimore Banner, teachers’ union president Kristina Korona told fellow educators in an August 20 email that the new guidance undermines district policy on acceptance and inclusivity and “will begin harming affected students immediately.”