The Lodi Board of Education passed a new Transgender Policy at the February 24th 2016 meeting. The vote was unanimous. Regardless of your opinion on it, everyone should be in agreement that parents should have been informed of the policy prior to the vote. Parents should be aware that the policy's wording violates their parental rights.
The Record has done a few stories this past week about
the controversy surrounding the Pascack Valley district. The Record reported: “Last week, Gunderson said the district wasn’t ready to hold a meeting
for parents at the time. He did not explain why no meeting was held before the
board was prepared to vote on the proposal in February.”
Parents and residents were quoted in the articles as
objecting to the lack of transparency. Some parents had a problem with the policy itself
based on religious grounds.
In Lodi, there
was no meeting for parents prior to the vote.
There was no agenda posted prior to the vote. The Record never reported on the policy after
the vote. Parents have no knowledge of what
the policy is or that it was already approved.
The Lodi
politicians believe that Lodi parents are too poor to care about. Parents have been shut out of decision-making
processes at all levels, academically and everywhere else.
Below is a link to the policy. After the first page, some sections are very controversial and raise many questions. Parents should make sure that their
rights are not being trampled.
