ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – The Roanoke County School Board is at the center of attention yet again, after another arrest was made during Thursday night’s meeting.
The disorderly conduct comes in relation to a controversial new policy.
The Roanoke County School Board adopted a new policy Thursday night that includes referring to students only by the name and pronouns on their official records unless they have their parent’s consent.
10 News sat down with Dr. Ken Nicely Friday who says, these policies don’t change much in terms of how they tackle the issue in their division.
“Parents want to know what’s happening with their children,” Dr. Nicely said. “Imagine coming to a parent/teacher conference midway through the year and the teacher starts to refer to the student by a different name and the parent has no idea.”
In July, the Virginia Department of Education revised its transgender model policy to match Governor Youngkin’s policy on notifying parents when it comes to gender identity in schools.
“Local school boards were required to adopt policies that were at least consistent with, they could go above and beyond, but at least consistent with the model policies that the VDOE developed,” Nicely said.
Now, Roanoke County Public Schools are taking the heat — being the first in our area to adopt the policy.
Dr. Nicely says he recognizes a concern for LGBTQ students’ privacy.
“Some fear kind of floated that somehow the schools were going to be outing kids and that’s just not the case. That’s not our role, that’s not our responsibility,” Nicely said.
He says school staff are still here to listen and help — which includes involving parents.
“What we have done now for the past couple of years is whenever a student identifies as transgender and is seeking accommodations, some extra support, and so forth, we work with them and their parents in a group meeting along with counselors, administration, and the school to develop a plan that best meets their needs,” he said.
Nicely says they want to involve parents in a way that helps, not harms.
“If they want to further have counseling over gender issues and so forth, the way that should look is, ‘Hey, are your parents aware?’ and if the students says no, ‘How can we help facilitate that communication, are you ready for that?’” he said.
If there is fear of abuse, or suicidal ideation due to conversation surrounding these topics, Nicely says they always have the student’s best interest.
