One of N.J.’s largest school districts decides to keep transgender policy after 7-hour meeting

One of New Jersey’s largest school districts will keep a policy that protects the privacy of transgender students after its school board previously voted to drop it.
The Edison school board reaffirmed its transgender policy in a seven-hour meeting Tuesday night that drew lengthy public comments from both advocates of LGBTQ+ rights and parents rights.
The school board, which oversees the state’s fifth-largest district, drew criticism after its Sept. 30 vote to rescind Policy 5756. The policy says school staff are not required to notify parents if a student identifies as transgender in school.
Just before midnight Tuesday, the board voted 6-3 to keep the policy.
School board president Biral Patel was among those voting to keep the policy.
“In this instance, the Edison Board of Education is sitting within the majority of other school districts by keeping the current policy in place, having the luxury of watching and observing the ongoing litigation related to the issue while being able to rely on the recommended practice of the state,” Patel said.
Supporters say the policy is important because some students identify as transgender at school, but not at home, if they feel unsafe coming out to their parents. Across the state, some board members and parents have taken issue with the policy, saying school staff should not keep secrets from families.
The Edison school board took its September vote to drop the policy without listing the issue on its public agenda, and without allowing any public comment. When it was determined that a second reading of the measure was required under the law, the board’s agenda said the vote would take place during Wednesday’s meeting.
This time, multiple people spoke in favor of keeping the policy during the public comment portion of the meeting.
State Attorney General Matthew Platkin sued five school districts in Morris and Monmouth counties last year for dropping or amending their Policy 5756 transgender rules. The majority of the state’s 600-plus districts have adopted the state’s recommended policy.
Aruna Rao, executive director of Desi Rainbow Parents & Allies, a national nonprofit group that supports the LGBTQ South Asian community, spoke at the meeting about raising a transgender son in Edison. She said he did not come out to his family until college “because of the pervasive transphobia which surrounded him and which continues to surround many of the trans students in this town.”
“He felt he was alone and that his parents would punish him,” Rao said. “I have a lot of regret that my child had to live in fear for so many years and feel alone because he didn’t have the support and understanding he should have had at home, with his peers, with his community.”
She said nothing in the policy prevents school staff from informing parents about their child’s gender identity, with the child’s consent, and in the vast majority of situations, parents can be very involved and supportive.
Radhika Sehgal, a clinical psychologist at Rutgers University who said she works with students there from Edison, also defended the policy.
“Sometimes schools are literally the only safe spaces for children. If the goal of this policy is to keep children safe and to not have secrets from you the parents, let’s talk about that. How can you be the kind of parents who a child will trust to come and say, ‘Hey, Mom Dad, I’m trans’ or ‘Hey, Mom Dad, I’m gay’?”
She said many of the students she counsels desperately want their parents to love them for who they are. Sehgal, who describes herself as a queer Desi immigrant, she said she tries to help students understand their immigrant parents.
“Their parents left their home country, not just for themselves, but to give their children a better future,” she said. “And that understanding is really essential, especially for the children of immigrants, because the gap is really wide.”
Cindy Ma spoke at the meeting in favor of getting rid of the policy, which she called “anti-parent.”
“Parents are there for their children. Parents cannot be kept in the dark because of that. And you know is it is a God-given, Constitutional right for parents to be involved,” Ma said.
The school board was also criticized for taking its earlier vote to rescind the policy without putting the issue on the agenda or taking public comment.
”I don’t have children, I’m not Indian, I’m not gay, I’m not trans, but I believe in the safety of our children, and I am appalled that my tax dollars are being spent by people who don’t follow their own rules and did not make the first vote public or allow public comment. I am also appalled that you would place vulnerable children in danger,” Edison resident Karen Siegel said.
School board vice president Joseph Romano said he was in favor of keeping Edison’s current transgender policy and awaiting the court’s decisions in cases involving other school districts.
“Don’t amend it, don’t rewrite it, don’t play games with it,” Romano said before casting his vote. “Let the courts do what they do.”
Lauren Albrecht, director of advocacy and organizing for Garden State Equality, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ organization, said the group was honored to work with the board and community to clarify the policy’s importance.
“Although we do believe that the situation of a board playing politics with LGBTQ kids could have been avoided from the outset, changing hearts and minds is the best outcome for today that we could have asked for, for the safety of LGBTQ students,” she said.
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Tina Kelley may be reached at [email protected].