June Carpenter, a 15-year-old transgender student, recalled the time when she was in sixth grade and students would bully her by asking to take pictures of her, “presumably for nefarious reasons.”
“I was treated like a curiosity,” June said, at a news conference Wednesday morning promoting best practices for the expansion of federal protections for LGBTQ+ students.
That incident was later followed by years of bullying and harassment. She and her mother, Melissa Combs, said they encountered an unsupportive school and administration in Farmington that “didn’t intervene” but instead further “denied the rights of LGBTQ+ students.”
“It put me in a state of constantly being on defense,” June said, adding that the experience caused her emotional wellness to “spiral,” and affected her academic performance.
When June finally transferred to a magnet school in Hartford, she said she found support and understanding.
“While my former school [in Farmington] had a safe school climate policy, it was not executed consistently. And while some adults had good intentions, it was clear that both training and resources were and are needed so that they can do their best by transgender students,” June said. “At Greater Hartford Academy for the Arts, I now see myself at my school. It gives me so much hope when I see adults working hard to make schools better, and safer, for trans students like me.”
Farmington Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Connecticut Mirror.
Title IX is a federal law that includes protections for students from sex discrimination in schools. The federal government issued new Title IX guidelines earlier this year, while Connecticut guidance on sex discrimination was also updated this winter.
Both sets of guidelines extended protections to explicitly include LGBTQ+ students, while also expanding the definition of “sex-based harassment,” and clarifying what school obligations look like.
“As a country we’ve come a long way since the 1969 Stonewall Riots and the attitude of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell‘ that I grew up with, but we still have a long way to go before we get to true equity and have a country where everyone is free to live their authentic lives without fear of discrimination or violence,” Rep. Sarah Keitt, D-Fairfield, said at the news conference.
Rep. Sarah Keitt, D-Fairfield, spoke at a press conference Wednesday in support of best practices for school districts to consider with recent Title IX changes. Credit: Jessika Harkay / CT Mirror
In January, the state Department of Education released “Guidance on Civil Rights Protections and Supports for Transgender or Gender-Diverse Students” which made some changes to previous state-issued guidance and clarified federal and state laws to make clear that schools must treat all students, regardless of their gender identity, equitably, in academic and extracurricular settings.
The document now makes it clear that a Connecticut student under the age of 18, or without parental permission, is not able to change their name or gender on their student records. However, identification documents for schools to acknowledge a student’s gender identity of expression are not required.
“Requiring such identification — which students are often unable to obtain — could have practical effect of limiting or denying students equal access to educational programming and activities, including, but not limited to, athletics,” the document says, adding that notice from a legal guardian is also “not required for the school recognize the student’s gender identity of expression.”
The guidance adds that Connecticut schools must recognize and respect a student’s preferences, and that refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns or call the student a particular name may “constitute gender-based discrimination” and be “deemed discriminatory under Title IX.”
In the state Department of Education’s guidance, it also defined gender dysphoria and how it may allow students to qualify for specialized instruction, clarified that school boards can develop policies regarding what information will be shared with parents, permits districts to provide single-sex bathrooms and access to the facilities that corresponds with a students’ gender and grants “equal opportunity” in participation of both curricular and extracurricular activities.
Federally, Title IX revisions were published in late April and are effective Aug. 1.
Revisions to the federal Title IX statutes include clarifying that sex discrimination is “discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation and gender identity.” It also broadened the definition of sexual harassment and made changes to how allegations are handled on a college campus by eliminating a requirement for live hearings.
Connecticut schools have faced resistance to some inclusion efforts in the past.
In February, a tampon dispenser was torn down minutes after its installation in a boys bathroom at Brookfield High School. There were also efforts last year to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes and characters in Newtown and a Connecticut court case made national headlines for challenging the state’s trans-inclusive sports policy.
The Biden-Harris administration has not yet issued regulations regarding a transgender person’s participation in sports.
On Wednesday, several groups banded together to issue their own guidance related to efforts to promote inclusivity and stop discrimination.
The OUT Accountability Project, an organization that advocates for equal access to education for LGBTQ+ students, the Center for Children’s Advocacy, a nonprofit law firm, Equality Connecticut, a grassroots LGBTQ+ organization, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders and Health Care Advocates International, have developed a half-dozen best practice recommendations for district’s to follow “beyond the guidance.”
Those efforts include promoting inclusivity, protecting the rights of transgender students to education and sports, efforts to improve both mental health and academic performance by creating supportive environments, setting a positive example and educating and building awareness.
“How can a student give 100% to their studies, if they cannot be 100% of who they are in the classroom?” said Tony Ferraiolo, the director of youth and family programming at Health Care Advocates International. “We’re setting them up for failure. Our goal is to ensure that every student knows that they are seen, that they are heard and that they are honored and that they are able to live their lives freely and authentically.”
The best practice recommendations also broke down changes to Title IX regulations by several categories (including gender markers, privacy, bullying and sex-separated facilities and policies) with examples of what may be considered sex discrimination and how to provide more inclusive classrooms in those situations.
In the upcoming legislative session, the groups plan to push for funding for professional development and training for teachers to better accommodate LGBTQ+ students.
Keitt said lawmakers plan to use the upcoming months to meet with school districts about “what they are doing right and what schools are doing wrong.”
“I’m sure having gender-neutral bathrooms will be part of those discussions,” Keitt said. “So hopefully, we’ll have more information by next January. This is an ongoing issue that we have to monitor because not every school is doing the right thing.”