RICHMOND, Va. — Students from nearly 100 schools across Virginia participated in a walkout Tuesday in opposition to the Virginia Department of Education's proposed 2022 model policies on the treatment of transgender students in the state's public schools.
Walkouts in the metro-Richmond area included five schools in Chesterfield County, three in Henrico County, and one in Richmond.
Dozens of students at Richmond's Open High School walked out during class, Once outside, some took the opportunity to share thoughts on the new model policy.
"By walking out together, we're showing education leaders, the community, and the media, that as students of Open High School, and Richmond Public Schools, and students of Virginia, that we do not support those proposed policies," Skylar, a senior at Open High, said.
The walkouts were planned and organized by Pride Liberation, based out of Fairfax County.
“We had actually been doing, as Pride Liberation project, some work on making sure that the guidelines as they were before were enforced by localities, and then to find out that this was all going to go downhill, is really shocking, and I can’t even imagine as a trans person how that would feel," Felix Hedberg, a volunteer with Pride Liberation who helped organize the walkout at Open High, said.
The proposed guidelines would put parents in control over what their child will be called in school, and what pronouns they use, requiring them to submit written requests and documentation of name and gender changes. Parents can also choose to deny school-based counseling for students.
“It provides them the opportunity to know what’s happening in their child’s school, in their lives, we don’t want policies like the last model policies to create a wedge between the parent and the child," Todd Gathje, the Director of Government Relations for the Family Foundation, said.
Protesting students said it is the policies themselves that may drive a wedge between parents and students, as students may not feel comfortable speaking with their parents about how they wish to identify.
"If I didn't have the support that I had at home, it would make it much more difficult to come out. If I didn't have the support from the school, it would make my life much harder as a trans person, and I'm glad I have that, but it's not like that for everyone," Skylar said.
When the Department of Education released its model policies, Governor Glenn Youngkin (R - Virginia) said they restored constitutional rights to parents.
"Under Virginia law, they have a fundamental right that they can direct the health and the education of their children, so these policies reaffirm these fundamental rights," Gathje said.
However, student organizers said students are what parents should be concerned about most.
"This is our fight, right? It's not going to affect our parents really that much, they're going about living their lives," Hedberg said. "I go to school every day in this school building, and the people behind me do too."
People have left almost 20,000 comments on the policies since the public comment portal opened Monday.
The public comment window will close on October 26. The VDOE will then review and assess the comments and make revisions where warranted. The final draft will then need to be approved by the state superintendent for school boards to adopt.
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