Hanover County schools adopt anti-transgender bathroom policy
In a closed door session the Hanover County School Board voted 5-2 to approve a policy that requires transgender students to submit a request to use school bathrooms that align with their gender identity and gives the school board the authority to approve or deny those requests.
In the policy approved Tuesday night, school staff and administrators can request a meeting with the student and their parents/guardians, and “will receive all relevant information, which may include:” a statement from the student that, among other things, specifies their gender identity and how they have consistently, persistently and insistently expressed that identitysigned statements from the student’s personal physician, therapist or licensed counselor verifying that the student has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and/or that the student consistently and authentically expresses a binary gender identitystatements from the student’s parent or guardianstudent disciplinary or criminal recordsinformation related to the privacy and safety of other studentsany other relevant information, including documents from other interested partiesThe school board voted 4-3 last March to allow the Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-LGBTQ+ legal firm listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to offer a free legal review of the school district’s policy regarding equal educational opportunities.
At the time then-board chair Ola Hawkins provided the following statement: “The school board voted last night to engage Alliance Defending Freedom for legal review of Policy 7-1.2 at no cost to HCPS.
On behalf of the school board, I do not have anything further to add to this other than what was discussed and decided upon.” According to current
