Virginia Beach schools adopt new policy for transgender, nonbinary students
The Virginia Beach School Board on Tuesday in a 9-1 vote approved an updated policy for transgender and nonbinary students. The new policy will require teachers to use pronouns and names that are on official record with exceptions for nicknames commonly associated with the student’s legal name.
If a student requests anything else, teachers will be required to report it to the parents. Students must also use bathrooms and participate in sports teams that correspond to their assigned sex.
This decision was made following more than a year of student walkouts protesting Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students and the formation of Students4Trans.
Several parents before the vote came out in support of the policies and voiced their opinions as well to the board. Board member Jessica Owens is the only one who voted against the policy. “My sticking point being the issue of not being able to address students in the manner that they would like to be addressed,” she said.
