New Hampshire MassResistance parents force school district to turn back horrible transgender policy

Fighting hard can overcome a stacked deck!

December 16, 2019

Outraged parents came to confront the Franklin, NH, School Board at its Dec. 9 public hearing on the proposed "transgender" policy for the public schools.

Earlier this month, the school board in Franklin, New Hampshire, dominated by liberal politicians, was ready to pass an odious “transgender” policy that would impose bizarre and radical rules on all students (and their parents) in the district.

The proposed policy, titled “Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Students Procedure,” reads like something from a crackpot “queer theory” book. Some of its features:

• It forces students and staff to accept pseudo-scientific terms, such: gender identity, gender non-binary, cisgender, transgender, gender fluid, and gender transition.
• It allows a student to decide if he or she wants to dress as the opposite sex, be called by an opposite-sex name, and be referred to by the pronoun of the opposite sex. All students and staff would be forced to go along with this.
• The policy includes a “privacy” provision where this could all be kept private from the student’s parents!
• It would allow a “transgender” student to use either the boys’ or girls’ restrooms or locker rooms, whichever he or she desires, depending on the student’s chosen “gender identity.”
• Students and staff members will be required to undergo “training” to accept these deviant behaviors as if they were completely normal.

It’s madness. But the school officials and Board members saw no problems with it.

The policy was quietly introduced by the Board in October, and given its second reading on November 18. Many people in town were shocked and outraged, but the Board members figured they could vote it in without much trouble.

Claiming that the state forced them to do it

The School Board said that the reason they were doing this was that in July the legislature passed into law Bill SB 263, titled “An act relative to anti-discrimination protection for students in public schools.” (The bill was signed by the RINO Governor Chris Sununu.) The law includes this vague clause that requires schools to develop some type of policy (with details left up to the individual school districts):

Each school district and chartered public school shall develop a policy that guides the development and implementation of a coordinated plan to prevent, assess the presence of, intervene in, and respond to incidents of discrimination on the basis of age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, marital status, familial status, disability, religion, national origin, or any other classes protected under [New Hampshire law].

This policy requirement appears to be another attempt to push the Left’s growing ideological laundry list of “protected classes” into the public schools.

But the Franklin school officials are clearly using this as an excuse to push their own bizarre agenda by submitting a set of radical “transgender” rules to impose on everyone. They ignored actual wording of the law – and the larger list of anti-discrimination classes. And almost no one would have noticed that the school officials were doing that.

MassResistance jumps in!

Then MassResistance intervened. In late November we got a call from Karen Testerman, a member of the Franklin City Council and a long time pro-family activist. The parents there needed help, and we got right to work!

We organized people and educated them on what was happening and how to deal with it. We worked with the people in Franklin to begin an aggressive social media campaign along with phone calls to Board members, and hard-hitting testimony at the Board meetings. We made sure that people knew very clearly how this proposed policy doesn’t even follow the law, but is just a sham being pushed by pro-LGBT officials.

On December 9, the Board conceded to parents' demands and held a public hearing to hear comments from the community on the new policy. We didn’t disappoint them! People filled the room.

One of the most powerful speakers was Karen Testerman.  Among other things, Karen told the Board Members:

• If a student is able to authorize his or her record without parental consent, this is in violation of FERPA which gives parents ultimate authority.
• Gender dysphoria is a mental health problem that needs professional help. Are the Franklin High School counsellors certified practitioners? 
• According to the recent National Assessment and Educational Progress Reports, 64% of Franklin High School eleventh graders cannot read at grade level, and 85% of them cannot do math at grade level.  On a standard A-F grading scale, you [Board members] are failing at your primary mission. 
• You [Board members] often express your concern over the 50-plus percent of your students who are on free and reduced lunches, the challenge of opioid addiction, and the tragedy of the suicides amongst our youth. And yet, you are discussing implementing a policy that encourages the use of drugs (including opposite-sex hormones and puberty blockers), mutilation of their physical bodies, and results in a very high suicide rate.

Others reminded the Board – also in very strong terms – that this is all unscientific nonsense that will result in hideous destruction to children. People are either male or female – and that is permanent. It’s a clinical disorder for anyone to believe it’s possible to change their sex. So-called sex reassignment involves amputation of healthy body parts and other ghastly procedures that cause permanent harm and disfigurement. One study has shown that over 40% of transgenders have attempted suicide. These children need psychiatric help, not pandering to their afflictions.

Only a few people came and spoke in support of the transgender policy. The high school principal, who agrees with the policy, sat with the supporters. (That says a lot about the kind of people who are running the schools.)

But our efforts worked. As a result, at that meeting the Board Chairman announced that the policy was being sent back to the "policy committee" for a re-write. And we’re organizing even more people to sure it doesn’t come back in any similar form!

What should the policy look like?

We’ll take a stab at that here: A true, common-sense anti-discrimination policy, going along with what the text of the law instructs, would “guide the development and implementation of a coordinated plan” that would protect all students and their parents from having to subvert their values and religious beliefs to unscientific quackery and radical ideology. This would certainly apply to the laundry list of “protected classes” being thrust at them by the Legislature.

(If a student claims to be “transgender,” the school should make no special arrangements, and should not require others – students, teachers, staff – to go along with the charade.)

That kind of policy would ultimately be better for everybody. It’s something all parents should demand.

As we mentioned above, the fact that the principal, Superintendent, and School Board all have no problem with the outrageous policy they almost voted in should be a huge red flag to the community! Most people simply don’t appreciate how bad the people running our schools really are.

We’ll keep you informed on what happens with the Franklin School District policy.