Wichita Public Schools is considering adding explicit protections for transgender students and staff this year.
Public speakers told the districts school board on Monday that they want to see the nondiscrimination policy updated to include gender identity as a protected class. Some were activists; others were moms.
Transgender students shared their own stories of discrimination.
High school student Alec Strouse said being required to change in the womens locker room had a severe impact on his mental health.
I was severely bullied in there, Strouse told the board. Multiple times I did stay home because I was afraid of the comments that I got.
If Wichita does add gender identity to its policy, it will join several school districts across the state that have done the same this year. Manhattan added the protections in May; Olathe made the changes in March.
De Soto did so three days earlier. Students from two of De Sotos high schools asked the board to update its policy.
Transgender teens are three times more likely to attempt suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than a third are bullied.
Topeka Public Schools board member Peg McCarthy thinks growing youth suicide numbers and the increasing support for transgender rights is causing districts to add more protections for those students.
We know that transgender students in particular are one of our must vulnerable groups, said McCarthy, who is also a psychologist working with transgender patients.
Topeka Public Schools has included transgender students in its nondiscrimination policy for about a decade.
Not all school districts have moved toward transgender rights. Derby Public Schools allowed transgender students to use the bathroom that fit their gender identity, but reversed that policy in 2017.
The Kansas Association of School Boards advises against districts updating their policy to include specific language protecting transgender students. It thinks those students are already included in federal Title IX protections, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex by education programs receiving federal funding.
Wichita Public Schools board member Ben Blankley said that updating the policy is needed to make a clear statement of support for transgender students and staff.
To implement it at the local level seems to be the strongest statement we can make, Blankley said. These kids do exist. These kids do matter.
