Anoka-Hennepin school board mulls rewrite of gender-inclusion policy to boost parents’ rights

The Anoka-Hennepin school district is re-evaluating its gender inclusion policy and considering a rewrite of the guidance to emphasize parents’ rights when navigating children’s names and gender identities.

The district’s current policy was established after a 2019 discrimination lawsuit brought by a transgender student and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights over locker-room access. The settlement ensured the policy could not be changed without state approval until June 15 of this year.

But the policy was recently contested by members of the conservative bloc on the school board, which has split 3 to 3 over social issues, stalling budget discussions and textbook purchases.

Board Member Matt Audette listed “gender identity issues” among district activities that conservative board members could not support in an April post on Facebook that led to a temporary budget gridlock. Specifically, Audette listed the reference to pronouns and gender identity in Anoka-Hennepin’s policy, and the reference to names or genders without parental consent.

“The question, first of all, is do we have to have it or not?” Audette said in the board’s July 15 work session where it discussed the policy rewrite. “There’s a lot in it that I think it goes farther than required.”

Tim Palmatier, general counsel for the district, said maintaining a policy would be essential to providing clarity to staff and preventing future discrimination lawsuits.

As a result of the board’s discussions, the proposed revisions more clearly mandate that school staff must “respect the rights of parents” when receiving requests for different names or pronouns from gender nonconforming students. It would still provide access to restrooms and locker rooms that align with a student’s gender identity and allow for official name changes.

Audette and board co-chairs Zach Arco and Kacy Deschene, did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

The discussion comes as some school districts across Minnesota and nationwide have tried to craft policies that protect LGBTQ students while facing pushback from some parents and political groups.

The school boards in Minneapolis and Rochester both adopted gender-inclusion policies this summer. The new policy in Rochester, which proved contentious, allows teachers to share information about a student’s transgender identity to their parents, but only if parents ask. Neither policy makes an explicit prioritization of parental rights.

An education bill passed this year by Republicans in Iowa mandated that school staff tell parents when a transgender student requested the use of a different name or pronoun. To avoid discrimination claims, many schools across the state began requiring parental permission slips for all students going by something other than their legal name.

Meanwhile, California passed a law prohibiting requirements that parents be notified about a student’s requested name or pronoun changes — and is facing a lawsuit from a school district.

The proposed revisions prohibit Anoka-Hennepin staff from “actively and deliberately” withholding information about a student’s gender expression, “in a manner that impedes upon parental rights.” It allows for an exception if a student fears retaliation or harm by a parent after such a disclosure. And it mandates an “interactive process” between parents, students and the district.

The draft says students of all gender identities are “valued and welcome” in Anoka-Hennepin, but the policy would no longer include a sentence that says “students have a right to be addressed by a name and pronoun that corresponds to their gender identity,” or a similar statement.

Palmatier said school staff were already communicating with parents when students requested name or pronoun changes.

In the July 15 work session, Audette and Board Member Jeff Simon suggested adding language that bars staff from directly prompting students to disclose their pronouns — something Palmatier said could be considered in the next draft of the policy.

The district, which is the largest in Minnesota, has faced legal issues in the past over inclusion of LGBTQ students. A 2011 lawsuit that followed several student suicides in the district led to a federal order by the Department of Justice. The 2019 lawsuit that mandated the district’s inclusion policy also required staff and student training.

“The long and short is that I’m disappointed,” said Kyrstin Schuette, executive director of the School Board Integrity Project and a plaintiff in the 2011 lawsuit as an 18-year-old senior at Anoka High School.

“Parents’ rights are absolutely critical, but we need to make sure that every student is safe,” Schuette said. “In Anoka-Hennepin, students are not always safe at home.”

The Minnesota Parents Alliance backed many conservative school board candidates and has posted on social media in favor of parents’ rights. Asked for comment on the proposed policy, Executive Director Cristine Trooien issued a statement saying the district needs to address academic achievement while also making more than $20 million in budget cuts it faces in the coming years. The Anoka-Hennepin Parents Alliance did not respond to a request for comment.

David McKinney, staff attorney at the ACLU of Minnesota, is concerned the changes to the policy are discriminatory.

“Anoka has issues with this, with singling out trans youth and how they’re treated in a way that’s different than how other students are treated,” he said. The ACLU of Minnesota represented the student at the center of the 2019 lawsuit, alongside Gender Justice, an LGBTQ advocacy group founded in Minnesota.

Kat Rohn, executive director of OutFront Minnesota, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said Anoka-Hennepin’s revisions may discourage transgender students from seeking support from teachers and signifies a “backsliding” in the progress with LGBTQ inclusion the district has made in recent years.

The proposed language includes a clarification that nothing in the district policy is intended to limit the use of nicknames for students.

“So if you have a kid who’s named Timothy who wants to go by Tim in a classroom, nobody’s going to ask for parental permission to do so,” Rohn said. “But when you have that change only applied to transgender students around their names and/or pronouns, that can create disparate impact that could be a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act.”

The new language will be presented at the Aug. 26 board meeting for a first read and community input, and could be put to a vote in September.