The School District of Philadelphia announced that they are allowing students to pick their gender identity and name on virtual education platforms even without parents' consent.
The school district said on Monday that it would adopt a policy that lets students select between "male," "female," and "nonbinary" on online learning tools such as Google Classroom and Infinite Campus. The Philadelphia school district said that the identification would also affect how students' names are indicated on report cards and other assessments.
"The School District of Philadelphia is committed to providing safe and inclusive learning environments that support the emotional and mental health of all our students," school district Superintendent William Hite wrote in a letter published online.
Faithwire reported that the new rules will enable students to change their gender without parents' consent. The policy also requires teachers and staff of the schools to use a student's preferred gender identity or pronouns, as indicated in their online profile. Teachers and staff who conduct "intentional or persistent refusal" to address the students by their preferred gender pronoun or name will be in violation of the policy.
"We do understand that today a lot of individuals do not identify with the gender to which they were born," Philadelphia School District spokesperson Monica Lewis told a local news station. But the new policy is finding opponents in concerned parents.
Elizabeth Johnson, who is known as Activist Mommy, told CBN News, "Science tells us that children's minds are not fully developed and are in need of parental guidance in making major, life-altering choices," lamenting how the policy allows students to change their gender identity without their parents' consent.
Johnson, who is also the author of "Not on My Watch: How to Fight for Family, Faith, and Freedom," called the district leaders "educational bureaucrats" who refuse to listen to concerned parents "who pay them for their services." She argued that it was very evident, "loud and clear that parents do not support this policy."
Meanwhile, Hite explained that such changes to the students' identities will not be reflected in state-run electronic systems because these systems still record the students' legal names and birth sex. Philadelphia school district however, has advocated for changes to the system at the state and federal levels.
These changes that recognize transgender and nonbinary identities among students come after the 252 policy that addressed protections for transgender students, which provides them with a gender-neutral bathroom and the ability to be acknowledged by school faculty and staff to be recovnized using gender-neutral language. The policy also requires school faculty and staff to "eliminate the practice of segregating students by gender."
Johnson complained how Philadelphia's was a "dysfunctional school system" that thought they "[knew] better than parents how to raise their children and therefore, demand that parents cater to [their] worldview." She argued that this is not how the American school system should work especially when it is being funded by taxpayers' money. She believes that because they are being funded by American taxpayers, they must comply with their requirements instead.
