Fairfax County mom sounds the alarm proposed school board policy
Stephanie Lundquist-Arora sharply criticized the 'activist' school board for a proposed rule that could suspend students for 'malicious misgendering.'
EXCLUSIVE - America First Legal yesterday sent a letter to the Fairfax County School Board warning of "significant constitutional concerns" and "deeply troubling questions" about proposed changes to a rule which allows students to be suspended for "malicious misgendering" their peers.
The Fairfax County School Board was scheduled to vote Thursday on proposed changes to the Fairfax County Public Schools Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook, which would increase the punishment for students in grades four through six for "malicious deadnaming" and "malicious misgendering" of classmates. While the school board is still meeting Thursday evening, the vote on the policy has been rescheduled for June 16, 2022.
The letter, signed by AFL Senior Adviser Ian Prior, reads "Targeting and punishing young children to advance gender ideology reflects a distressing lack of prudence and judgment, and a deep disregard for Fairfax students and parents."
"Therefore, we urge you to withdraw the proposed amendments to … the Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook. Should [the Fairfax County School Board] redraft them, it should do so only in strict compliance with the federal and state law, and in a manner that truly advances and respects the interests and legal rights of all FCPS children, their parents, and guardians," the letter continues.
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Prior told Fox News Digital the school board should strongly reconsider the changes to the policy, "because they could be fighting constitutional litigation."
"We would hope that when they go back to the drawing board, they seriously consider, you know, how this is going to impact those constitutional rights of students and parents and make some significant changes to their proposed amendments," he added.
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Prior believes the rescheduled vote shows the school board is "at least listening to the concerns of parents and the potential liability that we pointed out … in our letter to them."
"I think it’s pretty clear from what we’re seeing across the country that school systems are trying to put this in play at very early age to the detriment of students and parents and their constitutional rights," he said.
Prior said many people are sensitive toward the issue of transgender students, and don’t want children treated differently or discriminated against.
"But these policies go much further than protecting kids from discrimination, protecting kids from bullying," he said. "These policies actually go to normalizing this issue when in reality, parents certainly want their children to be kind to treat others as they would be treated, but don’t want this put in their children’s face as a normal option of a procedure or course of conduct."
The document defines "deadnaming" as "when someone, intentionally or not, refers to a person who is transgender or gender-expansive by a name other than their own chosen name."
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Fairfax County Public Schools did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
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