NJ school district drops transgender policy mandating that officials 'accept a student's asserted gender identity'

A New Jersey school district has abolished its policy on transgender students, which had mandated that officials “shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity; parental consent is not required," NJ.com reported.

What are the details?

The Freehold Township Board of Education voted 6-3 last week to throw out the policy, which also said students don't need to meet “any threshold diagnosis or treatment requirements” in order for district officials and staff members to recognize their gender identities, the outlet noted.

Freehold board president Michelle Lambert confirmed the vote to the outlet but did not specify why the policy was abolished: “Each board member voted for various reasons."

Superintendent Neal Dickstein in a letter sent to families the day after the vote said “a great deal of misinformation” was circulating about the policy, NJ.com said, adding that Dickstein didn't cite specific examples.

He did say that the abolished policy “does not translate to the forced outing of children as it is being interpreted by some,” the outlet added.

NJ.com said Freehold joined a number of other districts in the state that have "controversially" revised or dropped their transgender student policies.

In Union Township in Hunterdon County, the school board on Monday conducted a first reading of a motion to abolish the district’s policy on transgender students, the outlet said, adding that board president Lou Palma said the second reading will take place in December.

NJ.com said at least five other districts in New Jersey also recently dropped their policies on transgender students.

More from the outlet:

The changes come as state Attorney General Matthew Platkin and Sundeep Iyer, the director of the state Division on Civil Rights, are pursuing lawsuits against four school districts that passed policies requiring school staff to notify parents about gender-related requests and changes.

How are folks reacting?

A couple of commenters weighed in on the NJ.com story about the Freehold district abolishing its transgender student policy, with one noting succinctly on X: "Good."

Another commenter criticized the wording of the story: "You can tell where the writer stands as they frame the droppin[g] of the policy as controversial. Objectively though, by the definition of controversy, the policy itself is equally if not more controversial than dropping it. Yet only one action is framed as controversial."

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