GLOCESTER – Advocates from across the state joined local parents and students this week in the defense of enforcement of Title IX in the Foster-Glocester Regional School District – a law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or other education program that receives funding from the federal government.
“I can tell you that LGBTQ plus kids are in every school,” said Joanne Rich of Providence. “They’re in your schools. They’re in Foster and they are in Glocester, and if they are not validated, they suffer.”
“It’s important that the kids are protected,” said Rich. “It’s important that they are safe.”
The public reaction followed news this week of an email sent to leadership of the Foster Glocester Regional School Committee from the Rhode Island Department of Education urging rejection of any proposal to amend district policies related to Title IX and other state laws that aim to protect the rights of transgender, gender diverse and transitioning students.
The letter, sent by RIDE’s Chief Legal Counsel Anthony Cottone on Monday, March 31, pointed out that the neighboring Foster School District recently published a policy defining sex as a “binary biological attribute,” determined at birth. The district, which only governs the Foster elementary school, later removed the controversial language from their website.
But on Tuesday, April 1, the Foster Glocester Regional School Committee, which governs Ponaganset Middle School and High School, took up an agenda that listed “Title IX and district policies” for discussion in executive session.
“I know later in executive session you’re going to be talking about… I don’t know. We don’t know because you’ll be in private, but it will be in regard to Title IX,” said Tiffany Medrano of Foster. “I just want to make sure that whatever policies we have in our school district, that we include every single person. That’s it.”
Members of the Regional School Committee would hear more than 45 minutes of often emotional testimony in defense of protecting the rights of all students at the meeting.
Rich, who serves as director for the Rhode Island Center for Justice, was one of many advocates from out of town to speak before the committee. But those urging members to protect students also included many residents from the district.
Annie Dooley, a graduate from Ponaganset with the Class of 2019, noted that her friends started the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, and that she painted the PHS inclusion mural.
“Every message I got about this school is that we choose to include – and that means everybody,” Dooley said. “I want to make sure that all of my trans friends who I grew up with in this school district and all the kids who come after us will have the same opportunities that we did.”
Dooley’s father, John Dooley, also spoke before the board, noting that he raised two kids who attended the local schools in grades K through 12.
“One of the things I was always really proud of out here is there was a lot of talk and a lot of things related to bullying,” John Dooley said. “I’m really worried that with all this talk and a lot of the things that are going on that it’s going to encourage a lot of people who don’t understand it and think that now they’re being endorsed – that it’s ok to give a hard time, and to bully, and to be hard on kids who are different.”
Committee Co-Chairperson Cindy Joyce often stopped those speaking to note that the policy they were referencing was published – and later retracted – by the Foster School District.
“I don’t want you to speak to a policy that is in Foster because that is separate from policies here at the region,” Joyce said. “I think a lot of the hurt and a lot of the anger is for what you saw on a Foster School website.”
Joyce did not respond to a request from NRI NOW to clarify the purpose of Tuesday night’s closed session discussion, listed in the category of “pending litigation/legal advice.”
Committee member Brandan Mara, one of three on the regional board who also serves the district for Captain Isaac Paine Elementary School in Foster, noted that the change of policy was not a decision by membership.
“I don’t think that should have been posted,” Mara said of the language previously posted on the Foster website. “If it wants to come up, it would be on a posted agenda. As one person, I apologize for any distress that caused anyone. I was not aware.”
The regional school committee took no action on the issue at the meeting Tuesday night.
