The problem with your article is that transitioning at school is not a private act, but in fact a very public act that hundreds, & possibly thousands, of students teachers and staff all know about and must act upon. When a student is name and pronouns are changed in class and throughout the school, and students are using different restrooms & changing rooms, the expectation, and in fact want, of privacy is now moot.
Schools would in quite a bit of trouble if they publicly announced the examples you share "student drug use, mental health, pregnancy or STIs." Those issues are indeed private, but that is just not the case with very publicly transitioning at school and why schools face no consequences for this act... It is not private.
If a parent doesn't know their kid has transitioned their gender that is a major parenting flaw, not the schools fault. The school protects children's privacy from parents regarding major medical decisions like abortions, drug use, mental health and now gender identity. We are not talking about "publicly announcing" anything. We are talking about the policy for notifying parents about major medical things. The policy is the same for gender identity as it is for everything else.
I didn't mention notifying parents in my comments and that is to my concern with your article. My issue was with your idea that transitioning in schools is private act which it undoubtably is not; transitioning in school is indeed an example of "publicly announcing."
Even if a kid told her class she had an abortion it doesn't mean the teacher or school should notify the parents. Besides, my article is strictly about how to report on a topic and that other similar things should be mentioned. Like that schools already hide major medical decision, it's not just gender identity.
There are quite a few distinctions to make. There is a difference between a school providing an ongoing intervention to a student in public and patient confidentiality.
I think a school assisting a child to transition without informing parents is much more similar to a school diagnosing a learning disability, ADHD or other continual support services inside the classroom which require parental informed consent.
Schools are not "assisting" children to transition. The kids say they want to use they/them pronouns or the opposite pronouns and they allow it. The kid wants to dress a certain way and they allow it. The schools are not "diagnosing" kids with gender dysphoria or prescribing medication.
"Even if a kid told her class she had an abortion," this is not what is happening with students transitioning in schools, and this is not what the parents are complaining about in the NYT article. This is a disingenuous example. The transitioning student is not just talking to other students. The student is in fact demanding the administration and staff that their transition be made public and that information is then imparted to the student body.
As a teacher, I'm not sure about when and if to notify parents, but I would like to draw the line at lying and deceiving parents. My question to you is that if a parents asks if their child has in fact publicly transitioned to another gender with a new name at school, what should they be told?
As you can see my article wasn’t about the right and wrong of any particular policy. All I said was that if you report on school policies about notifying parents you should include the various medical things that the school already hides. Just want more context in the reporting. That’s all. Fair?
“A 13-yr-old child could be using cocaine in Alabama, and by law, parents wouldn’t be notified, either by counselors or school officials.”
This may be true for all I know, but the APH doc you linked to only states that, by Alabama law, treatment can be consented to by a minor without parental consent, not that that treatment can be kept confidential.
It does subsequently refer to federal confidentiality laws re drug-and-alcohol treatment consented to by minors, but the law it refers to [42 C.F.R. § 59.5(a)(1)] relates to family planning project requirements, which utterly confounds me.
The problem with your article is that transitioning at school is not a private act, but in fact a very public act that hundreds, & possibly thousands, of students teachers and staff all know about and must act upon. When a student is name and pronouns are changed in class and throughout the school, and students are using different restrooms & changing rooms, the expectation, and in fact want, of privacy is now moot.
Schools would in quite a bit of trouble if they publicly announced the examples you share "student drug use, mental health, pregnancy or STIs." Those issues are indeed private, but that is just not the case with very publicly transitioning at school and why schools face no consequences for this act... It is not private.
If a parent doesn't know their kid has transitioned their gender that is a major parenting flaw, not the schools fault. The school protects children's privacy from parents regarding major medical decisions like abortions, drug use, mental health and now gender identity. We are not talking about "publicly announcing" anything. We are talking about the policy for notifying parents about major medical things. The policy is the same for gender identity as it is for everything else.
I didn't mention notifying parents in my comments and that is to my concern with your article. My issue was with your idea that transitioning in schools is private act which it undoubtably is not; transitioning in school is indeed an example of "publicly announcing."
Even if a kid told her class she had an abortion it doesn't mean the teacher or school should notify the parents. Besides, my article is strictly about how to report on a topic and that other similar things should be mentioned. Like that schools already hide major medical decision, it's not just gender identity.
There are quite a few distinctions to make. There is a difference between a school providing an ongoing intervention to a student in public and patient confidentiality.
I think a school assisting a child to transition without informing parents is much more similar to a school diagnosing a learning disability, ADHD or other continual support services inside the classroom which require parental informed consent.
Schools are not "assisting" children to transition. The kids say they want to use they/them pronouns or the opposite pronouns and they allow it. The kid wants to dress a certain way and they allow it. The schools are not "diagnosing" kids with gender dysphoria or prescribing medication.
I think most inclusive definitions of "transition" include the "social transition", do they not?
"Even if a kid told her class she had an abortion," this is not what is happening with students transitioning in schools, and this is not what the parents are complaining about in the NYT article. This is a disingenuous example. The transitioning student is not just talking to other students. The student is in fact demanding the administration and staff that their transition be made public and that information is then imparted to the student body.
As a teacher, I'm not sure about when and if to notify parents, but I would like to draw the line at lying and deceiving parents. My question to you is that if a parents asks if their child has in fact publicly transitioned to another gender with a new name at school, what should they be told?
I have a new article about how trans health is not the scandal people think: https://bescofield.substack.com/p/trans-health-isnt-the-scandal-you
As you can see my article wasn’t about the right and wrong of any particular policy. All I said was that if you report on school policies about notifying parents you should include the various medical things that the school already hides. Just want more context in the reporting. That’s all. Fair?
“A 13-yr-old child could be using cocaine in Alabama, and by law, parents wouldn’t be notified, either by counselors or school officials.”
This may be true for all I know, but the APH doc you linked to only states that, by Alabama law, treatment can be consented to by a minor without parental consent, not that that treatment can be kept confidential.
It does subsequently refer to federal confidentiality laws re drug-and-alcohol treatment consented to by minors, but the law it refers to [42 C.F.R. § 59.5(a)(1)] relates to family planning project requirements, which utterly confounds me.
What am I missing?
This is California but it may be helpful. Therapists cannot break a child's confidentiality without the child's permission. Discussing drug use is not a mandated reporting issue. https://www.careinnovations.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CA_Minor_Consent__Confidentiality_Laws.pdf
That is helpful. Thank you!