A school that caters to children as young as 4 years old says it welcomes all kids, especially “transgender, gender-creative, or gender non-conforming” ones.
“Our school has a social justice mission,” Charlie Spencer, the head of Center School, tells The Republican. “And we were increasingly concerned about the high rate of suicide among gender non-conforming kids.”
The school, which enrolls preschoolers through eighth graders, recently announced a scholarship for “gender-creative” children.
Donors to the scholarship fund were “inspired” after how the school accommodated an elementary student who was “transitioning.”
“She had the anatomy of a boy, but felt like a girl in her heart,” according to Spencer. “She wanted to be able live that out.”
The scholarship is intended to help those certain students pay the private school’s annual $13,000 to $15,800 tuition.
“We want so much for children to feel that they can be who they really are, and to feel safe doing it,” Spencer says.
This comes as more states are changing policies to allow transgender students to use any locker room or bathroom they wish.
Massachusetts has had that law since 2013.
“A student who says she is a girl and wishes to be regarded that way throughout the school day and throughout every, or almost every, other area of her life, should be respected and treated like a girl,” the directive states, according to the newspaper.
Those policies have been met with strong resistance among parents in many areas.
The Fairfax County, Virginia school district was met with “chants, jeers and vocal opposition from hundreds of parents” when it passed a transgender accommodation policy 10-1 in May.
“It was the largest turnout in the history of Fairfax County Public Schools,” Schultz told EAGnews. “There were as many people, if not more, who couldn’t get it. People were banging on the doors to get in.
“It wasn’t even so much about transgender or privacy – it was more like ‘What are you doing, and if you can’t even tell me, how can you support this?
“‘You’re not telling us what this means, what the potential impact is, who’s going to be making decisions about who gets to use what facility, if transitioning transgender teachers are going to be allowed in the classroom in front of children.
“‘You are refusing to engage the parents as the partners they are supposed to be in the education of children.’ The overarching comments I heard at the end of the meeting is that the board members were dismissive, aloof, tone deaf, arrogant – that pretty much covers it.”
