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Wall Township parent urges repeal of Policy 5756, cites confidentiality for transgender students
Summary
At the March 18 Wall Township Board of Education meeting, resident Betsy Cross urged the board to repeal Policy 5756, saying the policy lets schools keep a student's transgender status confidential from parents and arguing the district should remove it; the policy was not on the meeting agenda.
Betsy Cross, a Wall Township resident and member of Moms for Liberty, pressed the Wall Township Board of Education on Tuesday to repeal Policy 5756, saying the policy allows school staff to keep a student’s transgender status confidential from parents.
Cross told the board she has raised the issue previously and said she was disappointed the board had not placed the policy on the meeting agenda. “You have all had the last month to put it on the agenda to discuss it and, in my opinion, repeal it, but, sadly, it is not on tonight's agenda,” she said.
Cross said about 40 school districts statewide — including nine in Monmouth County, she said — had already abolished the policy. She criticized language she quoted from the policy that directs the principal or designee to “work with the student to create an appropriate confidentiality plan” and instructs the district to “keep confidential a current, new, or prospective student's transgender status,” calling those provisions “outrageous.”
Dr. Henderhan, who gave the superintendent’s report earlier in the meeting, did not announce any board action on Policy 5756 during public comment. No vote or formal agenda item to consider repeal of the policy was listed for the meeting.
Cross framed her remarks in constitutional terms and cited the Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments as grounds for parents’ rights to direct their children’s upbringing and education. She also referenced news reports and a national conversation about transgender student accommodations in schools.
The board closed the public comment period after Cross’s remarks and took no immediate action on Policy 5756 during Tuesday’s public session. The board subsequently moved to executive session; when it later reconvened public session it adjourned without placing Policy 5756 on the agenda for action.
