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Advocates urge Columbus City Schools to reverse policy that reverted students' chosen names
Summary
Multiple speakers at the May 20 board meeting urged Columbus City Schools to rescind a recently enacted policy that reverted transgender students’ chosen names to birth names in district records, saying the change harms student safety and was made without clear legal necessity.
Dozens of public-comment speakers at the Columbus City Schools board meeting on May 20 urged the district to reverse a recent policy that reverted transgender students’ chosen names in school records to the names on their birth certificates.
Advocates from the Ohio Coalition to Protect Trans Lives, a school social worker, a mental-health counselor and students said the overnight change — they said enacted March 19 — outed students to peers, risked safety and was not explicitly required by state law. "This deadnaming policy...outs thousands of students as trans to their previously unaware classmates, positioning these students as targets," Rio Partridge told the board, calling the move needless and dangerous.
The speakers framed the issue as a safety and consent problem. Melody Greens, a school social worker at Wedstone High School, asked the board to design a policy that balances compliance with new laws while prioritizing student safety and informed consent from both students and qualified mental-health professionals before notifying families. "By creating a policy that would force school staff to out students…you may very well be putting them in real danger," Greens said.
Several speakers disputed the district spokesman's characterization that the change was legally compelled. Rio Partridge and Adah Hartley said Senate Bill 104 addresses bathroom use and does not explicitly require districts to reset chosen names in student records. "There is no such law that requires that on the books yet," Hartley told the board, urging reversal of the district action.
An off-duty officer who testified about a separate safety issue at a middle school also said he had received no response from district leadership after raising concerns, underscoring callers’ broader demand for clear protocols and communication.
The public comments closed after roughly a half-dozen speakers pressed the board; the meeting then moved into board business. The board did not take any immediate vote on reversing the records policy during the May 20 public session. Board members invited further committee review and public feedback on related policies, including a forthcoming discussion of policy 7105 on school closure and related engagement items scheduled for committee consideration by June 9.
Next steps: advocates asked the board to rescind the name-reversion policy and to adopt a safety-centered approach to parent notification; the board's public schedule shows committee follow-ups in early June.
