District marks 10 years of policy supporting trans students
Jenna Clinchard and her family were living in Colorado Springs in 2015 when her 9-year-old told her that she felt more like a girl than a boy.
Deciding that wasn’t a safe place for a child transitioning, she began researching places to move, concentrating on the East and West coasts. Then she found a Boulder Valley School District policy that protected trans students from discrimination and harassment.
“I read that and I cried for about 15 minutes,” she said at a recent Boulder Valley school board meeting. “They were tears of gratitude because in that moment I had hope. I had hope that she would be protected and be safe while going to school. There was hope that she might not get bullied and beat up just for living as her true self.”
She added that she met about a half a dozen other families that moved to Boulder Valley from other states that same year so their trans children could attend supportive schools. Her daughter, she said, has felt welcomed and loved in district schools.
“I can tell you this policy is not just words,” she said. “It’s put into action.”
Boulder Valley’s school board this week approved a resolution reaffirming its commitment to policies that support LGBTQ students to mark the 10th anniversary of the board adding protection for transgender students and employees.
Boulder Valley’s policies also were held up as an example for other school districts in 2016 when school district guidance was issued by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The district provides protocols for privacy, names and pronouns, restroom and locker-room accessibility, competitive sports, dress codes and other areas. Students can change their name and gender in the school system, even if they haven’t done so legally, and are encouraged to use whichever locker rooms or bathrooms they want.
Samara Williams, principal at Broomfield’s Emerald Elementa
ry, said the district’s leadership and direction, as well as training opportunities, helped her support families whose children wanted to transition or had already transitioned.
“Our school was in a place where we could fully be there for kids,” she said. “We could provide the right wraparound support that they needed to be their best, true selves. The policy was a message to the community that we’re going to support you.”
Along with adding policies, the district added training for educators through a partnership with the University of Colorado Boulder’s A Queer Endeavor. A Queer Endeavor created a video featuring current and past educators as part of the 10year anniversary of the district’s policy.
Ace Eckstein, a teacher librarian at Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette, said the policy provides more than just practical ways to support trans young people.
“These guidelines send a really clear message that trans students belong in our schools,” he said. “They don’t have to hide or shy away from parts of themselves to receive an education. That symbolic piece, especially right now, can’t be understated.”
He attended Boulder Valley schools and, while studying education in college, said he really struggled with whether he could teach in K-12 schools as an openly trans person. He initially taught at the college level before he was hired at Peak to Peak.
“I would not work in a district that didn’t have these explicit guidelines for supporting trans students,” he said. “I wouldn’t feel safe and comfortable in a district that didn’t have that as a baseline.”
He added that while baseline guidelines are important, he wants to see the focus for the next 10 years shift to doing more to celebrate and affirm all students.
“Bare minimum safety isn’t enough,” he said.
Boulder Valley first added gender identity and expression in its nondiscrimination policy in 2009, then adopted transgender guidelines in 2012.
Karen, a parent of a now adult trans son, spoke in favor of changing the nondiscrimination policy in 2009, as well as advocating for changes to the district’s health education curriculum. She asked not to use her last name at the request of her son.
She said her family learned her son was transgender in 2001, when he was in second grade and a student at Boulder’s Horizons K-8. There was little information at the time about supporting a transgender child, so she asked two trans adults to talk to the school’s teachers. After the session with the teachers, they told his classmates.
“The principal and I went to every classroom and explained to the students that she is now he,” she said. “The kids were amazing. We wrote a letter to inform the parents we would be talking to their kids, and there was little push back. Horizons handled it beautifully and became the school (that was) safe for transgender kids. The school used the same steps with all the transgender kids that followed.”
While she advocated for school district policy changes, she said, most of her focus was on “keeping my kiddo’s head above water.”
“Horizons was supportive, and that was all we needed at the time,” she said.
Batya Greenwald was early in her teaching career at Boulder Community School of Integrated Studies, years before the district had a policy, when a child at her school transitioned to a different gender.
“We spent a lot of time working with the district to navigate what to tell the kids in the class, what to tell families,” she said. “We had parents who were sometimes skeptical. We sometimes felt like we were definitely sticking our necks out. Once the policy came in, it became so much easier to know the district had our backs. Now, it just feels like total support.”
How Boulder Valley schools support and teach about transgender and gender diverse students was challenged by a family that filed a district complaint in 2018 and then sued in 2020, alleging the district violated their constitutional right to religious freedom.
The parents, who had three children at Superior Elementary, wanted to pull them from lessons on transgender issues. At the time, district officials said the lessons were in response to ongoing incidents of bullying and intolerance of a transgender student.
Boulder Valley spokesman Randy Barber said the lawsuit’s allegations were without merit, with the district denying any wrongdoing and asking for the case to be dismissed. In October, he said, the federal magistrate reviewing the motion recommended dismissal, and the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss their case.
Clinchard, speaking at the school board meeting, praised the district for continuing to support trans students through any push back.
“I’ve watched (Superintendent Rob Anderson) and the board take on adult bullies that wanted to silence my child and all transgender youth in our district — and the answer from the board and from Rob was a resounding no,” she said. “You will not silence these children and make them feel alone. They will be seen and they will be heard and we will protect them.”