SE Valley Times

During a recent school board meeting, Rachel Walden, a member of the Mesa Public Schools Governing Board, questioned why the school district will put students on "transgender support plans" without notifying the students' parents, when all other issues that require paperwork and plans for students require parental consent.

"Teachers and Counselors should NOT suggest putting children on a transgender support plan but that is happening. Parents will not be notified. This is the meeting last night. I was prohibited from talking to the district lawyer under 'legal advice,"' Walden wrote in a May 10 Twitter post. "Mesa has had a transgender support plan since 2015 (my term started 2023). Last year it was discovered that one of the forms involved denied parental knowledge, which is illegal in AZ. There is no other process that involves plans, paperwork for children without parental consent. But this issue can't even provide parental notification?"

In her Twitter post, Walden shared a video from the May 9 meeting in which she asked, "How do we face our community and say, 'Trust us, nobody here is grooming your child,' but a counselor or a teacher might help them and guide them to this plan and then not tell their parents?" Walden's question was met with applause from others in the room.

In a second Twitter post, Walden shared a photo of a Mesa Public Schools document titled "Support Plan for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students," which says it was last updated July 14, 2022. In addition to asking for the student's legal name, preferred name, preferred pronouns, and gender identification, the document asks if the student's parents or guardians are "aware of their student's gender transition" and if they are "supportive of their student's gender transition," with boxes to check either yes or no for each question. The document then has an option to select whether or not the student gives "permission to disclose my transgender or gender nonconforming status to my parent(s)/guardian(s)."

Mesa Public Schools includes more than 50 elementary schools, 11 junior high schools, six high schools, and two pre-schools, according to its website.

Mesa Public Schools' website says it has guidelines in place that are "intended to help schools ensure a safe learning environment free from discrimination and harassment, and to support the educational and social needs of transgender and gender nonconforming students."

The website includes a link to a document titled "Guidelines for Support of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students," which states "The need to provide support to transgender and gender nonconforming students arises whenever the school learns that a student is transgender or gender nonconforming and consistently asserts at school a gender identity that is different from the student’s sex assigned at birth." The document includes definitions of terms including gender identity, gender transition, and gender nonconforming. 

Under a section titled "Privacy," the document states "Transgender and gender nonconforming students have the ability, as do all students, to discuss and express their gender identity openly and to decide when, with whom, and how much of their private information to share with others...The Support Plan for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students is a confidential student record under FERPA, subject to inspection and review by the student’s parent or guardian." 

The document states that transgender and gender nonconforming students "must be allowed" to access facilities and activities that correspond with their chosen gender identity, including bathrooms, shower facilities, and locker rooms. The document asserts that transgender students "should be permitted" to play on sports teams that are not aligned with their biological sex, but under Arizona law, biological boys and men are not allowed to play on girls' and womens' sports teams.