SALEM TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Some changes are coming to a local school district when it comes to the treatment of transgender students. The school board passed two new policies Monday evening, affecting their names and which bathrooms they are allowed to use.
It's a policy that's quite polarizing.
Berwick School District is no stranger to policies impacting transgender students.
Just last year, they passed a different policy barring trans athletes from competing under their new identity.
Monday night's vote drew strong reactions from many in the crowd.
"This is abhorrent, and I hope you know that. I hope you can't sleep tonight," Bloomsburg resident Lydia Price said.
This reaction echoed the sentiments of many in the crowd at Monday's Berwick School Board Meeting.
It came just after the board voted on two policies affecting not only transgender students, but the school's ability to identify them.
"Your policy specifically encourages teachers who don't feel like using gendered pronouns to refer to the student as 'you,'" Price continued.
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One policy requires that school staff avoid calling students by their legal name if requested in writing by a parent or guardian.
Teachers and staff are not required to refer to the students by their preferred name, and may instead use a third neutral option, such as a surname.
The school board voted seven to one in favor of that policy.
"Trans youth who could use their chosen name, who could use their chosen name in schools had 71% fewer symptoms of severe depression," Jill Freeman from Berwick explained.
The other policy, which the board voted unanimously, requires trans students to use bathrooms and locker rooms which align with their sex assigned at birth.
It gives those students the ability to object and instead use either single-use facilities or use the same facilities after the other students are done.
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"Do we want adults interrogating children about their body parts before using the bathroom? Not only is that humiliating and unsafe, this opens the district up to future and constant lawsuits. Lawsuits for harassment, discrimination, and violations of civil rights," Heather Shrader from Berwick said.
While it wasn't the decision many at Monday's meeting were hoping for, there were a few in the crowd who objected.
"What they're doing is insane! It's wrong. There's two genders, they're claiming there's 171. I'd like to see that list!" Hollenback Township resident Daniel Jensen exclaimed.
And to them, the board listened.
"I fully support what you guys are doing, and I think it's the right thing. That's all I have to say," Matthew Yeastedt from Berwick said.
Berwick School District is not the first to pass such policies; there have been many other cases throughout Pennsylvania in recent years.
But despite becoming more and more commonplace, these policies are still just as dividing.
