Members of an Anchorage School Board committee on Thursday voted 2-1 against introducing a proposed policy that would make educators mandatory reporters of nicknames and pronouns.
Dave Donley, who proposed the policy and provided the only vote in favor of moving it out of committee for consideration by the entire board, said he was proposing the change because the current policy presumption was in favor of not reporting student nicknames and pronouns to parents. Other members took issue with that characterization.
“I don’t think the current policy encourages people not to report, it simply opens the avenue and recognizes that in some cases you would not,” said school board member Andy Holleman.
Holleman said that in the majority of cases parents are aware of their child’s preferred nicknames and pronouns, but that sometimes when they aren’t, it’s because kids have legitimate fears.
Donley’s proposed policy would have allowed a student to appeal to the superintendent for the right to privacy, a process Holleman said would be difficult to navigate.
The student would have to figure out how to move their request up the chain of command to the superintendent, who would have to bring it to the school board. The school board would then have to meet in executive session, and then pass the decision back down. The process could take weeks and end with the student finding the request denied.
Holleman also questioned how the policy would work for common nickname changes.
“If Patricia wants to be called Pat or Patrick wants to be called Pat, does that need parental approval?” he asked.
Anchorage School District superintendent Jharrett Bryantt said that he was unaware of any complaints or issues from families under the current policy and that he didn’t want to make policy changes until the Department of Education provided a legal review of the court cases currently in the system regarding similar policies.
Bryantt shared a document reviewing currently pending litigation in California, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts and Idaho.
“This is a topic that is being discussed nationally and will likely make it up to the supreme court,” he said.
Board member Margo Bellamy said that the current guidelines were put into place in 2016 and came from recommendations by the Department of Education’s civil rights division after being legally vetted and presented to the school board at that time.
“This is not something that was made up out of the blue,” she said “They weren’t made up and they weren’t arbitrary; they were according to the guidance at the time.”
