#jennea

A growing number of stories in which transgender students face discrimination at the hands of Hawaii public school officials underscores the need for fair and consistent treatment district-wide.

By Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, and Kumu Hina Wong-Kalu - April 20, 2011:

More and more transgender and gender nonconforming youth are finding the courage to express their authentic identity. They deserve the same access to education as every other child in Hawaii’s schools. But as Jennea’s story in the video below and many others like it clearly show, they are instead being singled out for harassment and discrimination — not by other students, but by the very school officials who are supposed to serve and protect them.

The central problem is the Hawaii Department of Education, which has failed to establish a transgender policy, neglected training and education on this subject and ignored existing civil rights law.

It’s not for lack of knowledge of the issue. According to the DOE’s own documents, numerous principals have requested guidance on addressing the needs of transgender students. Just last week, both the local and national news spotlighted the mother of a transgender child in a Hawaii elementary school who suffered unnecessary heartache and chaos due to the lack of any DOE guidance.

The DOE’s response to the story was “we’re working on it,” which — given that it issued precisely the same claim five months ago, one year ago, two years before that, and so on ad infinitum — is about as believable as “we had a policy, but the dog ate it.”

Nor can DOE’s negligence be attributed to lack of suitable models. School districts around the country have developed reputable, field-tested policies and best practices around gender diversity that could be immediately provided to educators and administrators. And Hawaii is fortunate to have culturally-based curriculum materials for anti-bias education developed by local projects such as Growing Pono Schools and A Place in the Middle.

With graduation just around the corner, it’s time for the Hawaii DOE to promulgate a policy to ensure that all students are safe, included and respected in school, regardless of their gender identity or expression. The DOE should also conduct training, professional development and educational activities to ensure that this policy is known and implemented and to provide an environment in which students have the opportunity to express themselves and live authentically.

Kahuku High and Intermediate School — the institution that forbade Jennea to graduate as her true self — could act as a model school by publicly declaring that it will never again deny a student this right, and that in the future, students may participate in graduation and other school activities consistent with their gender identity.

None of this will give back Jennea the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk at graduation, or the joy of appearing with her friends in a viral video in which she was supposed to have a starring role. That is gone forever.