USD 232 in De Soto has clarified guidance issued at the start of this school year on how teachers and staff should navigate students’ requests to be identified by a certain gender, including their preferred name and pronouns.

The upshot: Some teachers say the guidance as it was originally worded made it seem as though they could not honor a student’s requested name and pronouns in class until their parents had approved it first.

• But district leaders say that was never the intent of the guidance, which was instead meant to apply only to more formal situations, including how students are identified on the district’s Skyward web portal and in yearbooks.

What it means: Under the clarified guidance, the district says teachers can use students’ preferred name and pronouns in school without notifying the parents so long as the student is the one who brings up the matter.

• Teachers cannot proactively ask students’ about their gender identities and preferred pronouns due to a new state law, HB 2567, that among other provisions, explicitly prohibits non-academic surveys of students regarding strongly held personal beliefs

What they’re saying: Jeff Wieland, Mill Valley High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance sponsor and a social studies teacher, said teachers interpreted the original guidance to mean they’d have to call a student by a name or pronoun the student did not prefer simply because it wasn’t in Skyward.

• Wieland said the updated guidance is appreciated because it shows district administrators listened to teacher and student concerns.
• Alvie Cater, USD 232 spokesperson, said the district’s purpose is to support students — but the district also won’t leave parents uninformed.
• Cater said the guidance comes into play on a case-by-case basis and is intended to help teachers rather than expect them to handle it all on their own.
• Concerns and confusion were initially raised by multiple students by the Mill Valley News student publication.

Key quote: “Honestly as a teacher, I may be an expert in English language arts or an expert in math, but when it comes to a student experiencing gender identity, I’m not the expert,” Cater said. “We want [teachers] to know that, hey, connect them to the staff who can help.”

What USD 232 gender identity guidance says

• The new guidance does not preclude teachers from using a student’s preferred name and pronouns if they have requested they be used in class.
• But school administrators cannot change a student’s gender identity marker in Skyward without written consent from a parent or guardian.
• A student also cannot be identified by their preferred name in a school’s yearbook without written consent form a parent or guardian.
• If a student requests an official name, pronoun or gender identity change, then teachers or staff should acknowledge the student “in a caring way,” according to the guidance.
• The teacher or staff member will also connect the student to the principal — who will work with the student and family on the request — and counselors or social workers.
• A full, updated version of the guidance is found below.

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House Bill 2567 impact

The district’s guidance comes in the wake of the passage of HB 2567, which was signed into law by Gov. Laura Kelly over the summer and encompasses a number of school-related issues including open enrollment and K-12 funding.

• Under the law’s provisions, teachers cannot request or ask students to share their pronouns or gender-specific names, according to the new USD 232 guidance.
• Parental or guardian consent is required to take these types of non-academic surveys under HB 2567, Cater said.

What else: Wieland said not being able to request students’ preferred pronouns or names is still a point of concern among teachers.

• “That’s something where the state legislature has made it more difficult on our LGBTQ students, whether they did that intentionally or not,” Wieland said.
• Additionally, Wieland said, if a parent were to object to the use of a student’s preferred pronoun or name in class, then it could put teachers in a sticky situation.

What they’re saying: “We do think the new guidance, the re-written guidance, is better than what we had before,” Wieland said. “Ideally we’d like to get to a situation where students feel free to share their gender identity, feel free to share their preferred name and wouldn’t feel any apprehension about that. I don’t think we’re at that point yet.”