Jack Pitteroff, left, and Tony Veit of the Maine School Administrative District 11 board of directors discuss a new transgender student policy Thursday in Gardiner. The policy, which grants rights to transgender students in the district and provides guidance for staff on how to handle gender identity, passed 10-2, with both Pitteroff and Veit in support. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

GARDINER — The Gardiner-area school board on Thursday passed an updated policy on transgender students after several months of debate and disagreement over the issue.

The policy gives transgender or gender nonconfirming students rights within the school district, such as using the bathroom of the gender they closely identify with, and includes a Gender Support Plan with guidance for staff on how to address the student’s gender in school and at home.

The Maine School Administrative District 11 board of directors heard from several people in the community during a meeting about the policy, most of whom were in favor of the policy and the rights it will give to students. Ultimately, the policy passed 10-2.

MSAD 11 includes students from Gardiner, West Gardiner, Pittston and Randolph.

Those against the policy, including two school board members, believe transgender students should not use the bathroom for the gender with which they identify, and that parents should be automatically notified if a student identifies as transgender or gender nonconforming.

In response to the criticism, the MSAD 11 policy committee created as part of the policy a 10-page Gender Support Plan. It outlines the specific steps a student can take within the school district to identify as transgender. The plan asks the students if a parent is aware of their transition and asks them to identify who in their circle knows about the transition so they are not outed in the process, which can be a damaging situation to some individuals.

The Gender Support Plan states that if a student has not yet informed their parents or guardian, the school administrator “shall first discuss parent/guardian involvement with the student.”

It also states that parents “shall be informed” of a student’s gender identity “unless doing so could inadvertently put the student at serious risk.”

Two members of the school board — Jeff Hanley of Pittston and Sean Focht of West Gardiner — voted against the policy, saying they believe it should include a mandatory process for reporting the student’s situation to their parents.

Gardiner-area school board member Jeff Hanley on Thursday speaks in opposition to the district’s new transgender policy. Some of the policy is unclear, Hanley says, and may stifle parental rights. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

The board members who voted in favor of the policy, and supported it against Hanley and Focht’s criticisms, noted that not every situation involving a transgender student will be black and white, and that a policy must be general and flexible.

Hanley said that the parts of the policy which state that parents “shall” and “must” be notified when a child makes a declaration about their gender are an improvement.

However, he said, some parts of the policy are not clear and may end up stifling parental rights.

“But … it also says, inadvertently, putting a child at risk by contacting a parent, that is ambiguous,” he said. “Who gets to decide what is serious and what isn’t serious? What is the criteria used to determine that?”

Most school districts across the state adopted some version of the policy. Schools must follow the Maine Human Rights Act, which protects transgender students and outweighs any school district policy. School districts who do not have some sort of transgender policy in place may face a lawsuit for not complying.

The policy is controversial in the school district. The controversy led the district to spend $70,000 to install floor-to-ceiling, single-stall bathrooms to ensure student privacy, as well as to edit the policy multiple times since February to balance rights of students against those of parents upset with the policy.

The Gender Support Plan included in the policy outlines a process for the transgender students to identify an adult in the school who can be a support system to the student; what facilities the student will use; and if the student goes by a different name, where they would like that name to be used, whether it’s on standardized tests, or on a lunch pass.

People listen Thursday during the public comment session at a meeting of the Gardiner-based School Administrative District 11 board of directors. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

Student Representative Sage Sculli told the board members who disagree with the policy that it can be dangerous to put a student’s privacy at risk.

“Your job as the school board is to put students first,” Sculli said. “A component of that is a student’s mental health and going behind a student’s back, behind their permission, about something that is personal and private to them could be seriously damaging to them.”

Jack Pitteroff, a Randolph representative to the board, supported the new steps in policy because, he said, not every student is going to have supportive parents.

“Coming out to your parents is going to be really terrifying for a lot of kids, they don’t know how their parents are going to react,” Pitteroff said. “They could have amazing, wonderful parents who are working very had, who are not abusive, might still need a little time.

“The student might need some time to process with councilors, with their peers before they are ready to bring their parents on board and that is not for us to micromanage the moment in which a parent has a legal right to be informed, this is not preview.”