- April 25, 2024
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A local student has created a petition to push the Flagler County School District to add gender identity to the existing list of protected characteristics in its nondiscrimination statement, known as Policy 217. Doing so would extend explicit protection to transgender students.
"This is going to happen. ... It's inevitable. It's like gravity. So either you're dragged into the 2020s, or you choose to step into the 2020s."
— RANDY BERTRAND, local parent
“Policy 217 is enumerated to clearly identify specific classes that are covered under this policy,” the petition’s text states. “We urge to school board to amend the policy to include enumeration for gender identity. ... Please sign this petition to show the school board that the vulnerable LGBT+ students in Flagler County deserve to be protected under Policy 217.”
The petition's circulation coincided with Transgender Awareness Week, which ran through Nov. 20 this year. A total of 216 people had signed it as of Nov. 24.
It was created by Kyleigh Ruddy, a Flagler Palm Coast High School student who also represents FPC on the School Board as a student School Board member. The second signature on the petition was that of Brianna Whitfield, the student School Board member who represents Matanzas High School.
The district’s existing Policy 217 nondiscrimination statement concerning students became a subject of controversy a year ago when local parent Randy Bertrand, whose son is trans, pushed the district to amend it to include gender identity.
The School Board opted not to change the policy, with only one board member, Colleen Conklin, supporting the proposed change. Board members who opposed changing the policy said they believed gender identity would be covered under the current policy, which mentions gender.
But the board has since changed, with two newly elected members replacing two of the members who'd opposed the change earlier this year.
The policy’s current wording states, “No person shall, on the basis of race (including anti-semitism), color, religion, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, pregnancy, disability, political or religious beliefs, national or ethic origin, or genetic information, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity, or in any employment conditions or practices conducted by this School District, except as provided by law.”
Bertrand and others who spoke during the public comment period of a Nov. 17 School Board meeting said they found the current wording insufficient.
“You’re faced with a decision to address the ambiguous language in 217, or you can sit by and do nothing,” Bertrand said at the meeting. “Look: The winds of change are blowing real strong, and this is going to happen — whether we do it next month, whether we do it in three months, whether we do it in a year, two years, whatever. It’s inevitable. It’s like gravity. So either you’re dragged into the 2020s, or you choose to step into the 2020s. It’s your decision.”
CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to clarify that a student created the petition.
