Bigots at Suffolk, Virginia Schools Draw National Coverage

Earlier in the week I described the effort at the Suffolk City Public Schools - apparently spearheaded by a lone school board member (pictured at left) - to create a solution to a non-existent problem and in the process trample on the rights of transgender students in particular. Now, the story has been picked up by MSNBC and the Hampton Roads area is again getting coverage that makes all of us look like knuckle dragging Neanderthals. As noted before, while not the most reactionary of the local communities, Suffolk is certainly no pillar of modernity either and is best known for its peanut festival - at least until now. before it's over, I won't be surprised to see the school division getting sued and wasting funds on legal fees when the moneys could have been better used for education. The Bible beaters always claim to care about others but prove by their actions that it's really always about themselves and forcing their beliefs on others. Here are highlights from MSNBC:

A Virginia school district is considering a ban on cross-dressing by students to minimize what administrators say are “safety risks, disruptions and distractions.”

The Suffolk School Board studied the proposal at a meeting Thursday night, but members did not vote on it. The proposal explicitly bans “clothing worn by a student that is not in keeping with a student’s gender and causes a disruption and/or distracts others from the educational process or poses a health or safety concern.”

School district representative Bethanne Bradshaw told msnbc.com that Board Vice Chairwoman Thelma Hinton first raised concerns about students’ cross-dressing.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said that, rather than banning the “nonconforming behavior,” schools should instead address the bullying or harassment. In a letter to the school board, Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia, called the gender-related dress restriction “unlawful and unfair to students.”

The ACLU believes that, while schools may impose a requirement of proper attire, “to mandate dress based on notions that girls must wear one type of clothing and boys another is impermissible.”

In the letter, Glenberg also brings up a recent case in a Mississippi public school that refused to publish in its yearbook the senior portrait of a female student wearing a tuxedo. The ACLU sued the school in August 2010. As part of the settlement, Copiah County School District decided to ditch gender-specific outfits for senior portraits and instead require all students to wear a cap and gown.

Diane Ehrensaft, a Bay Area psychologist who studies gender and child development, told msnbc.com that the proposed ban is “a subtle form of harassment” and the school district should focus instead on monitoring bullying. . . . . “To blame the victim by saying you can’t dress that way anymore is inappropriate,” Ehrensaft said.

[N]o other school district in the southeastern region of South Hampton Roads includes a cross-dressing policy in its student dress code.

It would seem the real problem is Ms. Hinton and other closed minded bigots. I hope the attention she is receiving isn't helpful to her political career.