California School Suspends Students for ‘Misgendering’ Trans Classmate
Two students in California have been suspended for five days for “misgendering” a transgender classmate.
The incident occurred at Herbert Hoover High School in the Glendale Unified School District (GUSD). According to a report from GUSD Parents Voices, an email sent by the former principal of the High School, Jennifer Earl, describes the actions of the students that led to the suspension.
“I suspended two students for five days each today and will be conducting [restorative justice] with students and teacher for [the misgendering]… In interviewing them, they admitted to being curious about a transgender person,” Earl said in the email. “I asked [the] teacher [involved in the incident] how he wanted to handle it, if he wanted me to just teach them about misgendering or would he like me to speak about being trans. He asked me to educate on transgender. It was well received from students and parents. [Restorative justice] will happen after suspension.”
According to the school district’s website, “restorative justice” is a process that teaches students how to “repair the harm” they have done by their offenses.
“Within schools, restorative justice serves as an alternative approach to traditional methods of exclusionary discipline, which often focus on punishment. Instead, restorative justice is a process involving the primary stakeholders in determining how best to repair the harm done by an offense.”
Glendale Unified School District Restorative Practices Guide
A spokesperson for the school district told Fox News Digital that misgendering is considered a punishable offense if they determine the student had the intention of harassment or bullying. If a student made a genuine mistake, they would not be punished.
The main priority of educators is to teach children the truth and correct them when they say something factually wrong. This is not the case when it comes to so-called “misgendering.” A student referring to peers by using biological pronouns is factually correct and should face no punishment at a place designed for learning science and truth.
