Rhode Island School Board Member Claims Parents Should ‘Never’ Be Told Students’ Gender
A Rhode Island school board member said that parents should “never” be notified when a student changes their gender identity while at school.
In a January 24, 2024, North Kingstown School District committee meeting, while proposing a policy change that would alter how the district communicates with parents and the media regarding the district’s gender policies for students, the member suggested that “protecting the identity of transgender and gender non-conforming students” should be the districts’ “top priority.”
The member who proposed these changes appears to be committee member Jennifer Lima, who stated on her personal Facebook account that her page is “explicitly anti-racist, intersectionally feminist, pro-LGBTQIA+, and generally a place where marginalized voices are centered and amplified.” Lima also proudly shares quotes from Angela Davis, a radical political activist who was the third woman to ever be placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list in connection to several kidnappings and murders.
“My point would be that we never notify parents on these issues,” Lima added. “Unless the child’s life is in danger. Then we have to err on the side of implied consent.”
The committee member also admitted that she doesn’t “think we should notify parents on many issues we notify parents on,” because “society assumes that every child has a well-meaning family.”
“Sometimes the worst thing you can do is involve the parent into some of these issues,” Lima claimed, “based on their own beliefs and their own cultures, and that will cause that student to commit suicide.”
On her personal Facebook account, Lima also promoted a contest open to all Rhode Island students from 7th through 12th grade which tasks students with redesigning the cover of a “banned or challenged book.”
“Thousands of books have been removed from American libraries and schools or threatened with censorship over the last few years,” the contest website explains. “The majority of these books feature LGBTQ+ or BIPOC characters, or address issues of inequality or discrimination based on marginalized identities including race, religion, disability, sexuality, national origin, or gender. Sweeping book bans in 30 states have impacted the sales of these diverse books to the point where some may go out of print. We want to fight back against this erasure by celebrating these books and their on-the-page representation.”
In addition to discussing proposed gender policies for the various schools within the district, the committee also considered “making diversity, equity, and inclusion a priority,” in the 2021-2022 school year, and created a DEI Advisory Special Sub-Committee to address these subjects. This was also discussed in the Jan. 24 meeting.
The sub-committee meetings are typically recorded and distributed to the public, but due to “technical issues,” the previous meeting was not able to be documented.
One board member explained the need for greater diversity in the workforce and said that the issue is being addressed at the state level, but “there’s also steps that the district can take in the meantime.”
