Students at 8 Prince William high schools plan walkouts Tuesday to protest draft policies for transgender students

Concerned that Virginia’s new “model policies” for transgender students risk their safety and could even make them “targets of hate,” Osbourn Park High School student Diego Vega is organizing a walkout Tuesday to protest the changes and raise awareness of the danger they pose to students. 

Vega, a 15-year-old junior in Osbourn Park’s biotechnology specialty program, identifies as both bi-sexual and non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.

“Under the current policy, I feel safer than ever knowing that students like me, and also students not like me, are able to freely express themselves,” Vega said Monday. “If these new draft policies are actually put into place, I would feel less safe because us trans students would likely become targets of hate among our school population.”

At least seven other Prince William County high schools have planned walkouts Tuesday, Sept. 27, in conjunction with similar protests at nearly 100 high schools across the state. Students at Battlefield High, C.D. Hylton High, Colgan High, Gar-Field High, Patriot High, Woodbridge Senior High and Unity Reed High have announced walkouts, the Pride Liberation Project said in a news release.

The Pride Liberation Project is led by students and has more than 200 queer and allied student members across Virginia. Earlier this month, the organization alerted students via social media about the new draft policies and is helping to coordinate the walkouts.

The Virginia Department of Education and Virginia State Superintendent Jillian Balow released a draft of the new model policies for transgender students on Sept. 16. They reflect Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s promises to “respect and empower” parents’ wishes as they relate to what their children learn at school and how they interact with teachers and school staff.

Among other things, the guidelines would require that school divisions involve parents in decisions about the names and pronouns their children use at school. The guidelines also seek to prevent transgender students from using restrooms and playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity.

The new policy is subject to a 30-day comment period, which began today, Monday, Sept. 26. As of 7:30 p.m., more than 10,500 comments had been posted on Virginia’s regulatory town hall website.

The Pride Liberation Project said the Youngkin administration guidelines would have many negative impacts on transgender students, including banning transgender students from using restrooms that align with their gender identity, prohibiting school districts from protecting closeted students, banning school divisions from requiring teachers and staff to use gender neutral pronouns, allowing hurtful “deadnaming” and misgendering of students, and allowing parents to deny a student access to school counseling services, regardless of the student’s wishes and mental health.

After a series of three “community calls" last week, the student “Walkout Day” was announced. The protests are being held to urge “the VDOE to revoke its draft revisions and for school boards to affirm their commitment to protect all students by rejecting these bigoted proposed guidelines,” according to the news release. 

A Virginia law enacted in 2020 required all Virginia school divisions to adopt, at a minimum, the VDOE’s 2021 “Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students,” which put in place protections for transgender students and aimed to “foster positive, inclusive school climates.” Prince William County schools adopted the 2021 model policy in the fall of 2021. 

Becca Anderson, a former Prince William County teacher, said she worries a policy “flip flop” could harm students and put teachers in difficult positions.

“Imagine if [a student] didn’t know what was happening, didn’t hear [about the policy reversal]. And then they were speaking openly with a counselor or a teacher about their gender realizations and that led to a kid being outed to their parents who couldn’t handle that information,” she said.

It puts educators in an awkward position and may put their jobs at risk if teachers choose to keep information students share with them confidential, Anderson said. “Being able to affirm a kid in your classroom is the be-all and end-all of classroom management,” she added.

Anderson said she is dedicated to protecting and promoting transgender students’ rights for many reasons but said she also still grieves a close friend who identified as transgender and committed suicide in 2001.

Anderson said she hopes Prince William County schools will leave the current transgender guidelines in place. 

“We put that policy in place for a reason -- it’s for the safety of children. I’m hoping that they see the governor’s guidance as kind of a minimum guidance and realize that they’re already meeting expectations and then just leave it as is,” she said.

At the most recent Prince William County School Board meeting on Sept. 21, Superintendent LaTanya McDade acknowledged receiving the new VDOE guidelines related to transgender policies.

While noting that the school division is “reviewing the guidelines to determine the implications for the school division,” McDade voiced support for gay and transgender student protections. 

“I want to reaffirm our commitment to protecting the overall physical, emotional and psychological safety of all staff and students inclusive of our LGBTQ+ community,” McDade said.

McDade also said the school division would continue to enforce its non-discrimination and harassment policy. “In PWCS, we will always treat all students and staff with kindness, compassion and respect for their identity and overall well-being,” she said. 

Vega said they are acutely aware of the dangerous implications the new draft policy could have on them and their classmates. Vega called the draft guidelines “queer-phobic.”

“All around, it is a terrible, repressive policy that goes against what initially [the 2020 state law] was supposed to do,” Vega said. “I have several friends who are transgender who don’t use the bathroom that aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.”

For these reasons, Vega said they were compelled to lead a walkout at Osbourn Park to protest the draft policies and show that students don’t support the changes.

Vega said they met with the school principal to set a time for Tuesday’s walkout that will be “safe and effective” for all students and also logistically practical for the school administration. The walkout is scheduled for 1:40 p.m., near the end of the school day. From the reaction Vega received from their personal outreach and posts on social media, they said they expect more than 400 students to participate.

Vega said they wrote a speech that they will read during the protest and have collected testimonials from students that will be shared anonymously “so they can speak their mind without feeling outed.” 

“I just want to emphasize the fact that queer students -- although we are a minority at school -- with the amount of allies that we have at school, add up to a majority,” Vega said. “We will not let these harmful changes happen silently. We’re not just going to sit around and watch this regression happen.” 

Reach Cher Muzyk at cmuzyk@fauquier.com