As superintendent of Benicia Unified School District, Janice Adams found herself face to face with a first when a mother asked what Adams could do to support her kindergarten child, who was born a boy but identified as a girl.
“If your experience is anything like my own, you will be in unfamiliar — perhaps uncomfortable — territory,” Adams wrote to her fellow administrators in an introduction to a new 68-page report, “Schools in Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools,” released this week by five organizations, including the National Education Association. “It is important, however,” Adams continued, “that your own personal uncertainties do not interfere with your ability to do the right thing to protect the safety and well-being of these vulnerable children.”
That unexpected conversation happened eight years ago when Adams, who retired in June, was a rookie at navigating the privacy, safety and legal issues involved in meeting the needs of students who are transgender. The term describes an individual who identifies with a gender that differs from the sex assigned at birth.
[For more of this story, written by Jane Meredith Adams, go to http://edsource.org/2015/what-...ender-students/83871]
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