Salmon River Joint School District created “Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation” policy using template from Idaho School Boards Association

The Salmon River Joint School District has a policy in place for students titled “Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation.” The district’s policy is vague about keeping parents in the dark regarding their children’s gender identity. The policy states: “It shall be the intention of the administration of any such school to work individually with the student and/or family of the student to develop an individual plan that meets the privacy considerations for the student as well as all other students of the school.” Parents Defending Education submitted a public records request regarding the creation of the policy and received a response from the district’s superintendent.

Superintendent Trisha Simonson explained to PDE that the original policy was adopted from a template created by the Idaho School Boards Association (ISBA). She explained: “The original policy was adopted from the ISBA model policies in 2018 and revised in board meetings to meet our community standards last year.” The district’s gender policy appears to be heavily edited compared to how most districts in the state have adopted the policy. The language is more vague and does not explicitly keep parents in the dark regarding the gender identity of their children.