Sweetwater County school board defends policy of hiding student’s gender identity from parents; claims it is sexual harassment to “misgender” students

At a recent Sweetwater County School District #1 board meeting, members of the board and the district’s attorney defended the district’s policy of keeping students’ new gender identities hidden from parents. As documented by the Cowboy State Daily, the school district attorney also asserted that misgendering another student would violate federal civil rights law.

In regard to the withholding of information from parents and guardians, the school board chair stated:

from my interpretation the district is bound to keep the student’s – shall we say – whatever the student wants is paramount.

One parent who spoke at the school board meeting told his story about how the district’s gender identity policy had negatively impacted his daughter:

“A parent identified as “Shawn” told the board that his daughter’s decision to “come out” as a transgender person was kept secret from him by the school, and the secrecy did more harm than good. The parent said the child became combative at home and had psychological difficulty.”   

In response to these statements, the Sweetwater County DA who prosecutes crime in the county stated that he would not charge anyone with a crime for “misgendering” as it is not a violation of Wyoming law and is still contested under federal law