Dunsmore: Transgender issue a 'hot potato'
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on September 18, 2016 12:19 AM
The issue of transgender students is being taken very seriously by Wayne County Public Schools, Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore said Thursday, calling it a "real hot potato."
The discussion has been furthered by recent legislation, potential lawsuits and fallout from North Carolina HB2, commonly known as the "bathroom bill" because of the regulation requiring transgender people to use the bathroom of their gender at birth rather than the one they currently identify with.
A specific policy in the local school district is imminent, the superintendent said.
"I'm not being evasive," he said. "It's in the works. The state School Board Association pretty much will take the lead on that and start vetting things.
"We have met, superintendents and statewide groups. I think Charlotte-Mecklenburg just put something in place. I know the General Assembly's looking at that again now because of all the financial impacts."
The district is taking a "hard look" at what will be best for this community, Dunsmore said.
"At this point we're working very diligently to get something rolled out," he said. "There's a lot of factors that are going to be involved in it.
"Ultimately our board will vote on that."
There is a chain of command, he explained, starting with the State Board of Education, which traditionally gets the ball rolling.
"The state board will set the policies," he said. "We're all bound by the General Assembly, the state and its laws.
"They're vetted through the School Board Association and the attorneys. They'll push those (policies) down to us. We have the ability to tweak those locally for our personal needs."
Efforts are being made toward enacting policies and procedures for the school system, the superintendent said.
"I want to make sure the board here, when we look at this from all angles and also from a regional standpoint (with what other districts are doing) to be as consistent as possible," he said. "Everybody's keeping a very close eye on it, but we're working with that, and we'll have a policy."
Dunsmore, who came on board with the school system in July 2015, said the district is also going to be more stringent in updating policies.
"One of the things that we're trying to work diligently on is vetting all of our policies," he said. "I don't think we've done a really good job of that."
He said he is having staff and the board, as well as its attorney, review all policies, making sure they meet the needs for Wayne County -- "making sure we're on sound legal ground as far as what we follow."
"This is going to be a legal hot potato," he said. "I don't know of any school system that wants to be a poster child for how that's going to be litigated."
School systems will likely lean heavily on the state board, as well as lawmakers, for direction on handling the transgender issue moving forward, Dunsmore said.
"I think North Carolina's blazing some new trails on this," he said. "We're (the district's) not going to have our head in the sand."
Being compliant with legal aspects and the ramifications, as well as being cognizant of what is best for Wayne County, the superintendent noted that while it becomes an educational issue, it is very prominently still a legal one.
"It's a very politicized issue," he said. "Unfortunately, we're in a world where everything has to be litigated.
"Just from a cost standpoint, I see where, I think it was Charlotte-Mecklenburg (that) put out a policy, retracted it and changed it.
"I don't want students on either side of this battle to be bullied or not be safe. So we have to do something, and we have to do it right."