Maryland school district caves to Trump and adopts forced outing policy to expose LGBTQ+ students

A school district in Maryland has given in to Trump administration demands to out students’ sexual orientation or gender identity if revealed at school but not at home, regardless of the student’s wishes.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools Superintendent Mark Bedell, in a letter to school personnel, said the district would amend its “Safe and Inclusive Environments for LGBTQ+ Students” regulation. Under the amended regulation, parents and legal guardians of a student will have access to all of the student’s records, files, documents and other materials maintained by the schools.

Bedell said the change was prompted by the administration’s threat to withhold federal funding and its assertion that protecting student privacy at the expense of keeping families informed violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Related: New Hampshire governor signs law forcing schools to out transgender students

“As made clear by these amendments, no policy, guideline, or practice may limit or otherwise interfere with parental rights under FERPA, and this includes any information maintained in education records that relates to gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, preferred name, or preferred pronouns,” Bedell wrote.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has made similar threats to states and local school systems across the country. In July, McMahon announced that the Education Department had investigated the Maryland district specifically and recommended that the Justice Department pursue enforcement actions against it for withholding private medical and school records from parents, citing concerns about student privacy.

The policy shift comes as research shows that school rules can profoundly affect transgender students’ safety and attendance. As The Advocate recently reported, a joint report from Glisten and The Trevor Project found that 56 percent of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive students surveyed attended schools with at least one discriminatory policy. Nearly one-third had recently missed school because they feared for their safety, while students with more supportive educators and inclusive lessons reported a stronger sense of belonging and higher estimated GPAs.

Related: Forced outing leads to high depression rates among LGBTQ+ youth, yet legislation persists

The Trump Education Department said parents complained that they had learned their child was using a different gender identity at school. Forms sent home referred to the child with he/him pronouns, but the school’s principal declined to provide the parents with further information about the change.

“As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents,” McMahon said. “This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents’ rights under federal law.”

Two families have sued Anne Arundel County Public Schools, alleging that staff assisted students with gender transitions but withheld information about them from parents, according to CBS News. The Education Department characterized the district as “secretly helping their daughter pretend to be male at school.”