Middletown School Board Candidates Discuss Transgender Student Policy
MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Last Monday, Oct. 7, this online forum was held for all the candidates in the Middletown school board election.
One of the questions asked was about transgender students. The question from the moderator (asked at minute 25:46) was exactly as follows: "What is your position on the laws and policies regarding parental notification for transgender students?"
The state of New Jersey sued the Middletown school board last year, after the board tried to require Middletown schools notify parents when a student changes their name, pronoun or bathroom use. NJ Attorney General Matt Platkin argued Middletown was putting transgender/gender-questioning youth at risk, and possibly outing teens to parents who may not be supportive.
Deb Wright — who is seeking re-election this fall — was the sole Board member to vote against Middletown's controversial transgender student policy. She rarely publicly speaks about why she voted that way.
But last Monday, she addressed it in length:
"As a parent myself, I think it's really important to have parental involvement. But I will say that the way we chose as a district to handle this really wasn't the right way to do it," said Wright. "And the reason why I say that is because I think we signaled to a lot of our students that perhaps some of them were not as welcome in our school community as they should be."
"I think we unfortunately made this more of a political issue than actually trying to figure out what we could do as a district to actually solve this problem," she continued. "Bring all the stakeholders to the table and actually work together to come out with a policy that everyone felt good about and that everyone in the school felt welcome."
"I think unfortunately that this got to such a heightened degree that we lost sight of what was happening here, which was: We had a policy that we found out was not mandated by the state and instead of actually reaching out to the Attorney General's office — like I had suggested — ahead of time and trying to work through the policy with them on something that would be acceptable to everyone, unfortunately we found ourselves — no surprise — in a lawsuit, wasting thousands upon thousands of taxpayer dollars."
"Again, it got to such a heightened degree within the community that I don't think anyone was listening to each other when we talked, everyone was just screaming at each other," said Wright. "You have students in the school listening this, and perhaps feeling like they are no longer welcome in Middletown."
All five candidates answered the question in last week's forum.
Middletown passed its own transgender policy in response to Policy 5756 , "guidance" from the NJ Department of Education that states New Jersey school districts are not required to inform parents if a student talks to a teacher/guidance counselor about their gender identity or sexual orientation. Last year, the state said Policy 5756 was not mandatory, and since then, multiple school districts, most recently Edison, have repealed 5756, to outcry from some LGBTQ+ groups such as Garden State Equality. The NJ ACLU
Right now, the entire issue has been put on hold in Middletown: In the summer of 2023, a Monmouth County Superior Court judge issued an injunction, preventing Middletown schools from enforcing its policy until the courts could decide its lawfulness.
New Jersey's lawsuit against Middletown still remains pending.
BOE vice president Jacqueline Tobacco helped write Middletown's transgender student policy; she has long defended it. When asked Wednesday to respond to Wright's comments, Tobacco said the following:
"Mrs. Wright's misrepresentation about the financial implications of our lawsuit are troubling, as she is fully aware that our insurance policy covers the cost to defend ourselves against this unjust litigation. The only person spending taxpayer dollars on this lawsuit is Gov. Murphy," said Tobacco. "It is unfortunate that Mrs. Wright betrayed the parents of Middletown by being the lone vote against amending 5756."
According to its insurance policy, Middletown school district has to pay its lawyers, Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri & Jacobs, a $15,000 deductible to fight all lawsuits filed against the district.
"When we reach the deductible ($15K), we will submit a claim for litigation as in any other case brought against the district," Tobacco told Patch in this February about how much the state's lawsuit is costing the district.
"Murphy is the one wasting taxpayer dollars on a frivolous lawsuit," said Tobacco this week. "Wright suggesting sitting down with Platkin is comical as he has ignored, for over a year, our repeated requests to meet in person to discuss what objections the state has to our amendments."
Wright did not respond to further questions on this topic from Patch, nor did she respond to Tobacco.
NJ Sues Middletown, 2 Other Districts For Transgender Student Policies (June 2023)
Just days after the state sued Middletown, Marlboro and Manalapan, the Colts Neck Board of Education held off on passing a similar transgender policy for fear of being sued by the state: Colts Neck School Board Tables Vote On Trans Student Policy (June 2023)
From the New Jersey Globe , here is a copy of the NJ Attorney General's lawsuit against Middletown , which is still pending in the courts. It has not been resolved.
