New Jersey school board votes in favor of parental rights, despite AG’s lawsuit

A New Jersey school board voted unanimously to repeal a policy that didn’t inform parents when a student changed gender identity.

Last week, the Hanover Township Board of Education held an emergency meeting to remove the policy, which had been in effect since 2019.

The policy required school faculty to accept a student’s preferred gender identity and pronouns and didn’t require parents to be notified, according to the Daily Record.

Board member Gregory Skiff said the board’s decision to repeal the policy was guided by advice from the New Jersey Department of Education and aimed to give parents more rights in their children’s education.

“While it is true that children have rights, there is simply no authority, under the [state] Law Against Discrimination or otherwise, that gives minor children an unfettered right of privacy to the exclusion of their parents,” Skiff said, according to the Record.

Parents and faculty voiced their support for the change.

“I acknowledge that there are special circumstances where children experience unfortunate home lives,” said Brittany Smith-Wichelns, a mother of three, according to NJ Spotlight News. “However, not telling parents information about their children automatically implies and assumes that the parent does not know what is best for their child.” 

Another resident and school board candidate Eveleth Roderer publicly thanked the school board for its decision. 

“I’ve come because I wanted to thank you, Hanover Board of Education, for taking a stand and giving a lot of other school boards the much-needed encouragement to see that this battle can be won for our children,” Roderer said. 

The repeal comes on the heels of a lawsuit against the Hanover school board by the state’s attorney general, Matt Platkin.  

Earlier this year, the Hanover board adopted policy 8463 which required school staff to inform parents if a student changed their gender identity – effectively filling in the gaps of policy it just repealed.  

However, Platkin claimed the new policy threatened the privacy of LGBT students and violated the state’s anti-discrimination laws, according to the Record.  

During the first hearing on May 30, a Superior Court judge ordered the school board to rewrite its policy, said NJ Spotlight News.  

But the Hanover board instead opted to repeal it. 

“Our view is that Policy 5756 without the benefit of Policy 8463 is unacceptable in its current form,” said school board member Skiff. “With no practical ability to modify it without potentially subjecting the board to further legal action by the attorney general, we have no choice but to reject it in its entirety.”  

The district is currently waiting to see if it will be allowed to implement its revised version of policy 8463.