On September 16, Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin released a document titled “2022 Model Policies on the Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools.” According to Youngkin, this document’s guidelines aim to make parents aware of and involved in their child’s education. Under these new policies, students in Virginia who wish to go by a name and/or pronouns that differ from official records must have a guardian’s approval, creating implications for schools across the state. 

In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathroom that correlates to their own self-identified gender. However, Youngkin’s policies define a transgender student as “a public school student whose parent has requested in writing, due to their child’s persistent and sincere belief that his or her gender differs with his or her sex, that their child be so identified while at school.” In practice, this means that in order for a student to use their preferred bathroom, their parents first must contact the school. Critics of Youngkin’s plan argue that this decision puts transgender students who are not yet out in their identity to their parents in a potentially dangerous situation. 

Whether or not this violates Virginia’s Human Rights Act, specifically the section that governs against discrimination of gender—even if that gender does not align with the individual’s sex at birth—is up for debate. Youngkin’s policies require that schools treat transgender students with “respect, compassion, and dignity.” However, these policies do not necessarily fight against discrimination legally. Many of Youngkin's policies would encourage schools to discriminate against transgender students unless given parental permission, setting a dangerous precedent for discrimination against trans students in schools by faculty and peers.  

For many Maggie Walker students, these new policy changes were deeply personal. MLWGS students were part of over a thousand high school students in Virginia who walked out on September 27 in protest of these policies. Maggie Walker’s walkout, which was largely organized over social media, took place at lunch with the approval of school administration. Students congregated outside in front of the school, wearing blue in support of transgender students and holding up signs. 

Gray Pershing (‘23) and Drew Rivas (‘23), co-presidents of the school’s Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club, were the lead organizers of the event. Both cited a concern for transgender youth under these new policies. Rivas explains, "I have a lot of anxiety and worry about trans kids who are younger than me who would have to go by their deadname and their original pronouns. [This policy] would possibly endanger the lives of trans students who could be outed to their transphobic families and could be kicked out and subject to conversion therapy or abuse." A deadname is colloquially known as the name a transgender person was given at birth but chooses not to use, as it no longer represents them and their gender identity. Youngkin’s policies make it so that the use of both a student’s deadname and pronouns is decided by their guardian. Transgender students have described how the use of a student’s dead name can be dysphoric and at times traumatic for the individual. Rivas continued by noting that they "want to be able to leave a legacy" where students "can feel safe at their school."

Several school districts have already announced that they will not be complying with Youngkin’s guidelines and will keep their current policies in place, as the guidelines are merely suggestions until they are codified into law. Other counties however, have decided to utilize Youngkin’s model within their schools. For his part, MLWGS Director Dr. Robert Lowerre remarked that he has no plans to change the school’s current policies until he is legally required to. Lowerre explains, “We have a really, really strong anti-discrimination policy, and included in that is gender identity and sexual identity. So, as far as I’m concerned, that supercedes [Youngkin’s policies].”

Presently, the administration at MLWGS will default to the students’ wishes regarding their gender identity until a legal issue becomes apparent. Thus, as Lowerre puts it, “I don’t think a whole lot is going to change for anybody unless they want it to.” Additionally, Lowerre also expressed concern with how these policies go about tainting students’ identities with politics. He remarks, “The part that frustrated me is that we’re talking about human beings here. This isn’t a policy involving funding for buses or whether or not we have to have X number of trees or even a curriculum issue… this vilification of transgender children as if that they are somehow a threat is just absolute fiction.”

Rivas, while happy with how things are run at Maggie Walker, still remains conscious of the fact that MLWGS is different than other schools, stating, “I do think the administration at our school is generally very helpful with trans students. However, I know our school is a lot more progressive than many other schools in Virginia, especially in more conservative areas outside of the city, so it’s not just an issue for our school. It’s an issue for all schools.”

This most recent walkout also raises questions of civil discourse at Maggie Walker, a constantly present issue. In May of 2022, there was a similar walkout concerning the leaked overturn of the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade. In comparison, the September walkout was far less divisive than that of May; there was little vitriolic discourse on social media, and the last-minute nature of the September walkout left little room for face-to-face debate. 

With each subsequent political protest at Maggie Walker, the question of how to go about opposing political views within school arises. While there may be civil discourse within class, social media can exacerbate messy public debates between students. Lowerre explains that a solution is not easy, stating, “We’ve got to try to create an environment that doesn’t exist outside the school walls. And the tough piece about it is that for a school that has the word ‘government and international studies’ in its actual label, we need to be able to create an environment where people can exchange contradictory ideas, and be able to focus on ideas and not the people.” 

The support of transgender and queer students that was found within Maggie Walker during the walkout exemplified the unity between students. There is common ground and compromise to be found here, as Lowerre explains, “The students here, the vast majority of the time, support each other.”

Information retrieved from The Washington Post, USA Today, CBS News, Virginia Department of Education, Virginia Mercury, and Freedom For All Americans.