Darren Boyle | August 17, 2016
- North Carolina teachers have been given a new 57-page training manual
- The document highlights the problems faced by transgender students
- Teachers are advised against using gender specific pronouns in class
- Students are encouraged to wear the clothes they feel comfortable in
(Mailonline) – Teachers in North Carolina have been warned against gender-specific pronouns when referring to students as it may offend transgender children.
In a 57-page training manual for teachers and classroom assistants, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools have urged teachers to take care when addressing their pupils.
Instead of ‘boys and girls’, teachers are asked to refer to the youngsters as ‘students and scholars’.
Also, the document said all students must be made to feel comfortable in school, with them being able to dress in accordance with the gender they feel rather than the one noted on their birth certificate.
The document claims LGBT students are four to five times more likely to attempt to take their own lives compared with their heterosexual peers – with between 40-50 per cent of them attempting suicide by age 20.
Teachers in North Carolina have been told LGBT students have reported they are more likely to be excluded, or attacked than their heterosexual colleagues.
The North Carolina Values Coalition has attacked the new policy claiming it will endanger school pupils.
Executive director of the conservative group Tami Fitzgerald attacked the school’s board.
She said: ‘Every child deserves a safe space, and it’s our duty as parents to fight for their right to privacy.
‘Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s proposed new policy allowing students to use opposite-sex restrooms, locker rooms and showers will seriously endanger students’ privacy and safety, undermine parental authority, and severely impair an environment conducive to learning.
‘The district should continue their current policy to offer accommodations to students that have different preferences without compromising the privacy rights of all other students.
‘CMS Superintendent Ann Clark has chosen to violate the state’s HB 2 law instead of following common sense accommodations and limiting restrooms and locker rooms to members of the same sex for privacy and safety reasons without violating Title IX.’