‘Where does it stop?’: Wilson County parents react to school district’s pending gender identification policy

Wilson County, TENN. (WKRN) — Teachers in Wilson County might soon have to out transgender students to their parents.

The school board is working on a new district policy for gender identification, thanks to a law passed by Tennessee’s Republican supermajority legislature.

In bright red lettering, Wilson County’s proposed school handbook for the 2024 school year features a new excerpt titled “Student Names.” The two paragraph text outlines how a teacher should respond if a student asks to identify as a gender or name that differs from their birth certificate.

The Wilson County School Board held a discussion on this same topic in July 2023, but did not take any action on the matter. In May, Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation that requires parents to be notified. While some version of this policy will ultimately be passed in school districts across the state, it hasn’t taken away frustration from parents.

“There haven’t been any real initiatives to tackle some problems that we actually have in Wilson County,” said Susan Clark, whose daughter goes by a different name while at school. “We have a lot of kids that were held back on the third grade retention rule. We have a lot of bullying, vaping, violence, all kinds of things going on on our school properties, and it’s frustrating that this is what they’re choosing to focus their time on.”

Another Wilson County parent echoed a similar sentiment to News 2.

“It really is a non-issue when the poverty rate in our state is a very real issue,” said Lindsey Patrick-Wright, whose child is queer and non-gender conforming. “Children coming to school hungry is a very real issue. The issue of a teenager exploring their identity has existed forever! If a parent is concerned about their children questioning their identity, the best thing for them to do is to talk to their child. We shouldn’t be involving the schools, certainly not our teachers, who are already overburdened with this responsibility.”

On the other side, the author of this bill, Rep. Mary Littleton (R-Dickson), explained why she believed the policy was necessary.

“I feel that the parents…they have the right to know what’s happening in the school with their children,” Littleton said on the House floor in April. “Because it’s the parents’ place to take care of their children, not the teachers.”

“Do we allow their injuries? Do we allow their grades? Do we allow their bad behavior (to be kept secret)? What information do we hide from our parents right now in our school system? I assume the answer is not much, if any, that we would keep from parents,” said Rep. Greg Martin (R-Hamilton County) during the same legislative meeting.

News 2 reached out to the Wilson County School Board for comment. Board member Joseph Padilla declined to comment ahead of the meeting, as did board member Carrie Pfeiffer. However, Pfeiffer did say their job was to uphold the law.

Wilson County’s School Board will vote on a gender identity policy Thursday, June 27.

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