to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands naice the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the forly board of educ has caused notice of this meeting to be published on January 11th 2024 and posted on the district website at www.foe.com published in the board's designated online media Outlet newspapers the record and the Star Ledger filed with the clerk of the Bly and there all persons if any who have requested said notice please be advised this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and online at a future date the open public meeting act allows for remote participation at board meetings in the find meeting as any Gathering whether Corporal or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of a public body held with the intent on the part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon the specific public specific public business of that body the purpose of tonight's special public business meeting is to convene in public session and then immediately proceed to closed executive session to discuss personnel and legal matters the board will return to public session at approximately 6:15 p.m. to hear public comments from the community and adjourn official action may be taken in a public session roll call please Mrs K here M K here M Curry here Mr Knight here Mrs Cen here Mr LZ here M Morel here Mr Rino here Mrs RoR here the board will be convening to Executive session to discuss legal and Personnel matters the board will reconvene into public session at approximately 6:15 p.m. I have a motion to go into executive session motion second motion moral secondino all in favor I any opposed we are an [Music] executive I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America stands godis andice for all the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon it accordance with the provisions of the act the corly board of education has caused notice of this special meeting to be published on March 11th 2024 and posted on the district website at www.foe.com it's published in the board's designated online media Outlet newspapers the record and the Star Ledger filed with the clerk of the bur fortly and mailed to all persons if any who have requested said notice please be advise this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on mobile TV and online at a future date the open public meeting act allows for remote participation at board meetings and defines meeting as any Gathering whether Corporal or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of a public body held with the intent on the part of the members of the body presence to discuss or act as a unit upon specific public business of that body roll excuse me roll call please this buers K here this is here Cur here Mr n here Mrs Kang here Mr Lopez here M Morel here Mr Rino here Mrs RoR here the board can be an executive session at 6 o'cl today to discuss personnel and legal matters do board members have questions or comments on tonight's agenda or any other topic I do what may be recognized I just said go ahead okay I didn't hear you say that um and I let me apologize to everyone um I had a family vacation plan to Jackson Hall Wyoming so that's where I am um I I would much prefer to be there personally in present with with everyone um um so I I plan at the appropriate time tonight um as was briefly discussed in private session um to make a motion that I hope will be supported to table um one po tonight pending two readings um and review by the full Board of a policy that was circulated policy 3319 um I know that there been a lot of activity um on social media and and otherwise um saying that the five of us that voted to repeal policy 5756 um we've been labeled anti-lgbtq um nothing could be further from the truth you could look at all of our records for decades I've been attending meetings for about 20 years I'm been on the board for almost 10 there's abs absolutely no basis for anyone to accuse any of us of of being anti-lgbtq um the accusations and and threats that have made been made against us labeling us are just simply counterproductive in a situation like this um they gave the district an unnecessary black eye um we are and will always a superlative at school district safe inclusive and supportive um five of us listened to the public we read the 17 letters that were given to us um we at the time and we we stated it I anyone looks at the video the policy was discretionary and had flaws we've rolled up our sleeves and come up with something as close to the policy 5756 as we can that address is the concerns that were raised we don't think that anyone in the public or on the board our community staff Administration should have any issues whatsoever with the changes and we welcome you know your feedback and and thoughts on them um we've named the the new policy 3319 in honor of transgender day of visibility which was initially founded on March 31st 2009 um these regulations and our policy for me and I speak for myself are kind of a prime example of something where Trenton passed something with very good intentions but they don't always fully take into account the Practical realities of how running a school actually happens um as I reported the policy committee met and I gave a report at our last meeting about the limitation s that and I spoke at at that meeting before repealing about the limitations that our district has our Administration has advised us about in terms of certain aspects of the policy um and so some of the changes that are reflected in the revision um take into account what our Administration has reported to us um for me I'm a lawyer to have a policy that we cannot live up to and honor is a recipe for disaster and a lawsuit so um the the changes that that we have here um don't take into account all of the concerns that that were raised um in in all the material it it doesn't in you know address things like our students traveling to other districts and what Our obligation is um when a parent requests to see records what happens and and I would like to see something much more um descriptive um we have an aof program where we actively seek to employ high school students with work papers it doesn't address uh how we're going to deal with that um parent involvement in IEPs if I happen to have signed many many IEPs and I would hope that um there wouldn't be some separate IEP that I'm not part of um and that I would have signed during my son's from kid actually prek to grade in Fort Lee I mean there so there were more than 12 of them um so again I plan to make a motion to table it hopefully we will have the first reading on our meeting on Monday night um but this this is this policy takes into account concerns issues that were raised by all of our constituents and I would hope that the full board would give serious consideration to the new policy do any other board members have comments or [Music] questions [Music] good evening um first of all uh thank you chrisan um and thank you for all the parents and community members who take time tonight to come here to voice your opinion to make time to support um our community so thank you very much for that um I have a very different recollection of the policy committee committee meeting um from February 26th I believe that was the day um then miss Paula had uh kth had described so I'm here to share with you my recollection of that U meeting with our Council and uh and and some personal statement that I would like to make tonight I just Mr scang just before you go if I just may um committee meetings are exempt from the provisions of the open public meetings act um so they are an informal board meeting with a public design have a right to be at a public at a committee meeting uh minutes technically do not have to be kept of a committee meeting but it is best practice to keep some simless of minutes um but to the extent that you're going to report out what occurred at that meeting you reference Council was present so just please refrain from disclosing anything that touches upon any attorney client privilege Communications at that meeting so therefore any questions that you or any board member or administrator may have raised to my partner Chris buy um any response or advice he may have given please not disclose that because that would be a violation of the attorney so talk about anything except for what was kind of communicated by there so on February on Monday February 26 members of the fortly Board of Education policy committee chairperson Paul Kath oi morale myself and The Bard ofed president Kristen Rector me to discuss and consult with the board counsel Dr Rob pravits and Miss Diane Baker to understand the application of policy 5756 and 9940 in this meeting there was no discussion of any amendments to either of these policies nor any discussion of repealing either of these policies the policy committee is the designated venue to discuss amendments or repeal of District policies particularly those that give guidance on how to be in compliance with the the New Jersey law against discrimination in this meeting the fortly Board of Education of Education Council had discussed the implication of removing policy 5756 this is the PO the only policy in place right now to help School guide School Personnel to address harassment for transgender students at least four school districts in New Jersey are engaged in litigation with the state's over proposed change to the policy or replacement policies policy 5756 was adopted in 2015 and revised most recently in 2019 with no reported negative effect since then in short it's a longstanding policy in in it's a longstanding policy in good standing the policy was this designed to protect students from discrimination and it's aligned with the federal and state laws there were several statements that were made at the last board meeting to which I would like to respond and rectify from my perspective statement number one there were upwards of 30 schools not nine that have repealed the policy according to a recent report less than a dozen District tend to be except in New Jersey that have adopted their policy that have dropped their policies protecting the privacy and accommodation of transgender student only 10 out of 620 this is contrary to the claim that upward 30 schools have repealed the policy again 10 not 30 repealing is not a best practice correction number two on the March 4th meeting it was cited that policy 8486 with these words the case that was referred to by attorney general Matthew plankin against the Handover District relating to a totally different policy furthermore the court says you can rep it and the government would not require you to reinstate first policy 8463 is not a totally different policy it is a replacement policy for 5756 that outs gay students and transgender students second the judge in that same case noted also noted that districts ignoring the state guidance risk violations of the law a material fact that was omitted at that meeting at the last meeting and it has significant and serious legal risk implication for our district correction number three a claim was made that policy 5657 is in conflict with policy 9200 9230 and 9240 and therefore cannot co co coexist policy 924s made it clear that every parent except as prohibited by federal and state law shall have access to records and information pertaining to his or her unemancipated child state law in this case would include the New Jersey law against discrimination making it compatible and not in Conflict correction number four regarding due process we take a child's word as gospel there has to be more this policy simply does not take a child's word as gospel in fact it does not prevent School staff from sharing period parents retain their rights the policy reads as follow due to a specific and compelling need such as the health and safety of a child or an incident of bias related crime the school district may be obligated to disclose a student's status during her of harassment intimidation or bullying investigation the school district is obligated to develop a procedure to report verbally and in writing an act of harassment intimidation and bullying committed by an adult on a youth against a student pursuant to New Jersey a a C 67-77 a28 in this incidence the principal or designated Bes shall inform the students of the School's application to report the findings of harassment intimidate intimidation and bullying investigation which permits the parent of the students who are parties to the investigation to receive information about the investigation in accordance with federal and state law and regulation under harassment intimidation and bullying legal requirements parents are entitled to know the nature of the investigation whether the district found evidence of harassment intimidation or bully or whether disciplinary action was imposed or Services provided to address the incident of harassment intimidation or bully so as a member of the policy committee I would like to underscore the motion to resent policy 5 5756 is is was done without consultation of the majority member of the policy committee entrusted to Steward all policies for this District this is at bet at best inappropriate and at worst irresponsible the motion to resem policy 5756 is being rushed this this very meeting you sitting in right now requested by five members of the board has an anticipated cost of 700 $9 per hour for the first hour and an incremental cost of $270 thereafter per hour our next meeting was supposed to be in three working days instead we pay $700 for the first hour and close to 300 every subsequent hours this is for our security our iTab support our staff and this is not taking into account account our leadership that are set here and the volunteer time of the board the time commitment are given freely and willingly but our resource is not endless no it is not and it's not the best use of our District's resource the motion to resent policy 50 756 is being rushed despite the consequential legal exposure of district and risk to students as well as responsibilities explained to us and stated by the state supreme court justice the rush to ideology has no place in our district and needlessly expose our students and school to risks we are a community that value thoughtful consideration without needless risk for kids and for our schools the motion to resent 5756 and more recently to introduce the idea in the community of a replacement policy without consultation of the major of the majority members of the policy committee and without consultation of stated recommended child Specialists Educators and others is the best respons irresponsible and the worst Reckless on drafting a replacement or amended policy please note that as members of the board we have no expertise in child development no expertise in health mental health no expertise in consideration of the lgbtq community and none of us at the credential and experience as K to2 Educators 5756 was studied publicly review and recommended by a panel of Specialists and educator and people with live experience live and LIF experience policy 77 5756 is a set of tools to help Rank and file School Employees or even a higher ranking administrator for that matter know what the law against discrimination requir by way of transgender accommodation a vote to repeal leads to consequential Legal risks exposure and more importantly risk for students the New Jersey attorney general stated the rep of policy 57 56 will eliminate critical protection we repeat the removal and repeal of policy 5756 will eliminate critical protection for students I conclude with the underscoring the Board of Education adopted 5756 to ensure that fortly school provideing safe and supportive learning environment that is free from discrimination and harassment for transgender students the rash move by certain board members to repeal the policy without appropriate due process puts our student in our school interest we are a community that values thoughtful considerations and putting above all the safety of our students we received the Amendments at 4:30 today so if you're not doing anything between 4:30 and 6 you would have read it is a five-page document we appreciate the offer for it to be reviewed longer I plan to make a motion tonight for these policy for for the amendments to be sent to our policy committee to be reviewed because there's no other time where we can ask questions and share and set up a training process for everyone so that it can be given considerable weight to match the gravity of this policy I hope the full board would make the decision to support this and allow for the policy committees to do its work thank [Music] [Applause] [Music] you hello yeah first of all I just like to thank everyone for for coming out this is obviously something that's very important to everybody um first of all I want to say that uh I wish we could have gone to the Poli with this do the policy commit that wasn't very respectful but the policy committee um did meet about this and they discussed it and the policy committee which consists of three people who were adamantly Pro 5756 as it existed like the idea and the one person that was put on the committee that was against it did not get so nothing that nothing was ever going to come out that committee other than what did Comm you know we we attempted to we attempted to speak about this a few times and we were sort of I don't want to get into specifics but we weren't necessarily um we weren't entertained she said so what we've done is last week when we had the meeting we listened to the to the public outc we read all the letters you know we listened to Stacey who stood at the podium you know we listen to Hudson and and we were touched by it me we were moved by it and and we decided that we wanted to come up with an idea for something that everyone could get behind that everyone truly could get behind and we decided to go with language that was as close to the language of 5756 as possible and as a matter of fact and we can send it out to anyone who'd like to see it we've actually marked what's new green what we removed breed and we brought it down to a literal single issue the single issue is whether or not elementary school children should have completely separate records or completely separate records should be established at age 78 91 that's the only issue every single everything else stays the same every protection that's in this policy stays the same teachers are going to be able to have conversations they going to be private the law protects and and I welcome I understand people are upset I understand there's a lot of um emotion here but I welcome everyone to take a look at this because it it it is definitely something that I think the majority of people can get behind you know we as a community we have to compromise we have to find something that's going to work for everyone and and I think you know again I'm going to say their names again Stacey and Hudson they I think they painted a really good picture for us of of what our children need and what they want and and we get our absolute best to ensure that they'll get that again the only change in this policy that's substantial is that the record that there will not be separate records kept for children in the elementary school so again I feel horrible that this came about this way and it certainly was an ideal by any stretch of anyone's imagination but I want everyone to know that the people that voted last time to repeal it repeal was never our goal it was it was a means to get a seat at the table and and to get a chance to to address the community and to speak to the community to listen to the community and and that's what we did and I think when you read this which you have't you know also we're not pushing it through we're not voting tonight on it we're getting a first read on this on Monday as far as I know um so there's been one change so I welcome everyone to take a look at it and and again if anyone wants to reach out to me with any concerns they have I'm happy happy to to listen and to try to incorporate that into into any subsequent proposals that we come up with thank you uh good evening everyone and thank you for joining us I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this matter uh the timing of this motion raised several concerns one uh over the past couple of months uh the high focus of the board has been on addressing some of the critical issues uh to men a few teacher retention open positions and infrastructure repairs we appreciate that additional items do require attention as we're in the initial months of a new board new leadership we a to keep these items at the center of attention and we keep the we aim to keep these items at the center of attention we're much better served maintaining our focus advocating on these issues impacting our streaming body on a daily basis two we risk intensifying the anxiety and stress some students are currently dealing with college acceptance letters financial aid and sat bre and three any decision made on this topic opens District up the possible legal repercussions leading to potential costly lawsuits at taxpayer expense something I'm not comfortable doing so I much refer investing hard earned taxpayer money on enhancing educational resources improving facilities or supporting programs within our district that better prepare our Fort lead Youth for Tomorrow as a new board member I've come to learn a whole lot in a short period of time I believe it's important that we prioritize the welfare all of our students above all our focus is to create a take environment where every student and faculty member feels valued and supported in addition it provides guidance for our valued teachers I propose moving this uh to the policy committee uh so that we can truly it could truly be evaluated of you a decision that requires thought and meaningful dialogue deserves better judgment and a better process thank hi good evening everyone thank you so much for coming and um I would like to say that this was never in any intended way to affect people in the high school and I do apologize for all of the heartache that this has caused um I'm speaking not from something that I've written I'm speaking from my heart um I was newly elected to this position and I believe something around 2,200 and something people voted for me and I ran on a platform where I looked people in the eyes and I shook their hands and it said um I said to them we spoke about these policies these are parents in the district these are people in the district so this was this was something that was very high on the list of um things to be looked at um I understand and I see that taking this policy away for high school students and um older students is not something that would be beneficial to those students um but I at the lower levels for me the parents that I spoke to the people that voted for me I I have an oath to uphold so I I know I'm not speaking as clearly as I would like to but I'm speaking from my heart when I say that this is um a hard place to be because the votes were there and um I know that the the room is has people in it and people are going to speak on a certain how they feel um but I hope that as a board that we can all come together really and put all all of our differences aside and do what is best for all of the students i i as I'm explaining to you I have no bad intentions or want to infect affect any student in a negative way there are parents many parents the ones that went to the polls that have concerned at the younger ages about this policy and if there is a way that we could come together to make it happen for everybody um however that has to be that would be a huge blessing and that's all I have to say thank [Applause] you um I just want to make a few clarifying points and and add a few pieces of information um so the policy committee is made up of three people and then I as president sit on it just like I sit on every committee so there were two people who voted in favor of keeping the policy 5756 and one who was against it so um I just wanted to make that point there um the policy committee meeting was called so that the newest member of the committee and one of the newest members of the board could ask questions to our legal council um and have a better understanding of the policy before we had the open discussion last week in public and not once in any conversation ever was it mentioned that people had ideas to amend any policy or create a new one that would work for everyone um I also just want to point out that a policy created to only protect older students students and to not provide the younger students who may be experiencing the same things um the New Jersey laws against discrimination protect everyone of all ages not just students from grade 7 through 12 so anyone who falls under whatever age range would be mentioned in a new policy we owe it to all students to offer them the same protections um our code of ethics that we signed in January letter c States I will confine my board action to policymaking planning and appraisal and I will help to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them I don't recall any public forum where people sat down with anyone that this policy affects students teachers or parents so just wanted to make that clear um also we have been hearing public comments at the last meeting about how um you know our staff isn't equipped we need H trained professionals we have a School counseling department and a child study team that consists of 13 counselors an intermediate school and a middle school social worker a high school social worker a district Student Assistance counselor a child study team made up of six School psychologists to full-time social workers to part-time social workers and while they don't operate under these licenses during the school day many of these social workers are licensed social workers licensed clinical social workers and licensed professional counselors I think we have very well-trained [Music] employees and lastly I have a lot of questions about all this red in new proposed policy including the bullet points highlighted in red that states a transgender student shall be allowed to dress in accordance with the student gender identity if we are abolishing that now we're enforcing how these students are allowed to appear at school you're not okay with that thank [Applause] [Music] you any other board members have comments okay may I have a motion yes I would like I would like to resp respond to a couple of comments that were made um that that were directed to me that um first that it was inappropriate and I was irresponsible for voting what I believe to be in the best interest of our students because I didn't propose changes at a policy committee meeting I think if you all would tell the public exactly how I asked many many questions it was apparent to everyone at that committee meeting that I had serious issues about certain Provisions the fact that sometimes you have to take into account the Practical realities of the situation you were in and I could we could have filibustered and spent another hour me proposing changes that would not have been productive especially since some of the changes that are being proposed are as a result of public comment on the policy which the committee doesn't didn't make any recommendations one way or the other I have always of the mind you know that I didn't think that a policy committee would be productive in in this particular situation because this this policy there are differing views and inputs and I thought from minute one it should be a full board discussion so that the committee didn't receive Legal Information or have a private discussion I said from the start all board members should have been privy to everything that was discussed stated asked all information from the policy committee um I gave a report it's a matter of public record people could go on the website I would hope and and look at the the committee minutes I read my minutes all of the issues that were discussed and I don't believe Holly Amy or Kristen took issue with anything that I reported I did it very specifically at the last meeting I actually attached my report to to the committee form so people can go and look at what was discussed at the committee if if this needs to go through the a technical committee process I would propose that the committee meet on March 15 Monday at 6 p.m before the regular meeting if this it it is that critical and important I assume everyone will make time to make that [Music] meeting are we done yes do we have a confirmed committee meeting want before Mond I mean I have I have no problem meeting on Mike cannot hear you yes I'm available on March 15 530m I think 6: PM but but 5:30 would be fine as well March 18th it's Monday the 18th yeah what our next meeting if it's the 18th I'm going by memory I apologize I'm on ski time can do this not pay Amy if you could use the mic because I didn't hear I just heard that it was your voice schedule our meeting when we're not paying for people [Music] here I also I want to be able to have a whole discussion as an entire board like we did at Monday night's meeting about policy you know everyone voiced their questions or concerns about any policy in place um or proposed because obviously the policy committee isn't going to be meeting with each individual board member to answer questions Doug might have or Tanya might have so I have no problem meeting before the meeting but I also want to have conversation once other board members have been able to digest the proposed policy so that their questions can be asked as well you want to have a meeting 5:30 Ral or 6 we can't talk about policy and private no Mike it would take place during our public meeting on Monday night thank you that's what I just said okay may have a motion to open the floor to the public Mo motion morale second night all in favor any opposed or extensions okay we will hear first from members of the public that are physically located in the cafetorium tonight then we will take questions and comments from those participating remotely participants are limited to 3 minutes to make their statement if warranted or response will be given after the 3 minutes for remote participants please select the raised hand button District Tech coordinator Mr rero will recognize each Community member in order to raise Hands by lowering the hands please unmute your microphone then state your name home address for the record and begin your comments please limit your comment to three minutes please members in the public please also State your full name and home address for the record Mr St thank you president Rick David sof by Horizon Road um thank you board members um president RoR I just want to say I I watch Monday's meeting and I just want to recognize you for how you conducted that meeting I I was a little perplexed when the notice of the special meeting was brought to my attention um first of all why there was a special meeting with the regularly scheduled meeting so close um on the calendar but in the in the notice it said the board would open public and immediately go into executive session to discuss the abolishment of policy 5756 personnel and legal matters now president RoR when you opened the meeting you said the board returned after discussing personnel and legal matters and I'm so glad that members of the board said we can't discuss policy in executive session um but for very few exceptions dealing with legal issues or pending litigation so I would like to know and I'm sure the public would like to know was there discussion of policy 5756 in executive if so are minutes or a summary of that discussion going to be made public because I've been going to board of ed meetings for 17 years I served on this board for 6 years I was board president for 3 years I was the board president when policy 5756 was enacted by unanimous board [Applause] vote and no objection stated at that time or subsequently after as far as I knew but I again policies should not be discussed in executive session my opinion that's an end run around the open public meetings requirements so will a summary be made of what was discussed um in executive session about this policy and going forward as a best practice policies should be debated and and I'd also like to address something Mr Knight raised and and Paula committee process is set up for a reason it's not for everybody to always agree it's messy um if anybody ever sat on a committee may he rest in peace with Joe SAS you would know that where you began was a different place from where you ended and we need to engage more in dialogue in thoughtful debate in not demonizing each other to arrive at sound policies for this District so I won't take up any more of your time and it's a shame that members of the Fort Lee Police Department needed to be here for no reason since there's no substantive discussion on this policy to begin with that couldn't happen on Monday thank [Applause] you hello good evening everyone my name is Howard lipof I live at 161 Main Street in Little Falls and I'm the treasur of the Fort Lee Education Association M I want to point to uh Paula kath's point about a black eye to this District she said and I think what's happened over the last week and a half is there's been a lot of negative publicity or negative talk about this District because of a board which whether you believe it or not is viewed as starting to be an extremist Board of Education out of line with all the other out of line with almost all the districts and there are many districts I think over 600 in the state of New Jersey now it was not just because of this policy on transgender youth um at the end of the meeting when um after the vote you had on that and I was leaving many people leave I went when I watched the video I saw that there was the majority of the board it was a split vote the majority of the board voted against um some training some professional development that the superintendent had recommended which would explore the princip and I'm just reading from what's what it's said on the agenda explore the principles of culturally responsive teaching now the cost um was $300 which I guess is a lot less than this meeting tonight and it would seem to me that this goes in to say that the board or the majority of the board is gain to be extreme it it seems that this would be something that everyone would support so I would like to ask the members of the majority of the board they were the same exact people who voted against the transgender policy or for changing it or abolishing it I would like one or more of them to explain why they would not want the staff here to explore the principles of culturally responsive teaching thank you [Music] CN spawn 33 Center Street pton Lakes New Jersey I'm Cen spawn Middle School library media specialist and president of the fortly Education Association also known as flee representing over 450 teachers power professionals secretaries custodians and other certified School Professionals in the fort Le School District as Public School Employees we are dedicated to providing the best educational experience to all students within this community regardless of race ethnicity or gender identity we are proud of for Le's Rich diversity and welcoming nature and we strive to embrace those qualities within our classrooms and throughout our schools additionally as Public School Employees we are charged with upholding all board policies State statutes and laws governing this District as are Administration and Board of Education these policies statutes and laws are in place to support and protect children physically socially and emotionally as they navigate their school years and grow to become fully functioning members and Future Leaders of our society any change or modification must be carefully considered and more importantly seek to uphold the greater good rather than appease a select few courtly schools are the heart of our community they bring out the best in our children and when that happens they bring out the best in all of us any policy change that marginalizes a segment of our population serves no purpose except to weaken our schools which in turn weakens our [Music] community it's with that in mind that flee the fortly Education Association urges you to reink and reject any attempt to erode our Collective heart and instead protect the inclusivity that makes for Lee the place to be thank [Applause] you I'm Brad Rondo I live at 2298 L Mo what are we doing here we've heard our schools have pressing needs facilities teacher vacancies updating our math and Ela curriculum none of that's worth a special work session of the board of education but we've called a special work session of the Board of Education to talk about abolishing a civil rights policy oh but maybe not no everyone calm down we've got a replacement policy ready to go you can't see it yet the board members only got to see it after 400 p.m. today the policy committee hasn't met on it the board hasn't had the opportunity to speak to the board attorney about its legal ramifications I'll tell you what a member of the board did a member of the board in support of this so-called replacement policy did email it to me a little bit before it was shared with the rest of the board members so I can tell you in case the board hasn't had a chance to read it that the claim that the only change in this proposal has to do with Student Records is simply untrue this is not the way responsible people make holcy but over over and above that the simple truth is that five people on this board made a mistake nine days ago you made a mistake when you voted to authorize the repeal of 5756 and in making that mistake you not only rejected the advice of the panel of child velopment experts Educators and members of the transgender Community who advise the State Department of Education on the creation of that policy in making that mistake you sent a message of callousness yes of callousness to the lgbtq Youth of Fort Lee and to all of those who genuinely love and support them in action and not just in words the good news is now you can make it right at a time when Coast to Coast we see state after State Community after after Community passing laws and policies to roll back lgbtq civil rights to push young people back into the closet to restore people to the second class citizenship that so many have fought to overcome you could say clearly and definitively not here not in Fort Lan here we love and support and protect the civil rights of our lgbtq youth every single one of them here we do not put up a sign that says You must be this tall to exercise your civil rights tonight you can vote to table the motion to abolish and you can make the decision to move on and leave 5756 alone hey what's up my name is and I just like to start by saying your address please my address um Tom Hunter Ro I don't have to give you my exact address do I mean I live in Fort lee1 Road that's such a problem but I mean I've deal with the school closer to the mic sir could you get closer I'm having a hard time hearing Youk I've deal with the school counselors before and in my own personal experience it was awful I'm just going to say that right now I just like to get into talking about policy 5756 um okay so today most of us all felt the need to come to this meeting today to fight for what we believe is right now there's no doubt that everyone's going to have their own difference in opinions although when you're coming for my future children's rights and the rights of young children in for Le then I have a problem what happened to only car about education it seems like you people are so fixated on one thing and that's only coming for the kids I mean we were just talk somebody just came up here talking about um this the Civil Rights and your height I mean your height doesn't matter about what civil rights if you no kid no understands civil rights like you're going to tell a little kid that he understands his own sexual identity at such a young age at six when you were 6 years old you understood who you are really as a person and you could give a firm I mean idea to anybody that you knew who you were as a little kid and you and when you were seven or eight I hope that your parents would let you go up to a teacher and talk to them about something as serious as this and this is this adult conversation so I just like to go into saying that it seems that you people are so fixated on one thing and that's only coming for the kids who mind you only know what the hell any of this is because you have decided to push these ideas on their valuable minds and let's talk about what's keeping this policy in place to cause now we're talking about giving the teachers the power to feel that they are allowed to speak to the students about whatever the student wants we essentially giving the students and the teachers power over mothers and fathers allowing this policy to stay in place can also cause a dangerous environment for our schools it's not like we haven't seen cases of predatory acts against young confused children these teachers are giving the kids positive affirmations about their mental confusion and telling them that they aren't really the sex that they think they are no child is thinking in an adult way like you or me when they speak about feeling like a girl or a boy now let's picture this a young girl let's call her Sarah Sarah comes to her teacher saying that she wants to be like Mikey she says how she wants to ride skateboards and hang out with his friends and now a teach now a teacher can give this very confused child the choice to make an adult decision this now creates a dangerous place for the child with the teacher that is taking advantage of a young child's mind so I just like to say that this has really affected me in a great way I mean sometimes I just can't even stop thinking about this and to see that my peers are supporting this is truly Saturday all right thank you for having me Michael Morel 24 Avenue H New Jersey so hello board my name is Michael morale and my pronouns are he him and his for your information I founded GSA the gay straight Alliance in forley high school over 10 years ago and upon finding out that there's a meeting happening today I found out that I need to come today to continue fighting for the lgbtqqia plus rights of our forly uh School Board uh School District kids as I stated back then the safety of our kids is in our own hands yours the towns and the schools that includes the mental and emotional health health of our lgbtq uh and uh Qi plus kids now I could stand here as Miss call back I said earlier and call you all bigots and trans folks but that would not be conducive to this meeting at all however I would like to give you uh information or rather an education briefly on some very key things that I think you should be Tak consideration when voting according to multiple studies and on the Human Rights Campaign website many trans people regret not coming out at a much younger age and that they had wish they had the support of both their parents the school and society which is rather ironic because we have all three here with us tonight to freely Express who they are as a person it's been proven that they then grow in to healthier uh uh more productive adults in their earlier in their later years listen the gay lesbian straight education network has also conducted a study and upon those results they found out that the trans students received even more hostile treatment within the school district than the other LGB uh the lgbtq uh students do so take that consideration listen the gay lesbian uh education Network they conducted a study and within the LGBT group of students the trans students receive even more hostility than the typical gay gay lesbian or bisexual student does so take that in consideration as a gay student that went through this St this this school district I can tell you it was not easy there weren't many policies just 10 years ago protecting us I received harassment from the age of six just so everybodys I would also like you guys to know that New Jersey is only one of five states in the entire country that has laws requiring us to teach about these specific uh studies one of one one of five states out of 50 please take that in consideration thank you I'm going need to adjust [Music] this all right hello everyone my name is Julian Chan I'm a fortly high school student I live on North hi I remember you I remember you okay I lost my oh yeah just your address huh your address oh yeah uh North Central Road uh a lot of the other members of the public have have already addressed important issues like protecting protecting LGBT students the importance of staff and stud and giving students guidance and the importance of inclusion but I'm here to address how repealing this policy will interfere with education some people might think that that school is a daycare but we don't high schoolers are here to learn when I was in sixth grade I mean 6 years old all I really wanted to do was learn how to pronounce the word specific my brother at the age of nine he's right now doing his math homework doing fractions and yes parental rights are important parent have a right to know how their children are doing reporting of bullying release of educational material reporting of Mental Health crisis they're all outlined under different policies like 5350 5512 and 8385 so what happens if you repeal 50 I mean 47 50 5756 well say a student goes to a trusted teacher confides about their identity and the teacher becomes required to tell that students parents reaching their trust and I'm scared this is going to snowball I'm scared that this means if a student goes to a counselor at any age talks about anything that's that's going to snowball into that staff member being required to tell the teacher I mean they the parents about anything like from friend drama religious idealism the the fact that you dislike broccoli you name it it's getting reported it's what does this mean for Education look I'm taking into account the practicalities of running a school that you were talking about will teachers have to report every single thing they see in the hallway to parents will classes have to just stop so teachers can observe what students do in their time that's not education that's daycare School even elementary school isn't daycare school's supposed to be a place where we can learn to think for ourselves and this can't happen if everyone is so caught up monitoring reporting behaviors Every Which Way especially in elementary school how will anyone learn and grow into becoming a responsible and educated member of today's world so please think about the longevity of education and Society thank [Music] [Applause] [Music] you stepanie and La 2011 Bluff Road that was great um so I just you hear me I just want to say a couple of things so the board you know the board knows I sent them a letter earlier this week I'm not going to repeat all of it but I'm going to repeat one paragraph of it but what I want to say right now is that words matter the words we use matter there's been a lot of words like social transition transition that is not what we are talking about here we are talking about giving our students a safe environment for them to go to if their home is not where they feel comfortable sharing important things about their life and you know what I have an eight and a 10-year-old and I was asked this week by one of you would I want to know of course I would want to know of course I would want to know if they would thinking about this of course I would hope they would come to me but if they didn't feel safe if I exhibited some characteristic that they didn't think they they could come talk to me about you're damn right I want them to goow to The Trusted adults in their life which are at [Applause] their the elementary school example on what's being said now about the fact that elementary school kids may be out of this I find very rich given that it was an elementary school grade that was you that was it was the example of a first grader given last week right before the vote as why this policy was getting repealed yet now all of you guys don't want to do that I mean it's it's just Rich that when you hear the public outcry all of a sudden our opinions have changed I'm going to read one paragraph from the email I sent earlier this week where the policy protects our children is when they are most vulnerable confused in their most vulnerable and confusing stages of their life in their teenage years and the rest of their life frankly but where the brain is is not fully developed yet and they are beginning to move into adulthood where their identity is forming and when we as supportive parents and a supportive Community what makes this place great and now I'm going off the letter but what makes this place great is that I could leave my 8-year-old running into the gym for for um for basketball and I know that there's 15 people I know in that building and they and they're going to look out for me while I'm parking the car what makes this place great is the fact that we' mean on each other as a community and that is what this policy is intended to do and what we appealing will take away we do not know what goes on behind closed doors we would like to make grandio statements that everything one here and forly would never act in a way that theyve never abused their children that we do not know we don't know and when we don't know we support everybody do not repeal this policy do not limit it to elementary school this this is it's a mistake and you the good people of this town it is ay I'm Mickey pillo I live at lwood Park and I am a trans man I don't know if there's anybody else here who is trans so I'm here to speak for the trans Community I do a lot of work with children young adults and I see a lot of CIS people here making decisions for my community which I don't think is right without asking us okay a 5-year-old who I've talked to to 90y olds 5-year-olds do not have the compacity yes they might think they are girl boy whatever I did at five but truly didn't understand it okay they don't know so if you're taking away the parents' rights these teachers why you give them so much power to take their parents' rights away of a 5-year-old a six-year-old seven-year-old yeah Casey mentioned that changing that one part I don't see Casey or anybody else saying here I want to abolish it completely he's saying just the elementary children okay from my experience as a transgender person I may be wrong but I don't think any of you are you don't understand my community you don't understand these children um in elementary school okay they you're you're putting everybody in the same boat all these children okay what a 5-year-old can do versus an 18-year-old is totally different life experiences um their maturity okay so it's impossible or ridiculous to dump them all into one category okay yes I don't think anybody up here wants to abolish it I just think it needs to be tweaked okay you need to consider these young children who just the other day there was a child in school wants to be a cat so he sits there and she sits there and licks her HS meows all that they allow it okay and are they telling the parents who knows but the parents need to know the parents need to guide the children get them the special help they need okay it's not an easy transition it took me six 59 years to come to this conclusion you know considered a tomboy all my life so it took me 9 years a 5-year-old once you start taking away um telling them they can do this or that and they can't turn it around I counsel a lot of children or young adults that became a woman and then now want to change back to a man they don't want to be stuck as male or female is now the they them and they nonbinary they they don't want they're not sure so they don't know what they want and you're sitting here trying to make decisions for them which I don't think it's right I'm here if anybody wants to talk to a real life transgender person when I came out to Casey last year he came up to me and he said could you sit with me and Doug and go over this okay did any of you sit down with a real transgender person and ask their opinion at least he did at least I did I've known Casey for 10 years he knew me has and he's good friend to me as a transgender [Applause] person good evening my name is Claire the please shortly thank you Amy and please everybody please continue to do your due diligence actually read the policy find facts ask better questions see the bigger picture don't allow false misleading information deteriorate the Integrity of our community be one voice whether we like it or not times have changed the current world our children are growing up in is not the same one we did navigating life has become more complicated family structures are complex information is too readily available it can be confusing there's so much pressure even for adults today so why would we take support and help away from our young ones this is not not solely a parents or students right issue this is a mental Wellness issue and just to be clear I mean the mental state of how one is able to cope with the stresses of Life do they feel happy loved do they feel safe after all these are basic human needs we all need to require to thrive and survive no matter how old we are parents myself included know that we are not bad parents we simply only know what we know which to be honest is not everything would I like to think I know what's best for my child absolutely but the reality is our children will grow into their own person and there will be a day when only they would know what is best for themselves so let our community be a place where they can belong feel safe supported valued even when they feel different where our children can also form meaningful relationships outside of their homes with peers teachers NE neighbors other adults that they can trust what if 20 years down the road God willing we're all still here at the board of aded meeting on a Wednesday evening the stories that we're sharing are about that one teacher that one trusted adult that helped the student find themselves give them the confidence to have a meaningful conversation with their parents so they can be the person they want to be today these students aren't asking for support they're asking for help they need a safety net why would we take that away from them give our already amazing passionate Educators who are obviously already trained more resources get them all the support they need so they can continue to help grow our children into thriving adults I'd like to believe we all come from a place of love we voted to put our trust in all of you tonight your decision will be setting a president for the future if you can take this away what are you going to take away next leave policy 5756 as it is protect all of our children and to all the students listening tonight if this repeals happens even if these board members fail you please know there is an entire community of adults who will stand by you and support you any hi there my name is Hannah Simpson 21 Convent Avenue apartment three New York New York I am though a proud uh alumna of the New Jersey and Bergen County education system by way of Hillsdale New Jersey and I spent many many years coming to Fort Le New Jersey where my grandparents lived until they unfortunately passed I kept the PA a diner in business um so I want to share some of my own experience as a transgender woman and ask the board to give you a little lesson right now so i' like to ask each of you to pick up a pen or just m if you don't have one and just m writing your name for me for a second okay great now do that with the hand you don't normally use how's that feel okay how long did it take you to realize that that's kind of how I explain gender identity to people who don't have that particular experience it's a lot like your handedness something you figure out and nobody can really tell you what it's supposed to be there are unfortunately parents in every school system across this country who have this mythology that a child's gender identity is something within their prerogative like weekly piano lessons let alone ability to control um that's not the case um I did not come out until later in life there was no structure whatsoever for me in New Jersey to feel protected safe or to come out but what I found out later in life is that there were three transgender people in my grade alone and I don't know what my father personally would have said if I had come out to him and my mother at an earlier age although he is here in the audience with me right now and loves to be here when I come to public speaking and supports me but I am the only one of those three who is still welcome in my parents living room um and that's after they came out as adults imagine how they would have been received as children and that's the reality is there are some people who do not want to believe that their children might be exposed to transgender children in their classrooms those are the ones that a school system has every right to be concerned if that child happens to be lgbtq Etc of coming to that parent with that information again the whole point is not to withhold anything from parents but to make sure that the tools are in place to make sure that that child comes to their parents from a place of strength I'm going to tell you how this plays out again I have mentored dozens of New Jersey adolescence and young adults from my own school system who've come up through the years from teachers who invited me into their classrooms from camps that I've been account at and through Garden State equality so a fifth grader Rosie came out and transitioned and started Living as her authentic self at the time she her pronouns um as a female in her fifth grade New Jersey public school middle school and another student confronted her and she honestly thought she was going to get beaten up and the student had a simple question for you for her how come you get to transition and it turned out that this was a student who was trans themselves and didn't have any resources and didn't have a family that was going to be supportive my simple point is if you MEAP the school system and the teachers that can provide this support how do you possibly think the students are going to have the emotional tools resilience or capacity to help their fellow students when that's where they go [Music] [Applause] next good evening members of the board my name is Jamie zg I'm an attorney I'm also a transgender man my pronouns are heem I'm from wown New Jersey um I'm not here to speak on behalf of the transgender Community I'm here to speak on behalf of myself as an individual transgender person I do not know how many transgender people there are in this room and neither does anyone else who was here in this room I understand that on the agenda is the repeal of policy 5756 and and I I I really appreciate many of the comments that have been made here tonight um about that and how it's a bit of a red herring because at the end of the day the school district is required to abide by the law against discrimination policy 5756 is an enormously helpful policy because it assists school districts in abiding by by the law against discrimination which isn't different for young students than it is for for for older students um so it is an enormously helpful policy but if that policy is repealed if that policy is amended the school district will be bound to the same exact standards as every other school district it just won't have a policy to refer to or will have a different policy to refer to which could lead to some to some confusion um I I think that everyone in this room is interested in supporting um people I really believe that in supporting in people's safety and well-being and mental health and if there are questions about policy 5756 and um records requirements there is a robust community of folks in New Jersey who have experience uh with policy 5756 and have a place out with different specific systems um and it systems and and and also in specific scenarios so I encourage the members of the board to make use of the resources that you have available to you in New Jersey um if you have questions there are answers there are other boards that have dealt with the same things and have found ways to support all students in the district through the existing 5756 so I ask you to take advantage of the resources that are available to you um throughout the state as you work through the the questions uh the questions that you may have thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you hello my name is Daniel I live at a 2100 l uh I just want to say that I'm vly opposed to the idea that the root of the conversation is FAL rights it's not it's just a symptom of a larger wave of anti-intellectualism uh that is sweeping Across America uh that requires an outright rejection of experience and qualifications uh instead of entrusting Educators and experts who spent years in school who have had many years of experience in observing and evaluating the emotional needs of children you guys are choosing to insist that professionals are not qualified to use a discretion to ensure student safety any discussion of queer IND doctrination of children is inflammatory unfounded and is in direct opposition to a a stigma free for me and I want why don't say something next in in response to your heartfelt message U this is irus k um I understand that you had many conversations with your voters your job as a on the board of education isn't to follow a set agenda forth by select of your voters it's to do what is right by the time of for the thank [Applause] [Music] you hi my name is Christo scis I live at Town hun Road for New Jersey I am going to to be real quick um I heard people say that there are experts in the school that the students feel safe speaking with the teachers there are trained professionals there are sociologists psychologists all of it right well this school failed my kids my children in your school were diagnosed have IP IPS both my kids the school hired a psychiatrist interview my daughter who came up with the conclusion that he was cognitively dis disadvantage it was cognitively impaired so as parents we advocated for her we took her to see other Specialists and what she has is sight disability and dyslexia your specialist said she was cognitively impaired she's now in college pre-law and a 4.0 student because she has dyslexia because she sees the world a little differently but your experts like everyone's saying these experts that know their children or or the children should confide in over their parents when they're little this happened when they were at school 4 louisf School uh the middle school and then in high school is when we stepped in and advocated for them my my wife advocated also for my son who the school now sent him to a different school because you did not have the capacity to help him so how do where where do you find the capacity to help children now the the parents are the ones that will advocate for their kids not the school so repeal [Applause] 5756 good evening everyone I'm Alex Wolf I live on Second Street uh I want to begin by responding to a couple things that Paula said um Paula you began by sort of listing the bonafides of you and and your fellow board members uh I've only lived in Fort Lee for about eight years so I can't speak to your entire history but you like all of us are defined by our actions and repealing 5756 is an anti-lgbtq action if you want to be considered someone who is a supporter of the lgbtq community then you should not resin this policy you also suggested that I I I almost couldn't believe my ears you suggested that the town has a black eye and you're right the town does have a black eye but it is not from the parents who are defending this vital critical policy on social media the town has a black eye because five of our board members voted to resend this policy that's why we have that and the last thing I want to say is that I'm I'm really having a hard time reconciling what we've heard today with what we heard last week because last week apparently the issue was so critical that the policy had to be rescinded immediately apparently there was a lot of discussion about parents rights last week and the policy had to be rescinded to honor parents rights and it wasn't just coming from the people behind me there were people on the board who resined who said that they were going to resend this policy in the name of parents rights and today we have heard nothing about that from people on the board so which is it right I'm confused is it parents rights or is it not and let me just be clear last week these students spoke very forcefully about what parents rights means in the context of this policy but let me just repeat it because I'm not sure everyone's hearing it in the context of this policy repealing it in the name of parents rights means that you think parents should have the right to abuse their children you think parents should have the right to emotionally physically abuse their children they should have the right to make them homeless they should have the right to harm them they should even have the right to kill them because that is what has happened in the situations where trans students trans children have been outed against their will to their parents now maybe none of us in this room would do that I believe that but it is naive to think that there are not parents in this world who would harm their children because they came out as trans or gay and yes perhaps even in Fort Lee so make up your mind is it parents rights or is it not and if it is if you resend this policy in the name of parents rights you you should own up to what you're resending it for in other words do not resend this policy thank you hello Stephanie Maharis ofis portley New Jersey I'd like to speak about rule 5756 there's a lot of you know flinging going on we have a lot of activist uh people sitting on our ptas they've taken over three or four of the PT in our school district with a radical ideology that very small children know exactly what they are and can go to a teacher privately and have a discussion about sex only sex this is literally about sexuality with a teacher when one in 10 children are molested or abused by a public school teacher for the Department of education but hey I'd like to speak about rule of law 576 which severely impacts parental rights and the well-being of our children our fundamental right to the care custody and control of our children is not only a principle deeply rooted in our society but also a liberty interest recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States under the due process clause of the 14th amendment in essence as it is currently written and from what I heard from other parents supporting the rule it clearly violates the parents right to do process I heard a child speak last week on Zoom who said they didn't like their name and had gone to their teacher to create a new file with a new name withholding information as trivial as this from parents assumes that all parents always pose a risk to their child this application of a blanket approach Tre treating all parents or Guardians as potentially harmful without individual evidence of harm is a constittution violation this approach not only undermines the trust between parents and the educational system but violates a parents due process right under the Constitution my greatest concern and as I've already pointed out lies in the lack of transparency in the assumption that all parents or Guardians pose a risk to their CH child's well-being in matters of personal identity while protecting children from harm is obviously necessary the strict scrutiny standard require ired by constitutional jurist Prudence stands this standard demands that any infringement on the constitutional right must serve a compelling State interest and be narrowly tailored to achieve that interest using the least restrictive means possible lumping all parents into one pot as harmful is on its face unconstitutional it violates their right to do process it comes between a parent and child Bond we are not advocating against protecting vulnerable children if a child is vulnerable you have means to deal with this in school we are calling for a policy that respects the constitutional rights of parents and is based on the evidence of actual risk or harm not assumption that all parents are unsafe and the FB post that was posted to the trans um LGBT Club is in violation as it warns children in our district that they were not safe with their own parents know feel like I'm like the pallet cleanser portion of the evening all right Esther Esther Esther hun silver 2426 Fifth Street Bly um a couple of things I have I have a list I I can't do it on the phone so we heard a lot about the intention was not to repeal it you want to make corrections but it kind of sounded like if you just you know if you buy a house and you want to make Renovations you don't tear it down so that part didn't make sense you know and then there was a comment that you didn't intend to affect the students at the high school if you repeal the policy you're affecting all the students so that that just it doesn't J it really doesn't now the other thing now you're proposing a new policy all right cool we'll look at it policy 3319 I don't know if you guys realized it the the policies are numbered in sections you can't just randomly pick a number all right the 3,000 section is regarding staff members so if you if you adopt 3319 you know what follows right after 3321 which is about acceptable use of computer work by sta computer computer networks by staff it I'm just saying everything's being rushed it does not make sense you're not doing it in a the right way then the other question I had how was policy 3319 drafted did the did this group the five did you guys meet did you email how was this drafted all right uh that is a question that I think the lawyer should demand of this group all right how was it drafted how was it communicated unless it was just one or two people that drafted it and just sent it out to everybody else now the other thing last week all right three C I you know what I I just really don't understand what happened with that vote all right there was no discussion there was no questions or anything asked during that meeting and it was just voted down so immediately I went and looked it up 3C it was a resolution to provide professional development all right for 300 bucks all right that's more than tonight is costing so cost was not the problem so then I looked at the proposal all right you know what kind of Scandal is professional development the crab it's proposing all right this is what it says this professional development Workshop is designed to equip Educators with the knowledge skills and strategies to effectively engage with students from diverse cultural backgrounds read The Proposal all right it was great and I honestly couldn't find anything objectionable so made me wonder how many of you guys over the last few years have attended Lunar New Year celebrations the Greek Independence Day luncheon all right St Roco Festival you are all celebrating the cultural diversity of our town so why would you not encourage our teachers to utilize it and use that as a [Applause] strength so then so then I was like okay maybe it's the presenter all right I mean on paper he looks good I'm sorry 25 years in education two Master's degrees he's got all these credentials didn't make sense so then I looked him up on did guess what I found he had a rainbow Banner behind his profile and I certainly hope that was not the reason thank [Applause] you uh hello um I a student at for Le High School my name is Jack Robertson and I live on 200 so um I'm very happy that um what is it um this was such fun uh last meeting and also uh briefly touched upon today um it's the belief that or the argument that was um that parents are their children's biggest Advocates and uh so therefore they deserve to know the details of their child's gender identity and while we should under we all understand that parents should be their children's biggest Advocates statistics Pro that transgender children are more than four times likely be victims of bullying and according to the National Health of Institute of Health at least 39% of transgender adolesence reported to be physically abused at home I personally have a friend who was kicked out of their house because their parents came across their social media account in which they were openly transgendered and have another friend who if their parents found out that they were transgender would likely face the same consequences and so uh although parents should be their children's biggest Advocates putting them at risk of physical not just mental but physical abuse is an obvious threat to the health of students affected by the repealing of policy 5756 uh one of my teachers was discussing policy 5756 with another staff member during class just last week and said in reference to the possibility in which they discovered one of their students's gender identity and I quote if I find out I'm going to tell everyone a lack of sensitivity sensitivity that this discussion is continue to be treated with when students lives are at stake is appalling and I'm pleading that the community makes the right decision thank you and I yield my that hello my name is Ramina Columbo and I live at 1530 pal Avenue and I go to portly high school I'm a junior and I'm the editor and chief of the school paper um I just have a couple things to say removing policy 5756 remove a vital safe space for queer students for gender queer students and also I'd like to refer to a point um this is not about sex this is not about sexuality this is about being I don't really see how that ties into molestation excuse me just direct your comments us okay thank you thank you um furthermore I would like to state that many parents are abusive okay especially when dealing with trans children I'm not saying that all of them are I'm just saying that people a lot of them are transphobic and by their children sharing their like their gender expression and their identities with their parents that like the fact that they are putting themselves in danger if that does happen that is horrible and that should not happen and also parents should be having that place that safe space they should be providing a safe space for their children in the first place where their children want to talk to their parents about these issues because so many children want to share themselves in their ideas and their expression of themselves their identities as a whole as a person they want to share with their parents parents and that's just a natural in instin Instinct I guess so I would just like to remind that if children do not share their ideas and their identity with their parents it is for a reason uh thank [Applause] [Music] you my name is Kevin Oliver uh 441 Washington Avenue ell New Jersey I am a forley high school teacher for the past 23 years I'm also the uh vice president of fortly Education Association um I didn't plan to speak tonight but as I listened to some things um I had to write down some notes and now I think I have to speak um let me be clear about something teachers are not converting their students they're not convincing them that they're a different gender that they're a different sexual orientation it's ridiculous to suggest that they're certainly not encouraging them to be cats these are myths okay the statistic that 10% of public school teachers are molesting their students is a boldfaced lie simply not true it's propaganda we know it and we have to call it out this is dangerous okay it's dangerous to our kids it's dangerous to our teachers and it really needs to stop okay what I really wanted to say uh was I wanted to voice my support for our students um it takes a lot of guts for a lot of these kids to get up here um whether they're members of the lgbtq plus Community or their allies to get up here in front of a room to stand up for themselves to stand up for their friends so um I know I can only speak for myself officially um but I know that I speak for a lot of other teachers and a lot of other School Employees because I've talked to them a lot over the past week and a half um and I have to say that we are very proud of you very what proud of you I commend you for having the courage to stand up and to speak up and to share your your experiences your feelings and your fears even in the face of some who would suggest that your letters or your words are fake or coerced these people do not represent the majority you do not answer to them you do not have to justify yourselves to that please know that when you speak your words are powerful no one can erase your lived experience and no one can invalidate your feelings I know that most of you are probably used to adults being the authority figure and having to be subordinate to them um but one of the harsh lessons of growing up that you are learning as we speak is that sometimes adults are the ones that need to be educated sometimes the students have to become the teachers unfortunately this is one of those times I know many of you have put yourselves out there over the last week or so to do just that your efforts to teach others about compassion and empathy and what it's really like to walk in your shes are admirable keep doing that regardless of the outcome of what this evening is um there are so many of us that hear you and see you and support you thank [Applause] [Music] you hello my name is caran Masters and I live at 108 Jasmine Way ply you'll forgive me if I don't know when my time is nearly up because I can't really see the timer since I rescheduled necessary eye surgery to be here today that is how strongly I feel about what is happening in this District I grew up in portly I attended schools here from kindergarten to 12th grade and my children have attended schools here since kindergarten and are now in 8th grade and 10th grade given my long history in this community I was very surprised to see the Board of Education votes remove key protections from some of the District's most vulnerable students at the March 4th Board of Education meeting by voting to resend policy 5756 my husband and I actively chose to raise our children here and send them to fortly schools for many reasons one of those reasons is certainly because Fort Le is the kind of place where students of all kinds can feel safe and included I'm extremely disappointed to see the Board of Education take actions to remove the protections that help create that environment this is especially the case when is being done in so Hasty a manner and discussions have now been shunted to a special meeting on short notice I also find today's discussions of a proposed new policy surprising firstly because at the meeting on March 4th the motion that was made seconded and voted on was only to resend the policy and not resend the policy and replace it with a new one now the direction seems to have hastily changed to putting together a new policy this was clearly has not clearly not got through normal processes of review by the board and its committees or public comment just because some board members dislike the decision of a policy committee doesn't mean it isn't valid or doesn't need to be followed I'm concerned about the implications for the district when something that deals with the civil rights of students is done without ample opportunity for commit community members to understand the process and decision- making involved secondly because we know that in other cases where New Jersey Boards of Education have replaced the current policy with new policies of their own devise they have been subject to litigation by the state because of these policies they did not pass muster with New Jersey Law discrimination and we're opening ourselves up to the same situation as a parent of children who attend school in this District I would strongly prefer that the district spend its money to improve facilities and fund educational programs rather than spending funds to defend a lawsuit from the state especially when the reason for taking the action that has been adopted by many many other school districts has been functioning I'm sorry the reason for taking the action is to remove a policy adopted by many other school districts and has been functioning in Fort Lee without difficulty for a number of years but to being the most concerning thing about this is the lack of consideration being given to students who could find themselves in danger without the protections of policy 575 C thank you hello my my name is Aiden Park I live at C court on John Street I'll begin with a small testimony last year I was confronted by one of my so-called friends and repeatedly called the esler and the arler who also called my parents for the sake of political correctness fur loving parents I reached out to the school about this and they helped me if 5756 is repealed the protection I receive from the school staff and police that helped me is that is at [Music] risk to the Fort Le Board of Education you speak so much of community I know a lot about Community I am an been member of the international fesbian Society troop 3103 and the associate conducting drum major for our fortly High Schools Marching there I know very much about Community I'm a leader there at least I try to be and I sit in this room full of people who are supporting keeping policy 5756 intact this is your community I urge you to listen to them and it is an embarrassment to some of us that there are students at fortly high school underage people who have spoken at a higher caliber and maturity than some of the adults in this room now I am queer I will leave it at that and I will go home tonight knowing that I have outed that part of myself and feel a little more in danger I came to that conclusion after several long years of dysphoria confusion and self-searching this lgbtq plus identity that many come to terms with is not a matter of mental illness this is a matter of how an individual feels about thems no one has any say in your identity and you don't have a say on how I feel that's on me but what you do have a say in is how you can protect me and how you can help me and the other lgbtq students of Fort Le by keeping policy 5756 intact and letting it stand I will speak on behalf of many others we are afraid we are angry we are hurt we are upset and we are again scared that our safety will be put in Jeopardy because of this policy's potential rendant please I am begging you do not take this away I don't want to live in a town where I am at risk of being jumped by students at my own school for who I am thank [Music] you hi I am Stephanie lovey I live at three Horizon Road um so you know it seems that there's concerns by the elementary school parents I assume what their concern is that they wouldn't be made aware their children's exploration of transgender or non non-binary status um you know I just like you to think about the things you explored as a child and young adult that you didn't tell your parents about you know I don't think that your parents need to know everything I don't feel like I need to know everything about my kids if you're exploring explore and then when you come to a thought or if you want to talk to me fine talk to me I have two children in portly high school and I feel that in my experience it's more important that your children are heard and supported by individuals who they trust to tell even if it's not me again I'd hope like the other parent that it would be me but it's not in fact I had an experience with Mr Oliver here where my son felt more comfortable talking to him than to me and he did and I'm fine you know and also with his uh guidance counselor in forley high school and you know it turned out well for him so to you know to to suppose the other side to people who talked about their terrible experiences my son has had good experiences with counselors from school one through the high school he he still does um I also wanted to put you know the perspective of this concern uh the into I'm sorry the idea of this concern into perspective with that you know Based on data from large epidemiological studies reported in 2022 1.82% of Youth aged 13 to 17 in the Northeast identify as transgender which is slightly higher than in other US regions in New Jersey it reported that there are 3,800 total youth aged 13 to 17 or [Music] 0.67% of kids reported to be transgender so basically what I'm saying is their concern is not likely to impact them it's not it's it's not what should be more concerning to the parents of young and high school students is the impact of the retraction of this on their current uh I'm sorry what should be more concerning is the impact of this retraction on the current transgender students in our community removal of protections for anyone would instill feelings of anxiety depression and potentially suicidal ideation due to concerns about safety and the knowledge that their safety is not deemed worthy of protection transgender individuals are increased risk for suicide relative to non-transgender people and researchers using primarily convenient samples have discovered that 18 to 45% of transend or adults and youth have attempted suicide in their lifetime this is excuse me drastically higher than the general population rate of 4.6% as reported in the Journal of violence and gender experiences of discrimination similar to what you're considering allowing are associated with higher levels of suicidal ideation and attempts harassment and bullying are also associated with suicidal attempts gender identity acceptance is protected against suicidal ideation and in addition recent small studies of transgender youth who are allowed to use their preferred names and pronouns I'm sorry uh basically it's proteced um I also just was going to mention briefly suicide rates and you know I'm speaking as the parent of a child who suffers from anxiety depression and suicidal ideation and if you can protect one of these transgender students by protecting their rights you're saving a thank you if you [Music] r hello my name is demitria and I'm a resident forly I'm Tom Hunter Road I had I came with a speech but I'm not going to speak I'm not going to say my speech anymore I just want to say that from my personal experience at this school you guys have done nothing to help me at all I had to leave the school I suffered greatly at that school school I had to drop out get my GED and then complete my studies elsewhere because you cannot accommodate me and my meet I also had a best friend at this school who's being abused by her mother who has came clean to teachers and you guys did nothing to help her you guys do not care about helping the students and about making them feel safe you want to push your laws push your agendas kick the parents out make the kids trust the state put their trust in the state but you do not actually care about helping the children and helping the people you don't and that is the truth I witnessed it firsthand like one of my closest friends at the time went through it firsthand and you guys did nothing to help her and if your committee cannot and on top of that when I was at the school you guys banned children from wearing do-rags a protective hairstyle for whatever reason I don't know you guys do not care about inclusivity about helping children you just care about pushing your agendas on people goodbye hello um my name is Anastasia liberman I live on 15th Street and there are plenty of people that I know at home who were not able to come to this meeting because they do not feel safe to coming to this meeting um I have plenty of friends who would love to support the cause who do not want this policy to be repealed who want to protect trans children but they do not feel that their parents would have allowed them to come here they did not feel safe coming to this meeting because there are still people out there who do not who pose as a threat to trans students um I don't know if I feel comfortable coming up here but I have because this is an important issue to me um there are things that I don't tell my parents as a teenager does that mean that I don't trust my parents know I I trust my parents but as I'm going through this part in my life you know it's important to explore and to sometimes figure things out on your own because in life you're going to have to figure things out on your own and it's wonderful that there are trusting parents out there who can offer support but that is not always the case for example drawing up I had a childhood best friend he was trans and when his parents found out about his identity they sent him to a conversion therapy and I have not seen any news this is not a madeup fact I have not made this up for sympathy this is a true fact that I have suffered gr from and my friends have suffered even from I'm up here speaking for him for kids like him who could not come to this meeting who did not feel safe because there are people who do not want to protect his rights or kids like his people say that students are too young to know their gender identity maybe some aren't maybe some don't figure out figure it out until they're older or later in their life but I know kids who do know that in some way they are different and school should a comfortable place for those children to explore that because we want to create a safe space for our children and creating a hostile environment through these meetings is not creating that safe space the world is changing right we all know that there's going to be new ideas there's going to be new things pushed that aren't always comfortable and it's important to meet those things head on especially if it is something that people identify as especially if it is a civil right a human right that a person should feel comfortable going to school and being themselves I wrote a letter people here wrote letters and people here called those letters fake our letters were not fake our voices are our own and there are not people telling me what to say I am here speaking for myself and for everyone El else who could not speak up thank you you you hear me um I didn't have any plans on talking today but there so much to unpack so I just want to be my name Angel Lon I live on 15th Street I've been in for about 10 years now two kids in system um I did have a conversation with my son before I got here who does not identify with this community but I did ask him because he did have some friends that identify the community and he did feel that they should have a safe space within their teachers and their faculty within the school because he did identify teachers that he thought s safe with but as a parent and as a mother who's active I think that we're just kind of missing some heart of unpacking this is that if my child is failing if my child has to go through an IEP I'm pulled into the conversation because there is a group of people that have identified that we are all in this together to help this child go through this process so I if we're touching on the fact that whether or not a parent should be trivy to something a child is mentally going through or not mentally something a child is going through within identity to remove the parent from the conversation to me to a little Aon I think it's important that we continue and maintain line of communication with the parents and unfortunately some parents are not safe and that is true and that is factual so I do think that it's the discernment of the professional that the child came to to make that assessment of whether or not how you're going to facilitate that line of communication with that parent or even if you are but to just outright say that you're not I think it's a disservice to parents that are active that have a l of communication with their kids to remove them from the conversation more importantly um I'm losing my thoughts here um I'm losing my thoughts here um I just think that just try to keep the line of communication open if there's something going on with our children as a parent we deserve to know if there's something that's happening because if I if I move from this community and I remove my kids from this school system who's the safe person that they're going to be able to go to if I remove that person from their life and I'm not privy to what they're going through on the inside so just consider some of these things when we're talking about this conversation consider the fact that there are places that are not safe for children consider the fact that there are places that kids can go to within their home stting but also consider the fact that we're all in this together and that it's important to not break that line of communication from a parents perspective thank you for your [Applause] time I am an from Edgewater the me and I am queer and I grew up a long time ago but all on you was Boy Meets Girl they marry girl has babies I didn't know there was any other way to live had I known my life would be very different or and the other thing is nobody is trying to take parents out of the equ parents if they if the children feel comfortable with them they can be as involved as they want as they need to be but if they're not comfortable they're not ready to come out to the erand all we want is where the kids to have safe space at school and be able to to talk to adults that they feel they can [Applause] [Music] about hi I'm 332 Lincoln Avenue um oh first of all I want to ask how many people are online we know how many people do we have online [Music] um so I'm here today asking the board to keep policy 5756 which has been in place for the past N9 years five years in its kind of state all of which I believe Miss um Kat and Mr Rino have been on the board um for those years and have no problem with it right so I ask that we please focus on issues such as teacher shortage is greatly affecting our student body instead of spending more time and money on appealing an existing policy to remove the protection for the students who may need it so speaking of supporting the lgbtq community after last year's forly Pride event Miss Kat has made this public comment to Mrs Z from the prison Club this is her comment thank you for all of your hard work in organizing this event your Boe greatly appreciates it our District's Public Relations efforts are going to be more formalized starting in July with a more formal initiative so this event will will be get wider publicity next year great job this is Miss Kat's comment so I'm curious to know what formal PR initiatives the board has done for the past eight months because this comment was posted last year to promote this event or was it just a personal public publicity stunt to show support to show support I hope that the bo is not making promises that you have no intention of keeping because it sounds like that comment was posted on behalf of the board what is sounds like Miss Kat is in support of the lgbtq community the action to repeal 5756 served the total opposite in the actual words of our students it was a betrayal to the lgbtq youth so again instead of us wasting more time and money on repealing 57 56 50 geez I can't even speak now 5756 let's spend the energy on improving our schools work together to hire more teachers and retain teachers please not forcing them to out the children and maybe spend a little bit more extra time and money to provote for the pride event so we can continue to embrace inclusion and diversity in this community thank [Applause] you okay Mr rero I think the oh sorry sorry see you good evening U my name is Sarah crian I have two kids in the district I live on Second Street and I love Fort Lee I love my transgender family member I'm a little shout out and I love my lgbtq neighbors um I would like to say keep 5756 in place I think the New Jersey attorney general said it best he said repealing 5756 will eliminate critical protections for our trans transgender students critical protections for their safety I'd like to respectfully disagree with M Miss cbath tonight who said that Fort Lee got a black eye because parents stood up in support of the lgbtq community I'd like to offer a different perspective I think Fort Lee got a black eye because five board members moved to repeal 5756 without a plan infl they rushed to develop a new policy that was leaked to the community in a few days was developed in a few days they rushed to have a special session which I just learned cost over $1,000 and they wrote a policy themselves without for my understanding these five members don't have any expertise in K through2 education or mental health or gender lgbtq in contrast 5756 when it was developed by the state when Chris Christie in 2017 wrote into law that it should be developed it took two years to get to the district and that's because they took a thoughtful process because it was about the safety of kids and they consulted a panel of experts to develop this importantly the five Board of Education members have said they've done this for parent rights and for those of you who aren't familiar who may be watching the parents Rights Movement was launched by moms for Liberty and the New Jersey project um and across the country and state they have been repealing Health curricula to sex head they've been rolling back protections for lgbtq students including policy 5657 they've been taking down lgbtq welcome Flags they've been ending diversity equity and inclusion programs and they've been Banning books about Martin Luther King Jr and Ruby Bridges and incredible civil rights Champions and if you're watching this thinking that could never happen happen in Fort Lee it can and it has and a few people have already raised curriculum 3 last week at the Board of Education meeting that was voted down by the same five Board of Education members for an instructor that had an lgbtq flag on his LinkedIn page and it was focused on diversity and inclusion it was voted down by these same five board members in August of last year curriculum 5 and an August Board of Education meeting a curriculum vendor was voted down after a parents said their agency once worked on lgbtq issues and those some of those same board members voted that down it's a pattern so if there's any black guy that's the pattern I was going to end on a quote by Martin Luther King Jr but those books are being banned by the parents rights Advocates so instead I'll just say actions are more important than words and watch the actions of these five board Catherine Conrad 1565 Anderson ay to our queer students they came for you yes they did but we are here to come through for you with you we circled the wagons pens ready made those calls wrote those letters we pressed we will continue to press they came for you but we are here to come through to make sure that you are included in the definition of all because we are fired up they speak as if they if you don't exist as if you cannot feel as if you cannot see that their backtrack their take backs are empty they came for you they came for you and we are here to come through to ensure that your light continues to shine and to our Rebel teachers continue to fight continue to teach continue to create these safe spaces filled with empathy and dignity and love oh you Rebel teachers the front line to the world will become continue to hand out your smiles and your high fives and your gentle reminders of compassion continue to stroke the fires of curiosity continue to encourage critical thinking continue to cultivate autonomy you see the rainbow is too bright for some it's still it's blinding to their ill will towards our students towards our teachers towards our tomorrow to you Rebel teachers continue to Champion these students especially the ones who feel that the walls of their Sanctuary are a little more scary a little less trustful oh you Rebel teachers we need you more now than ever continue to fight for these students even when this group of adults bound to serve all of you to cultivate and sustain it but choose not to you chose not to you chose not to you chose not to you chose not to support them we all sitting there and talk about the lessons that we learn when we are children the very first lesson we learn is your abs to speak louder than your words so when you do something against a group that you say are an ally and all of a sudden you got a clap back Welcome to our group of people that are sitting behind us that are going to support these kids no matter what you choose to do and when you sit here and you say that you're going one way then you do the other we know we [Applause] know [Music] hello um my name is marar ybi and I live at 1018 J my way I would just like to say that I am in favor of this policy because I as a student myself in this school district believe that no kid should be outed without their consent and of course I I believe this with a major caveat that no kid should be outed with their consent unless there is a major threat to their health or their safety of course I'm saying both of these things because I want children to be safe including me and including my peers and of course there are policies in place to make sure that children who are actually in danger Who come out and and actually happen to be in danger and this needs to be reported to their parents that it is but of course of like without these situations ignoring these no kids should be outed without the consent it's frankly just it's just taking away their right to privacy and really it's their own identity because whenever a child comes to a teacher and says I'm questioning my gender identity that's taken as oh I'm coming out as transgender that might not be true but it's going to be taken as that and it's going to be told to those parents if this if this rule is not in place it's all up to the teachers whether they tell their parents or not not whether they are going to keep this person's information safe or if they are forced to tell them because they think it's a it's a safety concern it could very well not be a safety concern but they are still allowed and are fully able to get away with telling their parents when really the bigger safety concern would be telling the parents would be letting them know because now no longer is their home a safe EnV environment and now their safe environment in school is no longer one because it's really led to them being outed and just it's not fair for them to like to just not be able to have their own voice heard when they say something about their identity and it's just told really nilly by someone else it's it's not right children have the right to come out when they think they are comfortable with doing so and and if they say their identity is really contributing if they say that they're in an unsafe situation because of their identity then that's when we can notify parents that's what that's when they are able to step in when they should step in and help and protect that child's safety but otherwise the child knows best about their identity they always will and when I and what I'm saying is that they should not be outed they they should only tell their parents what they are when they are able and ready to thank [Applause] you challenge over here um hi my name is Michelle philippin I live at 2298 Way Avenue fortly um I want to say that I I believe in you I believe in all nine of the board members I believe that if Cliffside Park Edgewater Leonia cler tenly if our neighboring districts are able to figure out the nuances and practicalities of this policy that we are so suddenly worried about you can do it too I believe in you um they're not wasting their time on this right and they're not because they seem to understand that this policy is based on basic facts like the fact that being a member of the LGBT community is not by default a mental health concern that the wrap around care of a strong and inclusive School Community is exactly what we hope for all of our kids that the necessity of speaking up and speaking out as the young person bravely before me just said is part of this policy that notifying parents if a child is being bullied is at risk of self harm is somehow in danger is actually a part of the policy um that no one no teacher no principal no guidance counselor I know it wasn't said tonight but it was said at the last meeting no one is giving your child prescriptions or bringing them to the doctor please can we stop that Madness no one knows the practicalities of being in school with kids like teachers I love my students I love my job so much but teachers do not manage students gender transitions please we are underpay as it is that is not what this is no one is knocking anyone's Parenting by saying hey you know what for some kids school is a safer place than home that just is the truth turn on the news I'm a teacher with 16 years of experience and if you want to talk about teacher vacancies I have to tell you I would not want to go near a board who is playing politics with children's civil rights and their safety [Applause] I would not want to teach in a town whose Board of Education cares more about playing with a right-wing political movement than following the best practice guidelines of this state and that's my hello um my name is Candace and I'm on Westby place I find a very dangerous and inappropriate misrepresenting this policy as something that has the intention to keep secrets from parents whatever your fear is I think we can logically remember this was passed by Governor Chris Christie and unless you think his administration and our current doe is gunning for parents right we know that just not to be true this policy has been in place for almost a decade like everybody has said went by law firm experts and Specialists there was no issue here there was no issue then there's no issue now and again it's been in place for almost a decade regardless of what happens and how this goes down I trust the teachers of Fort Lee to continue to protect all kids even after the spectacle that you fell for teachers know that these kids and all kids need their parents and a safe home environment we know this and we don't ever seek to relace replace that relationship we are trying to do what we have always done which is continue to create a space that is safe so students can learn and if that child's fixation is on being worried that they're going to be outed or bullied it's my job as a teacher to make sure they don't have to worry about that and can focus on N this policy gives guidance on just that a child tells a teacher that they want to be called by another name at school cool oh wait a minute let's not retraumatization New Jersey anti-discrimination law by creating a memo about this child that's singling them out wait let me check 5756 oh you it says here that the school can create a file or record separate of their permanent legal record and I can record the preferred name so we do not re-traumatize them throughout the day and they can focus on learning 5756 gives guidance on how not to influence our students encourage or discourage but remain a safe place as they work to figure the this out honestly let's play this out you don't like this policy you want more parent communication so Timmy comes to school wearing a necklace is that a signal for me as a teacher do I start a process do I send home the letter to say your child is exhibiting gender confusion and must see a counselor that to me seems far more involved than what 5756 in its current form is saying instead I would like to say Timmy nice necklace can you come to the back so we can do math you are actually requiring more influence rather than allowing the child to just be who they are again as before I ask that you do not fall for this distraction and this path that takes us to Florida and allow 5756 and thank you anyone else in the public who has not yet spoken wish to speak before we go to the zoom particip okay Mr rero you're up n n you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes um hi Mel kesco 254 Tom Hunter Road a couple of things I wasn't a aware that we can bring random people from all over the state and the state next door to talk to this meeting so I should have been more prepared and I wasn't aware that we can bring experts to the meeting either so I asked the board before they make their decision to give me the opportunity to find a the transitioner from somewhere and let them speak about regret cuz none of the experts so far have put forward the way of dealing with this thing when people have regrets about transitioning none there's no one capable of identifying kids that might regret it later that's one thing the other thing is I wasn't aware that we're allowed to be off camera when we speak to the board either we had a at the last meeting we had a number of testimonies from random people on the internet I have an office full of parents that would gladly testify if they're off camera because they're afraid for their jobs because of the way in which the state legislator put forward that they're going to threaten or work with their employees to threaten their jobs so in regards to the policy I oppose any policy that seeks to keep me in the dark as a parent from the moment that the child is we are not given the child home unless we have a car seat and the nurse goes to the practice of how to care for the child if I don't report to the pediatrician the ped Patrician calls child services on me the minute that a certain time frame passes to check on the kid and then I I take the kid to school and same thing with the teachers the teacher analyze the kid see if he's okay see if he has some such and such they ask about the kids status and they will call Child Services if there's anything to the kid from my perspective there's no need for such a policy because if something happened to the kids the the school has everything in the power to notify the authorities and write it on the other hand me as a parent I'm fully liable for the kid up until 18 if the kid does something bad guess who's getting sued for damages not the kid me as a parent therefore it's in my right to be fully informed on what the kid does in school or anywhere elsewhere because none of you will be responsible for these kids when they mess up oh and by the way about informing how are you going to plan to do when something happens to the kid say the kid commits tries to commit SU inside that school you're going to call me up and be like hey by the way your kid is in the hospital he tried to cut his hands your problem deal with it that's how it's going to go right because we're not informed because it's going to go on the health record in regards to the confusion in school about names you wouldn't have this issue if there wouldn't be separate records now you got to go with the file around classes and try to figure out which kid is and you're going to send reports home and you're going to mess it up and we'll find out from the other parents and your mess ups that's [Music] all Eric Q you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes s q yes hello do you hear me yes hi thank you thanks for allowing me to speak um I just wanted to mention a few issues the sidewalks on the around the intermediate and U Middle School are deplorable uh they are in full violations with local state and federal laws the mayor is aware of it and he said it's school's responsibility to fix them our kids are growing and some of them are getting spinal um issues because they need their chair T to be adjustable we have eighth graders that are sitting on chairs and desks of second grades so we need funding and we need them as soon as possible now as far as for the gender 56 and 57 have to go and be removed and rooted out the law of discrimination is the law of the land paa said it and the judge in the appell court again app P Court not the lower courts AEL court is the upper Court in Toronto New Jersey said it that everything has been handled no one is here to discriminate any child because they feel like turtle or they feel like something else the gender has been decided from the almighty Lord when he created them as far as for other issues um in in s sear meetings um we want to participate and we want all to be rotated Mr Kravitz if you ever see the same faces coming to your office please let them know that the rest of the group in CAC meetings wants to participate we didn't vote anyone to be a president in our group we didn't vote for anyone to just be there all the time um thank you very much for your attention abolish 56 and 57 I yield my time to the other parents jpf you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes jpf hey good evening can you hear me yes good even uh good evening I'm Jay Paran freed and I live on one Wall Street in the Coitsville section of Fort Lee I have a daughter in first grade in the district and married to a man I'm gay I ask myself today often I ask myself very often how many times do I come out to this community it honestly feels like every day I do it because it normalizes us my family who we are and who will will always be part of the lgbtq community why am I choosing to come out to you again tonight because it's personal and it's my choice to tell you you may not believe that this is any for for any preconceived notion about so sexual orientation or identity but I have known that I was gay since I was in first grade I've always felt different I'm Filipino American I'm from an immigrant family I'm part of a broken family I was raised in part this is a surprise for a lot of You by two men my uncle and his husband who I call my dads the list can go on for how I could feel other but those are all outwardly seen traits being gay and identifying as such is personal and private I met one of my best friends with we were minors we went through a lot together as Most teens do first loves first heartbreaks first Jobs first this first that first time coming out them bisexual me gay a lot of what we went through weren't always vetted through our parents because we had an understanding with one another let's not ignore the fact that friends and people not part of our immediate family are just easier to talk to especially when you're growing up let's be honest it's easier now as adults speaking to our friends I believe gender and fluid and gender is and gender is fluid and gender is beautiful recently this best friend that I just talked about came out to me as a trans woman she might have felt this all her life for all I know but I was accepted into her bubble of safety and Trust to self-identify who she really is 23 years after she started having those feelings but I still accept her and I love her for who she is why do I share with this with you tonight because these issues that we're talking about it talks about identity 756 represents a safety net for people who are part of the lgbtq community it's about self-identification and safety look at me in my virtual eyes y'all we gays will tell you when we're ready okay I was ready to come out when I was six and 13 and 16 and 18 and 20 and 22 and 28 when I legally said yes to my now husband and 34 when I said wow I'm going to be a father 40 I'm coming out again and on my own bition and I'm here to tell you that the right thing to do is to keep this Common Sense policy in place because it works good night [Applause] Mike also you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Mike oo good evening everyone Mike oo 230 Warren Avenue in fortly I'm at work first thing I want to say trying to push a policy is reckless we should not be trying to pull a policy or amend a policy or revise a policy or add a policy at this moment in time because the the reality is the attorney general Matt plen will be suing this school district that's the reality and and to all my board members are trying to put this policy you are not qualified professionally to handle this all by yourselves so trying to write a policy is just as Reckless as a teacher who has no qualifications handling these kind of situations I am consistent constantly so this board I don't recommend reading a policy because you will be getting notified by the attorney Attorney General's Office of the State sorry but that's the truth the next thing couple of things that need to be clarified there are 24 school districts in this state out have rescinded policy 5756 and not one school district has been sued by the Attorney General Matt plaen regarding this even Monday night in Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School and the list continues to go to some of my fellow old board members out there in 2015 and 2017 when I sat on that board and we voted on policy 5756 parental consent was mandatory it was it's the truth you didn't have a problem with it then now you have a problem with it right so you got always play the both sides of Defense but think about it yeah we sat and we had no problem with it because there was parental consent all right so you can't play both sides of the fence next thing I went to this board two to three straight meetings and asked for procedures regarding this and all I got was well we're just following the law there is no procedure in this school district your roles as board members is to minimize any possible liability the heck the superintendent in this school district has no accounting for anything and guess what when he gets sued his name will be put on there and you're blindsided him that's not right and me I can speak of a parent with two children with IEPs if you don't tell me what's going on with my children with IEPs you will be sued because it is the law to tell me period weend policy 5756 because you have no procedures in place and do not do not try to put a new policy on because the school district will get sued by the Attorney General slow it down and take it Peace by piece peace everyone Ben you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Ben hi good evening can you hear me yes hi good evening this is Ben Tang I live on 435 West F play place first I'd like to give uh to share a positive update regarding my girl substitute teacher situation that I raised last time on Monday I received an email from Mrs etra who will be taking over for the remainder of the school year she is one of the many beloved teachers in this District my girls is eager to resume her Learning Journey under her guidance I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to the dedicated educators of Fort who work tirelessly in this unexpected yet understandable situation many teachers stepped in and helped I'm especially grateful for the principal's transparency explaining the process to both myself and the class she wants the best for the kids once again this reaffirms the Deep core deep care and dedication that fortly Educators have for our kids thank you now now let's discuss the pressing concern policy 57 which is taking up a lot of our tax pay money right now kid says the dest things they express themselves with honesty and with and Innocents often without filters they are still learning about the language and social norms they are still children navigating their way through the complexities of the world do we need elaborate proc procedure and protocols even involving expert psychologists in response to any innocent statement by children as parents our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our children yet there comes a time when we must allow them room to explore and grow even if it means letting them stumble along the way it is through these experience that they learn to navigate life's challenges and emerge stronger let's give the children the space to take risk make mistakes and learn from them policy 5756 was crafted by experts in this field this is not a rushed decision this is not the time for politics this town voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden Phil Murphy Josh gimer and Mark sakich my wife Amy kotang received the highest vote in this year's B of at Education Election as well this is a progressive town and this town has consistently voted for inclusivity and diversity for all people put the politics aside and focus on protecting all the children they are your constituents as well this is the Legacy you have for this town keep policy 5756 in place as is and make forly proud thank you Leonid you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Leonid can you hear me yes okay so this message the first half of the message to the candidates from for strong you were compaion on parental rights so we are asking you to keep your word to keep your promise and remember you will voted in there are a lot more of us than people who were making noise in the cafetorium and my next message is to the opposing group forly together all I want is uh if my child who is with me by the way if she decides to use pronouns I want to be notified but you seem you and your supporters seem to be to have issue with that so I'm not going to ask you what issue you have because I know what issue you have I'm going to ask you to mind your own business my family my family Affairs is none of your business and I hope uh I made myself very clear that's it for me and my da Karina Karina you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Karina Karina you're still muted Karina all right there you go Karina you there all right Karina I'm going to put you back with the attendees if you'd like to speak please raise your hand again and I'll put you in the queue Tracy oh um hello hello sorry I had to reload this is Karina go ahead yes uh I I I apolog apologize for that um hello um Karina manukian 54 Virginia Avenue I would like to read what my friend has to say because she was not able to say what she had to like when your child comes out to you as gay or TR you don't tell them that you love them no matter what but um um and yes there is no your child children are afraid of coming out because of the expect of what the reaction of their parents might be and this is especially dangerous for Trans teens because um of the because of the amount of danger of being trans at home it is shown by studies that 41% of trans commit suicide it this higher than any other members of lgbtq community by removing this policy you are causing danger to um all the trans students in our school I have trans friends and I would not like them to be put into any harm because of removal of this policy and um so I it's it it's not fair to just REM remove someone's rights to their pronouns and the gender I understand from parents that you want to know what's going on with your child I understand that however someone's gender and sexuality but it's it's theirs they don't have to tell you right now they can tell you when they're ready thank [Applause] you Tracy M you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes c m hi I just want to make sure everyone can hear me yes okay perfect um my name is Tracy Moore um I live at 251 Maple Street um I am a senior at Fort Le high school and I am currently the uh president of prism which is also known as the GSA at fle high [Applause] school I'm really sorry I couldn't be there in person um but I'm here right now before I begin I would just like people to know because I know that there have been accusations in the past that students have been told by faculty um what to say I'm nearly an adult so I am here um my free will I'm doing this because I am president of prism and I have dedicated my time to protect queer and trans students just like the board is supposed to protect all students of forly um I would just like to say that I'm very disappointed that you guys would want to repeal policy 5756 this has been acting so many trans youth within Fort Lee um I feel like it's very important for several of you to understand that fortly includes a town is a town where so many people from different cultures um come from and unfortunately within those cultures a lot of those people are not accepting of the lgbtq plus Community I have met several people where they have been put into arranged marriages they have been sent back to their home country and a lot of you may think that's illegal well a lot of things are illegal and they still happen it's really important that you all know that your children are not your property you have the privilege to know what your children are feeling and they have the they have the option to tell you unless your child is in danger of course the staff is not going to tell you what they're feeling in inside so please do not ever say that the staff of Fort Lee has not done enough because they have and a lot of them are in the audience in person telling you that they are here to protect their students I would also like to ask parents before I end why is it that you want to know if your child is trans is it because you want to be educated or is it because you want to send them to a conversion therapy if you really love your child you would just let them be as they are there should not be an quote unquote emergency for this to be discussed because it is not an emergency and it is not a mental health issue it is just their identity so I am not asking you I am telling you do not repeal policy 575 thank you so much for Bria you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Pria hi good evening can every can everyone see me and hear me we can hear you can't see you but we can hear you Kaa Patel 24142 Street good evening um board members I just want to take a moment to thank and appreciate all those students who spoke at the Boe meetings and penned the Anon myth letters to the Boe to those students your courage and words are truly inspiring thank you for reminding me that parenting is a beautiful Journey thank you for reminding me me that in the process of raising kids parents also have the opportunity to raise themselves raise themselves to be better to do better thank you for reminding me that policy 5756 is not at odds with parents it's essentially an extension of what parents do which is to love accept and offer a safeguard a substitute in case kids feel more comfortable in expressing themselves first to someone else other than the parent themselves thank you for reminding me of what a true Community does a true Community loves supports and looks after each other dear board members please don't put Fort Lee back a decade in terms of basic civil rights our kids deserve to be heard and protected they are the true beneficiaries of policy 5756 don't try to fix something that is working just fine let's leave it intact and leave it alone thank you [Applause] Ali you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes ali um hello my name is Amina this is my second time speaking for this reappearing policy the protection for your youth is not meant to be a wedge between parental rights or between familial responsibility and relationships this is meant to ensure we stay safe and help focus on our education which is what's important without the threat of constantly being overwhelmed or outed without our consent if your child isn't comfortable telling you stripping us of this critical right will only drive more distance between you and them my proposition is to shift the attention from repping this law to instead nurturing a safer environment and working with your resources and counselors we have on board to communicate in better ways with your kids extend extend your effort into dealing with more pressing matters and address the root cause of the seeming distrust they have for you when one latches onto the idea of the threat of parental rights when in reality there's no such threat to that area it begs the question if you really are concerned about parental rights or the control of your kids do you care more about repression or our safety being trans doesn't mean immediate transitions or surgical changes does not mean going under operations or black market testosterone those who are not educated on our lives should not make crucial decisions for our safety there is a reason why therapists and mental professionals do not tell everyone the details of their patient regarding their identity it is their right and against the law in the same sense mental health professionals in an educational environment should not be required to notify anyone of their identity identity because there is no way that they can be somehow a risk I'm telling you please to not to not re-appeal 5756 thank you for your time AAR you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes aslar hello can you hear me yes hi uh so um I was at the last meeting and I'm not really prepared because I wasn't really planning on speaking today but I heard a parent calling me out earlier and it sort of made me upset so I did not change my name in the school system I don't know why that person would think that changing my name is unacceptable because you know some people Go by different names like Alex short for Alexander but other than that um I dislike my name purely for the meaning not not because of anything else it's because of what my name means and I would like to say that I know a friend that was accidentally outed to their parents and their parents abused them for it they hid the bruises really well but a teacher heard them talking about it to friends so um so basically CPS was called but um but their parents forced them to lie to CPS and they now moved out of the country but I still worry about them every single day if I am out it especially by any of my Educators I have a risk of being kicked out I have a risk of being verbally abused I know that many students will have it worse but he was shunned when I mentioned like alternate genders to my parents and I would like to ask why do parents need to know everything about their kids if their kids don't feel safe with telling their parents something it is for a reason I want to make it clear that even if we're deemed as kids we have our own minds and we will always know ourselves better than anyone else especially as a te I know my parents will not handle well if I was out to them and I get that parents want to know what is going on with their kids but isn't but it is an invasion of privacy for our teachers and counselors to tell our parents our sexuality and and anything else that is not in risk for us harming ourselves and what about all the safe space stickers and all the signs across the school and like all around our school buildings like are the teachers being required to put that there no the teachers support us we should be able to express ourselves freely to the people we are comfortable with but by removing the 5756 policy our students will not be safe and yeah I'm done our students will not be safe that's all I want to say [Applause] [Music] Diana lad you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Diana you're still muted hi can you guys hear me yes okay great hi I'm Diana lad I'm the psych teacher at Fort Lee High School and I'm the very proud adviser of the Fort Lee High School prism Club I just wanted I'm a nervous speaker but I thought that it was really important for me to be here tonight supporting my students I am so very proud of all of you for speaking up and speaking about what is right human rights all you students have given me hope for the future I wanted you to all know that you are fantastic and I appreciate you I a teacher and my responsibility is to protect and care for each of my students as if they were my own and that's what I will do I will fight tooth and nail to do what is best for these young people my daughter is 5 years old and if she didn't feel comfortable for any reason coming out to me but felt trust with a teacher or a school member so be it at least she has a trusted adult to talk to her life and keeping her safe is way more important than my ego as a parent keep [Applause] 5756 i o you you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have 3 minutes hey hello I'm outside the building right now with my friend since I can't join in person um policy 5756 I think that um if this gets repealed the public has been saying this over and over again and they've been telling the board members how much they don't want this to get repealed knowing everything about your is not a is a privilege not a right and only comes with parents actually talking to the children and creating an environment where they feel safe to talk to you if you want to know things about your kids you have to talk to them and make them feel safe enough to talk to you about like these things um oh people bring up these hypothetical situations to diminish these concerns that we have about repealing policy 5756 I don't think anyone in Fort Lee would go as a turtle um I think these hypothetical situations they're only making them up to back up their cause which says a lot the perception of parental rights is misconstrued and some kids just don't feel safe telling their parents that they're trans and that's understandable but if this policy gets repealed and a kid is added then that just escalates the situation and puts the child at risk danger in their home Fort Le is supposed to be a safe place but this doesn't make it feel very safe because not every student is in a loving and supporting environment you can't say that every single parent in fortly is supportive and makes their children feel safe that's just not to the board members please make your vote based off what the public is telling you all these emails that you've been getting the petitions that are being made all these different they for a reason the people want to keep the policy they don't want it to get repealed because lives are at stake like this is really detrimental to trans people and um I just think that it'd be best if it was kept listen to us please listen to us there are so many people telling you this please make your decision based off what the people want because they've been telling you this over and over and they've been been sending emails and and posting up outside because they couldn't join the actual in-person thing please just listen to please listen we're outside in the cold right now cold as hell for this is really cold outside my freaking J jacket like we're standing outside in the cold right now because like we want to speak in this we really don't want this to get repealed please please listen this is very important and I think the trans people at in forly deserve to feel safe and [Applause] protected thank you to for listening to my [Applause] [Music] yapping Diana B you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Diana B hi uh I'm Diana barell I live in 2000 Lynwood Avenue Bley New Jersey um I am a masters of social work student I think we should be having this conversation based on sound research and science one of our loudest voices in town against the policy has been saying on social media in recent days that being transgender is a mental issue I wanted to make sure that everyone in the this room understands that being transgender is not a mental health condition of the American Medical Association the American Academy of Pediatrics the American Psychological Association the American school counselor Association the American Psychiatric association the National Institute of Health the National Association of school psychologists um and I could go on but I would like to also share um within the Diagnostics and statistical Manual of mental disorders which is the fifth edition text res that we use um rates of suicide cality and suicide excuse me um attempts for transgender individuals are reported to range from 30 to 80% with risks factors including past Mal treatment gender victimization depression substance abuse and younger age also gender non-conformity may appear at all ages after the first two to three years of childhood and may interfere with daily activities um these individuals who do not have access to health services and Mental Health Services may be impeded by structural barriers hostility towards working with this patient po population has to be very careful thank you very [Applause] much Albert Albert Swang you've been promoted to the panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Albert hey everyone can you hear me yes hi hi um I'm Albert um I wasn't planning to call in but I I heard of a lot of stories tonight that really touched my heart so I might as well just say a couple of thoughts that I had in my mind so I don't really have anything prepared on this um I just want to understand you know I've kind of been following Bard ofed meetings here and there but I just don't understand like why now like why now are we doing this I just don't understand why you know in some of the previous meetings we're talking about sex ed now it's talking about this but it's just seems like a coincidence that this is the hottest trending topic right now on Facebook so are we setting policy by what's people talking about on social media so because of that is this has nothing to do specifically with Fort Lee because I've listening to all these stories and I don't hear anything that has specifically happened in my town like there hasn't been anything but now it just seems like we're following a trend today this is this policy tomorrow it's that policy and then whatever is they're fighting for it's going to be that policy but so so many kids tonight have came out and spoke and I am deeply touched by their stories so are we going to listen to their stories and like communicate and talk to them and do something about it because I think we need to do that because this is a fortly board ofet system this is not every like this is specifically to our town and we need to listen to what they're saying so that's all I really have to say is that we need to focus our priorities so I just again over and over now again I don't understand why we just follow a trend when we set when we are setting these policies and another concern I have is like when I look at the policies on our Fort Lee page you know 57 uh 5756 there's what one title for this policy one word and is transgender by removing this policy we're saying they don't exist which is wrong which is very wrong you can't remove that word in our policy how does it hurt us just to have this word a word transgender it doesn't matter the content what's in it just to have that word and saying they exist is all it matters to me that this word needs to stay in the policy you can't remove that so thank you so much for your time and that's all I had there are no more raised hands of attendees that haven't spoken [Music] already that Michelle Perez Michelle Perez you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes hi everybody here we are again are we having fun yet I am Michelle Perez 555 North Avenue let's close the evening so some of the arguments in favor of repealing or changing policy 5756 involve Hal truths and red herrings amending is not a good idea it might be the only thing I ever agree with on Mickey alsoo example School District where the board didn't the board did repeal 5756 and then amended its own version was sued by the state the court stated the Handover District's amended version would cause harm and infringe on civil liberties the court also stated there's no infringement on the constitutional rights of parents in the 2019 version of policy 5756 which is what we have had in place for the past five years so policy 5756 has so far caused no harm in Fort Lee and we've had it as is for 5 years look it is not a mental health issue you've heard this all night it's a civil rights issue although outing a child or adult against one's will could cause a mental health issue and violate that individual civil rights at any age not just middle school or high school students and it also does not have to be mandatory to be the right thing to have in place the philosopher senica wrote there is no right way to do the wrong thing the right thing is to listen to the American Psychological Association National Education Association American Academy of Pediatrics UNESCO and many others that agree 5756 is beneficial in its current form there are organizations that this board normally would deem respectable and heed their expertise why not now our school district peers in Bergen County all have 5756 in place as is and a lot of them also use Genesis for recordkeeping they are not focusing on this issue why are we here tonight my hope is that maybe because this board has heard from the public and some of you have had time to reconsider your position it is an honorable thing to change an opinion based on facts and not a political agenda it is not a sign of weakness it's actually intellectual maturity the opening sentence of the policy says quote the board of education is committed to providing a safe supportive and inclusive learning environment for all students end quote that that right there that is a central part of your job it's even in this policy it's not minimizing liability it is providing a safe supportive and inclusive learning environment for all students but I've noticed how some of you have voted down a few curriculum agenda items in the past two years that were for diversity equity and inclusion training not giving any reasons for doing so and correcting each other in the middle of a roll call vote to ensure it failed don't believe me check the videotape so tonight I ask you to do your job well leave this policy as is and approve supporting Dei curriculum in the future because there is no right way to do the wrong thing do not modify it do not repeal it and please stop bringing this up leave 5756 as is do your job to provide a safe supportive and inclusive learning environment for all our students and thank you to our teachers We Appreciate [Applause] You Margarita vadner you've been promoted to panelists please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes Margarita vadner hello yes hello uh all right I didn't write speeches it it seems like everyone everything was written people even repeated the same sentences I noticed some similarities the same phrases and some of the um you know speeches anyway um I don't have not really seen uh people calling uh transgender people um um being uh having a mental disorder I never seen that um I saw that parents and the board member because they love uh our lgbtq community worry about their mental health the health of the small children and they are worried about having this issue between a child and the teacher uh there was some mentioning that there are some therapist at schools but it doesn't have it can be just between the teacher and the child and the teacher is not a therapist so there is really a big concern about the mental health issue and the parents are notified only when there is a risk you know to the to the child's Li life but and that can be too late you know so that's that's really my concern uh we just want to know that the students exist come on we have proud events we have Prisma club we have rambos all around Fort Le we don't need like you know a policy to remember we have those students but my understanding that the town is very divided and several board members came together and trying to find a common ground my understanding is that they basically keep the policy with some minor changes they want want to take small kids out of it and maybe like to strengthen the uh the the the you know the mental uh concerns a little more so I don't understand why can't we give it a chance and review this policy to find a common ground um nobody look at it I actually plow a transgender men who came and said leave the little kids out of it look at their policy because uh several people and and community members kind of like your back and forth and discuss how to find a common ground in this very divided town so I think we have to give it a chance and see if it can be acceptable by the majority um and again of course you know uh uh many many parents don't speak they're behind the screen so the board members have to do what is the best for majority of parents and the majority of of children not only those who attended uh you know the meeting in person thank you so [Music] much there are no more raised hands okay may I have a motion to close the floor to the public second night all in favor anyos okay um moving on to resolutions normally we don't do this just letting you know but I don't really care and it's probably the only time I'm going to see him there so I just want to say how proud I am of my son who came of something that he put forth in portley high school because he was the one that did the position to get um the the club started and everything even though he had some people that were against him he push forward and he got it done and I can't tell you how proud I am of you and you're definitely a better than I'll ever okay moving on the I'm hearing a lot of I've been having computer problems I think I may be signed in on two different computers I'm not sure okay so moving on um there is only one resolution on the agenda so do I have a motion to approve item one p I'm making a motion to table it pending review of the revised policy so the motion currently on the table is to table one p in order to discuss and review the proposed revision could everyone use their mics for some reason I had to sign back in and I can't hear yeah can we motion to just vote on it tonight on this policy first motion if I may just number one I just asked members of the public to please refrain from interrupting the meeting uh the public participation section of the meeting is over um we appreciate apprciate that um number two Let turn the lights on uh and number three board members excuse me there's been a motion that's been properly moved and seconded uh the motion to table the resolution uh and refer to the policy committee for further review and study um that motion was made uh and seconded so now is discussion on that motion so we have to do a vote on that particular motion um any other items depend on the outcome can I ask a question question I'll turn back up to the president has been moved seconded discussion I just want to say does that motion come before what's on paper is there is there an order second order of different things we vote on is there a reason why we not vote on what's on the agenda first and then accept new addition I think that the president did yeah resol may I have a motion to approve item one p that's the only item on the agenda so do we do we vote on that first that's what well we got to that I made a motion strike that the motion I'm sorry so the motion was to table the item so technically you're voting on that item yeah correct just want to make the differentiation once we table it do we just need one more vote to abolish it or do we go back to scratch board and start from scratch again so so again so if you if you table it pursuing to your board bylaw um I think it's 0131 I believe is we refer to it before um in order to adopt a new uh uh byall or policy which this is a new policy 3319 [Music] that so you're basically your the the motion the table is to table the second reading of the policy that's being my motion was to table one p which is referring to 5756 correct 5756 because it doesn't say here that's why I got confused I'm sorry um so you've already had the first reading of it this is the second reading of to abolish 5756 if you table it uh it will still be the second reading the next time it is brought forward abolish um so again what your what I heard earlier this is 3 hours ago now conversation was to table 5756 to allow the policy committee ample time to review policy 3319 but you're only do the I'm sorry do the two need to be linked it the Polish of one and the review of the other are they two not two independent events so they are two independent votes and two independent policies however the motion that was made to table arguably if you made your motion first then we would vote on that first but that wasn't May 1st promotion was I lost my Jeopardy buzzer sorry guys so again so from a procedural standpoint Roberts was a order standpoint which are procedes as Bo follows you've got a motion to table the matter uh policy 5756 the second reading of the abolishment um that will in turn give the committee time to Rie that in conjunction with the proposed new policy um if you need or want more time you can address that at the appropriate time but right now the motion on the floor is to table this matter just for okay however in tabling the matter because this is not working and my voice carries so in tbling this we're only talking about tabling it to the next meeting which is Monday so generally speaking pursuance of Roberts was the order um I always I've always advise this board that you're not Congress right so we have to make things super technical um technically speaking pursuant to Robert of order when a matter is moved was is put on the quotequote table you're supposed to set forth a specific time frame when you anticipate bring it back to the body so it is procedurally appropriate to make the motion to table it for review by the policy committee on Monday March 18th now Monday March 18th if there are more questions more discussion Etc nothing says that it has to come off the table at that meeting you can continue to postpone it for future review study analysis Etc suppose we don't want to kick the can down the line because we can't afford to have these speci meetings all the time how do we um procedurally how do we make that happen tonight we've got a motion that's been properly moved and seconded on the floor to table this item until at least Monday March 18 2024 vote Yes or you can vote no if you vote no if you vote no let's just say the vote comes out 5:4 not right then it's still here tonight and someone can make a motion to approve it or to reject it or whatever you want to do but if it gets a majority of members present and voted to table it then it's table and you can I'm gonna send link s was that my internet is not good questions on the motion to table uh policy 5756 which is P I have a question Mr Mr Taylor um so if the item is tabled um the policy that we have um protecting the students stays in place as is and so as I said before the the current policy as is written is in place yes um even without the policy in place the fort Le Board of Education the fort Le school district has an obligation to comp with the federal and state law disability discrimination has a disability I'm sorry anyone else questions is a transor student covered under that policy every person in this school district is uh covered by theion [Music] I I just need you to sign on with a different okay so currently on the table made by Miss Kath second by Mr Knight was to table um the agenda item one p which would be abolishing policy 5756 upon further review and discussion of the proposed revisions and please go to his emails me please Paula can you hear us yeah I'm having very bad Wi-Fi but yes okay hold on she's doing roll call [Music] now back right Miss K yes Miss Mr Knight yes M Kang no because I want to end this tonight my name yes Mr no please go to Dad's emails he didn't give me his [Applause] password this is mine this is his okay [Applause] I'm we're technically out of the discussion period but from a procedural standpoint board members can vote Yes they can vote no or they can abstain I'm just so you're clear just because we're clear if you abstain the motion will still fail and then there can be another motion to approve it or disapprove it this evening um if we can so you vote Yes No we you don't have to State your reason for any of those what the motion on the table is to wait and have the policy committee look at the policy well technically it's not so much to look at 5756 as I understand that the the your t get pending review of 3319 that's generally the the gist of what the intent is as I understand it so that again as stated before so that there won't be a void of having no policy that covers the issue whether you agree or disagree with what either policy [Music] says yes motion car is okay I have a motion to adjourn public meeting motion motion Morel second Rino all in favor I any opped thank you everyone for coming