Outside the "South": Pascack Valley schools OK transgender policy after contentious meetin

By Myles Ma | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com NJ.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on April 12, 2016 at 5:24 AM, updated April 12, 2016 at 5:06 PM

series /series Aka Story Package gallery-preview /gallery-preview Aka Secondary Package HILLSDALE — Transgender students at the Pascack Valley Regional High School district will be able to use restrooms or locker rooms based on their gender identity under a policy passed Monday by the Board of Education.

The board voted 6-1 to approve the policy, which also calls for staff to address transgender students based on a "gender identity that is consistently asserted at school."

More than two dozen people spoke at the nearly three hour Board of Education meeting and dozens more were in attendance. They included Kax Petkovic, a freshman at Pascack Valley High School. Petkovic said he is one of a handful of transgender students at the school.

"Now I feel it's more openly accepted," he said after the policy passed.

Joseph Blundo was the only board member to vote against the policy. He said it was not out of religious or political reasons. Many people approached him to say they were unhappy with the policy, even if they didn't speak at the public meeting, Blundo said.

"The burden is now shifting on them to be in an uncomfortable situation," Blundo said.

Board President Jeffrey Steinfeld asked Greg Quinlan, director of the Center for Garden State Families, to leave the meeting after Quinlan accused him of seeking to profit from the policy. Quinlan, who identified himself as an "ex-gay," said Steinfeld, who works as a defense attorney, would get more work defending sex offenders if the policy passed.

Bernadette Orso, of Hillsdale, was one of the parents who spoke out against the policy.

"How many of you have allowed your sons and daughters to change with members of the opposite sex? Why does it make sense now?" she said.

Many students said they supported the policy. Andrea Kent, a senior at Pascack Hills High School, said she couldn't imagine the difficulty transgender students face using bathrooms they don't feel comfortable in. And she said sharing a locker room with a transgender student wouldn't pose problems.

"When a student gets changed in a locker room it is not a very revealing process and there is always plenty of space in the locker room or private bathroom to change," she said.

Superintendent P. Erik Gunderson said the district would make accomodations for any student who feels uncomfortable changing in front of others.

Some parents criticized a provision of the policy that allows students to keep their parents from knowing about their transgender status "on a case-by-case basis."

Steve Goodman, a Hillsdale parent and Pascack Valley alumnus, told the story of a recent high school reunion, during which he ran into an old friend who had transitioned into a woman. He posed many questions, but said, "As we sat there and talked, she was still my same friend."

"We have a responsibility to nurture our children for the world they are entering," he said, "not the ones we grew up in."

Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.