We Need to Talk About Policy 5756
The policy is mired in controversy, and misinformation on it could prove deadly - and already has.
From the CJN Editorial Board
WARNING: Contains sensitive content regarding harm to and suicide of minors. Reader discretion is advised.
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Make no mistake here, the CJN Editorial Board is supportive of the parental rights movement. We fully admit the parental rights movement has bolstered Newswire, and we’re proud to have focused on it because it deserves serious discussion.
We’ve covered the Middletown and Colts Neck boards of education, parental rights rallies, and have provided perspective from all parties — yet, these are merely snapshots of battles attached to a single policy: Policy 5756.
Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s largest pro-LGBTQ+ advocacy and education organization with over 150,000 members, has been the policy’s leading proponent. Unfortunately, the facts and the statistics refute their otherwise admirable goal. They know it too, otherwise they would not be using guerrilla-style tactics against boards of education while using vulnerable often times traumatized children as human shields.
What they don’t tell you is that Policy 5756 is not about protecting kids. If it was about kids, believe us, we’d be the first to celebrate it, but it’s not:
it’s about protecting votes.
Let’s talk about it.
Time for a Refresher.
As reported in our Colts Neck piece, Policy 5756 is guidance (key word) put forth by Strauss Esmay Associates, LLP, a Toms River-based education consulting company. They essentially claim dominion over school boards and their insight is often perceived as law, if not outright gospel. 5756 is the key policy that advises against parental notification should a child begin to transition genders while at their school.
The policy itself is layered in legalese, but essentially boils down to the response a school should undertake should a student who thinks they are transgender indicates to school personnel that:
they would like to be addressed by a name other than their legal name, or;
they identify with a gender not corresponding to their biological sex, or;
they would like to be addressed by a pronoun not corresponding to their biological sex.
The policy also advises that:
the school district may seek a variety of professionals, including counselors and school psychologists, to provide emotional support for all students who demonstrate a need. The Superintendent or designee shall ensure school counselors are knowledgeable regarding issues and concerns relevant to transgender students, students facing other gender identity issues, or students who may be transitioning.
With all due respect to Strauss Esmay, they have done a piss-poor job as consultants to school boards and administrators. Decreeing a policy which affects children suffering from gender dysphoria while telling the people they’re advising that they need to be knowledgeable about the issue of transgenderism?
Strauss Esmay had a reason though.
It’s not policy — it’s procedure.
Policy 5756 is not mandatory. It holds just as much weight as a deli counter ticket or Santa’s naughty/nice list. Deputy Attorney General James Michael said in court that the policy was not "mandatory" and instead was a "guidance," according to the New York Post.
"This 5756 policy was born from a lie, from a company called Strauss Esmay, that sent it over with about 20 different policies lumped together in May of 2019, listing it as a mandatory policy," said Holmdel BOE vice president Terence Wall to the Patch back in 2023.
"I was on the Board then, this slipped through. Everyone voted for it. It was a mistake. Why? Because it's a fraud.”
The Patch also noted Middletown Attorney Bruce Padula’s peculiar finding:
Padula said when Strauss Esmay first provided the district with Policy 5657, they stamped that document with a large "M" at the top — which meant mandatory. Marlboro school board said they received the same.
The scarlet “M,” a sign of both intellectual and conscientious impurity, is red by way of the blood of the children it is has failed, but Garden State Equality won’t admit that.
Facts matter - and can save someone’s life.
Garden State Equality is not well-versed in the facts. Whether they be suicide rates, gender affirmation in minors, or the supposed harm that befalls schools and students when Policy 5756 disappears, facts matter and could be the difference between life and death.
Counselors and mental health staff at school, even some school board members, usually cite HIPAA as the reason Policy 5756 needs to stay. The co-chair of the American School Counselor Association’s Ethics Committee disagrees strongly:
“Although the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors speak to the issue of confidentiality, it is important to remember that these issues lie in the hands of the student and his parents, not necessarily with the school counselor.”
Some counselors have gone so far as to speak out forcefully against the policy at the expense of their jobs, perhaps even their own safety. Washington State therapist Tamar Prietzke Tamara Pietzke claimed the hospital she worked at started aggressively pushing "gender-affirming" care over the past year. She recently blew this whistle on the therapy industry taking advantage of children suffering from gender dysphoria as well as abusive homes and other traumatic life experiences.
"I was getting the message from my supervisors that when a young person I was seeing expressed discomfort with their gender—the diagnostic term is gender dysphoria—I should throw out all my training. No matter the patient’s history or other mental health conditions that could be complicating the situation, I was simply to affirm that the patient was transgender, and even approve the start of a medical transition," she wrote in a new op-ed for The Free Press.
Gov. Murphy and Garden State Equality’s victory of making New Jersey a safe haven for LGBTQ+ affirmation is incredibly pyrrhic. When Executive Order 326 was signed, the hallmark of the fiat was the protection of LGBTQ+ youth.
“Across the nation, we are witnessing attacks led by certain states that seek to undermine the equality, dignity, and safety of the LGBTQIA+ community, especially transgender and non-binary youth,” said Governor Murphy in an April 4th statement.
Responding to this, Garden State Equality Director Christian Fuscarino lauded the Governor for “taking yet another action to protect trans people in New Jersey and those who care for them.”
But is affirming a child’s chosen gender protecting them? The evidence suggests that the only ones with blood on their hands are those who open promote Policy 5756:
When it comes to gender dysphoric children, there is little evidence that medical transition decreases suicide rates. There is little evidence to assert that puberty blockers are necessary to prevent suicide.
After sex reassignment surgery, one study showed that adult transsexual clients were 4.9 times more likely to have made a suicide attempt and 19.1 times more likely to have died from suicide, after adjusting for prior psychiatric comorbidity . Similarly, an Australian paper notes that many patients have poor outcomes, which puts them at risk of suicide.
A prominent study claiming that medical transition alleviated suicidality had to be corrected, to clarify that it proved “no advantage of surgery” in this regard.
A long-term Swedish study finds that post-operative transgender people have “considerably higher risks” for suicidal behavior.
Similarly, a study in the European Journal of Endocrinology demonstrates that suicide rates among transgender male-to-females were 51% higher than the general population.
Some have made it out alive…
Policy 5756 is waging a war in both the courts of public opinion and of law. Jane Doe and her father are taking decisive action against Delaware Valley High School after its personnel socially transitioned the former, a minor female, per the directive of a school counselor. In Oregon, whose policies are similar to 5756 across its schools, one family went so far as to get up and leave the United States entirely after a teacher known as “Mrs. A” went so far as to rule by fear when it came to socially transitioning students like Tia
Tia, the minor girl in the story, lamented fervently that all she wanted to do was “see her friends like normal, and doesn’t want to be a boy anymore,” but she was “afraid that Mrs. A would be mad at her.”
“She was saying she wants to go to school, see her friends like normal, and doesn’t want to be a boy anymore. But Tia was afraid that Mrs. A would be mad at her.”
….others did not.
In December 2020, Manville High School student Myles Fitzpatrick came out as transgender and began transitioning from female to male.
Fitzpatrick, 17, who was set to graduate in June, died by suicide in November after he was “subjected to continued severe harassment and bullying by his fellow students based upon his gender identity, including derogatory comments and having items thrown at him,” according to the lawsuit filed May 2, 2023 in Superior Court in Somerset County by his mother Danielle Warshefski.
My Central Jersey further detailed the tragic case:
He was ridiculed about his appearance and clothing and was subjected to slurs, referring to him as “she” and remarks that “he would never be a male,” the lawsuit says. He also was frequently physically bullied in the hallways, including being pushed into lockers, having items thrown at him, being kicked and having his hair pilled, the lawsuit charges…On several occasions, the lawsuit alleges, those actions were committed in the presence of teachers and other staff members who did not intervene.
He then began experiencing severe depression and anxiety and engaged in self-mutilation and self-harm and attempted suicide, the lawsuit says.
These actions have resulted in threats to board of education members, mental anguish for the LGBTQ+ community, and a plethora of disinformation to legislators and the public. Cases like this are what gives Garden State Equality’s campaign, and Policy 5756 itself, its strength.
It’s a simple question they constrict Boards with when they’re tempted to abolish Policy 5756:
you don’t want this to happen, do you?
That’s when the hostage taking starts, but some Board members aren’t negotiating with their captors.
Boards aren't starting the fight — they’re finishing it.
Middletown Vice-President Jacqueline Tobacco and Board attorney Bruce Padula took to NJ101.5’s town hall with Eric Scott last summer. Their challenger? Brielle Winslow-Majette, the Deputy Director of Garden State Equality, a female presenting as male with the pronouns of she/her. With all due respect to Eric Scott, this was not a town hall— it was a brutal exercise in fact-checking, something no one seemed prepared for.
The New Jersey Project released a video of Vice-President Tobacco’s takedown of Majette that strikes at the core issue: the suicide rate of LGBTQ+ youth. Tobacco refuted Majette’s claim that the revoking of Policy 5756 would result in an “outing policy” and suicide in droves by LGBTQ+ youth. The video shows text messages from Executive Director Christian Fuscarino encouraging protestors to show up at Middletown’s June Board of Education hearing to “rally for trans youth in the spirit of Stonewall,” a 1969 protest in New York that devolved a violent riot.
New Jersey has filed litigation against 3 districts that passed amended policies, and one district that passed a parental notification policy. There was an amicus brief filed by Senators Michael Testa and Doug Steinhardt back in August of 2023. As of January 31, 2024 Dhillon Law Group and the Center for American Liberty, a national law firm known for its voracious and sharp legal acumen when it comes to matters of civil rights and the constitution, filed a motion to participate as amicus curae in the lawsuit filed by the Attorney General against Middletown and Manalapan regarding an amendment of Policy 5757 to include student collaborative parental notification.
Garden State Equality is wasting no time fighting school boards in the new year. Their Policy Consultant Lauren Albrecht’s threats to school board members made rounds across the state, such as this one uncovered in Vineland.
“It is very concerning to me that [Garden State Equality] sent letters to my board members disseminating disinformation regarding abolishing the non-mandatory Policy 5756,” said Kim Codispoti, President, Vineland Board of Education in an exclusive statement to CJN.
”In no way does abolishing this policy diminish protections for transgender students under LAD law. “
Since learning that Strauss Essmay’s policy was in fact not mandatory, districts have begun to abolish Policy5756 including: Colts Neck, Hanover, Millstone, Freehold, Lafayette, Little Egg Harbor, Lacey, Holmdel, Howell, Sussex, Wantage, Kinellon, Sparta, Bernard’s Franklin Township, Franklin Lakes, Westwood Union Township, Washington Township, Vineland, and Ocean City.
Garden State Equality’s response to this is that it almost always ends up in litigation and proves to cost the taxpayers an astronomical amount. (Funny, we didn’t take them to be fiscal conservatives). This was recently debunked by Middletown Board Vice-President Jacqueline Tobacco.
It all seems to be part of Garden State Equality’s game plan: create fear within a vulnerable population, exploit one’s typically good-natured yearning for justice with as little information as possible, and direct an attack. Had this come from a President urging folks to protest election results, it would be deemed an insurrection.
At least he called for protestors to be peaceful. Garden State Equality did not—because that’s not what they want.
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