Wilson County discussed informing parents about students’ gender identity. A school counseling expert says that would have dangerous consequences.

A Wilson County School Board member recently floated the idea of requiring school employees to inform parents if a student identifies with gender other than the one they were assigned at birth. He falsely implied that being transgender is a mental health issue.

The suggestion caused major concerns among some parents and district officials regarding the wellbeing of transgender students, as well as how the policy would be implemented.

A spokesperson for Wilson County Schools says the board “appears to have moved on” from this discussion. No written policy was presented or voted on. But similar policies outing LGBTQ+ students have been implemented in states across the country.  

Potential impacts of this kind of policy

Carolyn Stone chaired the ethics committee of the American School Counselor Association for 20 years.  

She said requiring employees like counselors to out transgender students would put them in an incredibly difficult position. Counselors have professional mandate to follow laws and local policies. But Stone said they’re also supposed to be a sounding board and safe space for students.   

“It’s a tightrope in the wind,” she said. “There has to be a certain element of judgment that we’re allowed to use. And otherwise, kids are smart. They just won’t come. And if they don’t have a safe place in that school to say, ‘I am being bullied, and this is why.’ … They’ll suffer in silence.”

Stone said counselors often do try to work with students and parents in tandem. But policies requiring parental notification can prevent counselors from using discretion in sensitive situations.

“There are students who will end up homeless, who will end up in dangerous situations if they identify as LGBT or Q,” Stone said. “We know that. The stats are clear.”

LGBTQ+ youth are far more likely to experience homelessness than their straight, cisgender peers. Family rejection is one of many contributing factors for unhoused LGBTQ+ youth. According to a national survey from The Trevor Project, less than one in three transgender and nonbinary youth found their home to be gender-affirming.

Wilson County School Board member Joseph Padilla compared being transgender to having a mental illness. However, that is not in line with the modern medicine. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders removed the term “gender identity disorder” a decade ago. That’s the book mental health professionals use when diagnosing patients. The fifth edition of the DSM explicitly states “gender non-conformity is not in itself a mental disorder.”

LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to suffer from depression or attempt suicide, but not solely because of their identity. The Trevor Project focuses on suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth. According to the organization’s website, “LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society.”