NC transgender students worried about being outed online during COVID-19 pandemic
North Carolina’s transgender students are worried that their privacy and safety are being put at risk as schools switch to teaching students online during the coronavirus pandemic.
North Carolina’s public schools use a version of the PowerSchool student information system that lists the student’s legal name and gender instead of the preferred name and gender identity. LGBTQ advocates say the PowerSchool data is now being used for online learning programs, resulting in some transgender students being outed to their classmates without their consent.
On Thursday, more than 300 students educators, administrators, parents and students sent a letter to State Superintendent Mark Johnson urging him to direct the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to update PowerSchool. They want changes that would allow transgender students to list their preferred name and gender identity.
“Part of our request for Superintendent Johnson is that with all the difficult problems facing DPI, this is an easy fix,” Craig White, supportive schools coordinator at the Asheville-based Campaign for Southern Equality, said in an interview Friday. “This is a five-minute call to PowerSchool to get the updated name and gender fields.”
White said North Carolina needs to join states such as Massachusetts that have updated PowerSchool to accommodate transgender students. Change might be coming in North Carolina.
“The State Board of Education’s attorney is reviewing this request for possible solutions that comply with state and federal law and that conform to the agency’s student data infrastructure capabilities,” Graham Wilson, a DPI spokesman, said in an email Friday.
White said that the group has been lobbying DPI for the changes for the past year and a half. He said it’s becoming even more critical now for the 15,000 to 45,000 transgender North Carolina K-12 students.
All North Carolina public schools are moving to remote learning because they’re closed through at least May 15 to try to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Transgender students outed online
But White said online learning platforms, chat rooms, discussion forums and virtual testing sites that schools now rely on generate student usernames — visible to other students and faculty — based on their legal name in PowerSchool. He says that’s a problem If the legal name is different from the name the student uses on a daily basis.
The anxiety and dysphoria of being confronted by their birth name — which some transgender people call their “dead name” — is causing some students to not go online, according to White.
“If they’re not out at school, the fact that their legal name and legal gender is exposed literally puts them at danger,” White said. “And the anxiety over that happening creates daily stress for them.”
White said the threat of harassment and bullying is real. He pointed to how 90% of North Carolina LGBTQ students said in a 2017 survey that they regularly hear anti-LGBTQ language at school.
Transgender teen’s experience
It’s a concern that Max B., a 14-year-old transgender student in western North Carolina, can understand. The News & Observer is not using his full name to protect his privacy.
Max’s parents had his name legally changed. Before then, Max said, he felt the discomfort of substitute teachers not using his affirmed name while taking attendance, leading to bullying from classmates.
“I know from personal experience and experience of my peers it causes a lot of emotional distress and a lot of dysphoria,” Max said. “You think no one in the school respects you by calling me by this.”
Max said he’s hopeful that the changes will be made to PowerSchool.
“I feel like that if I keep looking on the bright side and keep believing on the bright side, it will happen,” Max said in an interview Friday. “It will be the best thing in the world for all the trans kids.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 1:38 PM with the headline "NC transgender students worried about being outed online during COVID-19 pandemic."
