The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board will consider adding new language to its harassment policy that would explicitly protect staff and students from being harassed on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.
Board member Dee Rankin chairs the board’s policy committee. He says other school policies already protect students from mistreatment based on gender identity. This proposed change would make that language more consistent across all of the district’s policies.
“These particular policies, in general, cover a multitude of different things," Rankin said. "The reason it’s so important is we want to make sure that our students are safe and that our employees are safe in our schools.”
The current harassment policy was adopted in 1992 and last revised in 2016. It forbids harassment based on “race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin or disability.” But the proposed change, introduced at this week’s board meeting, would add “gender identity and expression” and “sexual orientation” to the list.
The proposed change would also forbid harassment based on “pregnancy or related conditions.”
The board will need to hold a public hearing on the matter before voting on adopting the policy change.
