2 Middletown BOE Candidates Criticize Board's Transgender Policy

MIDDLETOWN, NJ ? Last Monday, Oct. 7, this online forum was held for all the candidates in the Middletown school board election.

One of the questions asked was about transgender students. At minute 25:46 the moderator asked: "What is your position on the laws and policies regarding parental notification for transgender students?"

Deb Wright ? who is seeking re-election this fall ? was the sole Board member to vote against Middletown's controversial transgender student policy in 2023. She rarely publicly speaks about why she voted that way.

But last Monday, she addressed it in length.

"As a parent myself, I think it's really important to have parental involvement. But I will say that the way we chose as a district to handle this situation really wasn't the right way to do it," said Wright. "And the reason why I say that is because I think we signaled to a lot of our students that perhaps some of them weren't as welcome in our school community as they should be."

"I think we unfortunately made this more of a political issue than actually trying to figure out what we could do as a district to actually solve this problem," she continued. "Bring all the stakeholders to the table and actually work together to come out with a policy that everyone felt good about, and that everyone in the school felt welcome. I think, unfortunately, this got to such a heightened degree that we sort of lost sight of what was happening here, which was: We had a policy that we found out was not mandated by the state. And instead of actually reaching out to the Attorney General's office ? like I had suggested ? ahead of time and trying to work through the policy with them on something that would be acceptable to everyone, unfortunately we found ourselves ? no surprise ? in a lawsuit, wasting thousands upon thousands of taxpayer dollars."

The state of New Jersey sued the Middletown school board last year, after the board tried to require Middletown schools notify parents when a student changes their name, pronoun or bathroom use. NJ Attorney General Matt Platkin argued Middletown was putting transgender/gender-questioning youth at risk, and possibly outing teens to parents who may not be supportive.

Middletown passed its own transgender policy in response to Policy 5756, which is "guidance" from the NJ Department of Education that says New Jersey school districts are not required to inform parents if a student talks to a teacher/guidance counselor about their gender identity or sexual orientation. Last year, the state said Policy 5756 was not mandatory; since then multiple school districts, most recently Edison, have repealed it, to outcry from some LGBTQ+ groups and the NJ ACLU.

A Monmouth County Superior Court judge issued an injunction, preventing Middletown schools from enforcing its policy until the courts can decide its lawfulness.

All five Middletown school board candidates said they support parental notification.

However, Mark Soporowski told Patch afterwards that he, like Wright, does not agree with Middletown passing its own amended response to the state.

"It was a rush job. I 100 percent support parental notification, but I totally disagree with how they went about it," said Soporowski, referring to the current school board. "Because we are now stuck with this policy until it's settled in court. Whereas other districts removed it and had no pushback from the state. I don't agree with all the billable hours that are being accrued by our counsel."

As per the district's insurance policy, Middletown has to pay its lawyers, Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri & Jacobs, a $15,000 deductible to fight all lawsuits filed against the district, this one included.

Board vice president Jacqueline Tobacco helped write Middletown's transgender student policy; she has long defended it.

When asked Wednesday to respond, Tobacco said the following:

"Mrs. Wright's misrepresentation about the financial implications of our lawsuit are troubling, as she is fully aware that our insurance policy covers the cost to defend ourselves against this unjust litigation. The only person spending taxpayer dollars on this lawsuit is Gov. Murphy," said Tobacco. "It is unfortunate that Mrs. Wright betrayed the parents of Middletown by being the lone vote against amending 5756 and that Mr. Soporowski stated he would have voted with Mrs. Wright in support of Platkin and Murphy?s assault on Middletown parents and this Board of Education."

"Murphy is the one wasting taxpayer dollars on a frivolous lawsuit," continued Tobacco. "Wright suggesting sitting down with Platkin is comical as he has ignored, for over a year, our repeated requests to meet in person to discuss what objections the state has to our amendments."

Wright did not respond to further questions on this topic from Patch, nor did she respond to Tobacco.

NJ Sues Middletown, 2 Other Districts For Transgender Student Policies (June 2023)

Judge Rules Middletown Cannot Enact Trans Student Policy (August 2023)

Just days after the state sued Middletown, Marlboro and Manalapan school districts, the Colts Neck Board of Education held off on passing a similar transgender policy for fear of being sued by the state: Colts Neck School Board Tables Vote On Trans Student Policy (June 2023)

Here is a copy of the NJ Attorney General's lawsuit against Middletown, which is still pending in the courts. It has not been resolved.