SF schools LGBTQ parents group meets

  • by Matthew S. Bajko, Assistant Editor
  • Tuesday January 14, 2025
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The first meeting of the San Francisco Unified School District's Queer and Trans Parent Advisory Council will be January 16. Photo: Cynthia Laird
The first meeting of the San Francisco Unified School District's Queer and Trans Parent Advisory Council will be January 16. Photo: Cynthia Laird

An LGBTQ families advisory body for the San Francisco Unified School District will hold its first meeting of 2025 Thursday night. It will be the second time it has convened since its inaugural members were named last fall.

In response to questions from the Bay Area Reporter, district spokespeople said last month that nine of the 11 official members of what is known as the Queer and Trans Parent Advisory Council, or QTPAC for short, had been named. At the group's first meeting, held November 21 ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday week, the members did not select a chair or co-chairs to lead it, per the district.

The QTPAC plans to hold its meetings the third Thursday of each month through May 15, according to the district. It stressed that any "families are welcome to attend the meeting even if not official members" of the QTPAC.

The This text will be the linkagenda> for its inaugural two-hour meeting of the new year calls for making a few minor amendments to its mission statement, electing officers, prioritizing the projects it wants to tackle, and taking public comment.

As amended the QTPAC's mission would be "to honor the diversity of families, parents, and caregivers and the intersectionality of their experiences, and support and protect them to be leaders and advocates in their students' education by listening to their experiences, uplifting their voices, sharing information, and shaping the development of district resources, policies, and programs."

The January 16 meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Room 18 of the Civic Center Secondary School. Entrance into the building, located at 727 Golden Gate Avenue, is located via the backside of the parking lot on McAllister Street.

"I am hopeful, with their support, this year will be a really strong one for the LGBTQ community in SFUSD," gay school board member Phil Kim told the B.A.R. at last week's swearing-in ceremony for the winners of the four school board seats on the November 5 ballot.

At its January 14 meeting, the school board elected Kim as its new president. And serving as vice president this year will be Jaime Huling, a bisexual married mom of two children, one a second grader in the district, who was elected to the governing body in November.

As the B.A.R. first reported last October, the school district began recruiting members for the QTPAC last summer, two years after the San Francisco Board of Education had approved its creation. The district had cited a lack of funding to staff the advisory body for the delay in its launch.

Despite projections last year of it facing a $421 million deficit, and amid talk of closing upward of a dozen school sites in order to save an estimated $100 million, school district spokespeople did not explain where the funding for the QTPAC was coming from when pressed by the B.A.R. The district has provided very little information to date about the advisory group, including who was named to it out of those that applied to serve on it last August.

Parents and guardians of SFUSD students in any grade from pre-K to 12th grade who are 2SLGBTQIA+, which stands for Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and Agender, were welcome to apply. Celestina Pearl, the parent of a 15-year-old transmasculine 10th grader enrolled in the district, applied and was selected as one of the QTPAC's official members.

The Excelsior neighborhood resident, who is queer and a gender fluid femme, told the B.A.R. that their child, whose name they did not want to be published, has had a largely positive experience attending schools in the district. In elementary school one teacher was out as being nonbinary, by sixth grade their child had joined their school's Gender and Sexuality Alliance club and now attends the district's performing arts high school with a number of LGBTQ students.

"They've got lots of support living their best lives," said Pearl, 50, the outreach and harm reduction director for Lyon Martin Community Health Services.

But Pearl acknowledged that not all staff and students in the district will be supportive of LGBTQ youth and their issues. It is why a group like the QTPAC is needed, said Pearl.

"I definitely understand bullying happens. It is a big reason why the QTPAC is necessary," said Pearl, whose child's father is a trans man. "What we will work on is making sure kids, all of our kids, can be living their best lives."

One important issue Pearl wants the QTPAC to focus on this year is ensuring all 100-plus school sites in the district have gender-neutral bathrooms that are "readily available to all students."

"That is a problem, if children are holding it and not using the restroom all day long because they are afraid to use the restroom in a gendered restroom," said Pearl. "There needs to be gender-neutral restrooms, and it is not hard to do. To make the change, just change the signage."

Other priorities Pearl raised were seeing more district-wide celebrations related to the LGBTQ community and ensuring school libraries are "well stocked" with LGBTQ book titles.

"That should be the norm at all the schools," said Pearl, adding, "something I would love to be able to work on is having a GSA at all middle and high schools."

EQCA report card

According to the 2024 Safe and Supportive Schools Report Card released by statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization Equality California, SFUSD received a score of 51.75, putting it among the better performing districts on the report card. It lost points for not having a GSA at all of its middle and high schools, telling EQCA that "50% or more" do have such a group for LGBTQ students and their allies, according to the webpage detailing its responses to the survey questions.

It was also dinged for not having at least one easily-accessible all-gender bathroom for students at each of its school sites. Another area where it lost points was its not tracking the number of LGBTQ students who are formally disciplined.

SFUSD also saw deductions for the length of time it takes to review textbooks, not having a district-wide group for LGBTQ staff, and not mandating employees have LGBTQ+ specific training nor suicide awareness and prevention training. Its suicide prevention program isn't mandatory or taken by all of its staff.

"That is something I would love to work on. I do think it is something that should be mandated if people are working with children, especially in middle and high school. It is an especially vulnerable time for kids," said Pearl, who told the B.A.R. LGBTQ+ specific training "should be taken as seriously as CPR requirements."

As of July 1, due to a law enacted last year, a certification in cardiopulmonary resuscitation that meets the standards established by the American Heart Association or the American Red Cross will be required for people in California to receive a three-year preliminary designated subjects career technical education teaching credential and the five-year clear designated subjects career technical education teaching credential. It will also be required for short-term educational staff.

And, as the B.A.R. recently reported, beginning with the 2025-26 school year all teachers and all other certificated employees serving pupils in grades seven to 12 over the next five academic years will be required to take a 60-minute online LGBTQ cultural competency session. The California Department of Education expects to provide it free of cost starting in July.

The website for the San Francisco school district's QTPAC can be found at here.

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