LEONARDTOWN, Md. — The St. Mary’s County school board meeting was a vibrant wave of rainbow on June 18, as about three dozen people waved Pride flags and held signs saying “LGBTQ Students Deserve Dignity” and “Inclusive Schools Save Lives.” Many attendees wore rainbow pins, shirts and scarves, united in urging the board to adopt an Inclusive Schools Resolution aimed at protecting LGBTQ+ students and staff.
Speakers included current and former students, parents, educators, and counselors. Many shared stories of harassment in local schools. Several pointed to the recent Calvert County school board decision to ban safe space stickers without public input — along with a proposed flag ban — as evidence that protections in St. Mary’s must be established.
“I think that adopting this resolution would go a long way in showing that the school system does value the LGBTQ students and staff … that they welcome that community into the school system openly,” said Brandon Russell, vice chair of Pride Southern Maryland. “I think that displaying that, especially given what is going on in a neighboring county (Calvert County), is particularly important.”
The resolution, modeled after a 2022 Anne Arundel County policy, has received 633 signatures. It includes nine requests, such as the right to be addressed by chosen names and pronouns, access to gender-affirming facilities, equal rights for LGBTQ+ student organizations, and inclusive training and curriculum. It also seeks to shield students from being outed to their families without consent and urges the use of gender-inclusive language in school communications.
“The defining moment was last year — a (Great Mills) teacher came out to her students as trans and was absolutely run out of town,” Tina Stone, chair of the Southern Maryland Democratic Socialists’ queer liberation working group and a lead organizer of the resolution, told The BayNet. “That moment showed us we needed protections that were concrete and enforceable. We saw that the usual safeguards weren’t enough.”
The school board has not yet taken formal action. Superintendent Scott Smith said the school system would review the concerns raised, specifically students not being called by their preferred pronouns.
“I do intend to go back and do a little looking into to make sure that we’re all upholding the same expectations for staffing, for students throughout the school system,” Smith said.
He added that protections already exist under the district’s harassment policies, though Russell noted those policies mention sexual orientation but not gender identity.
Kyle Ploger, an SMCPS employee and former student, said the resolution would reinforce the district’s existing commitments to student mental health.
“Staff should not be required to report students to their parents or guardians for preferred names or pronouns,” he said. “LGBTQ+ young people who reported living in very accepting communities attempted suicide at less than half the rate of those who live in unaccepting communities.”
Several speakers stressed that schools are often the only supportive environments for LGBTQ+ youth in the region.
“If you don’t have the support at home, you seek the support at school,” said Megan Anderson, a nurse and therapist. “That is your responsibility and duty.”
Phil Williams, one of the first openly gay students at Chopticon High School in the 1990s, recalled feeling unsafe and unwelcome.
“When your main goal is just to survive the day, academics kind of fall to the side,” he said.
Members of the Southern Maryland DSA have canvassed for months in support of the proposal. Stone said some snatch the clipboard out of their hands to sign it.
“In my experience canvassing, it’s made clear something I always hoped: the loudest anti-queer voices in Southern Maryland are not the most numerous,” Stone said. “The majority are supportive or at least open-minded.”
The group has expanded its resolution efforts to Calvert and Charles counties, where it has collected 98 and 129 signatures, respectively.
Contact our news desk at news@thebaynet.com
Romans 1: 26-27
You are correct St. Paul told the truth
Give them their own school then
Separate will never be equal.
God help us all
For your consideration, John 8: 7-11.
St Mary’s county sure has gone to hell
yup
Schools need to focus on teaching basics… we do not need indoctrination
I must have to long to be in a time where kids get to randomly choose what sex they want to and then we should be required to honor that by referring to them by what ever way that they desire. God help us.
This needs to be pushed back against. They’re not making students feel safe, they’re promoting an ideology and openly stating that they’re going to hide things about children from their parents.
Parents are parents, teachers are not parents. This needs to stop. Get this crap out of our schools.
This needs to be pushed back against. They’re not “making students feel safe”, they’re promoting an ideology and openly stating that they’re going to hide things about children from their parents. If you need a pride flag displayed to make lgbt students feel safe, then we need the ten commandments displayed to make Christian students feel safe.
Parents are parents, teachers are not parents. Government needs to stop trying to replace parents. We know what’s best for our kids, I don’t need the state to make that determination. This needs to stop. Get this crap out of our schools.
SMC residents need to get off their couches and do something. This meeting had barely 40 people at it and they will get laws made that 99% of SMC residents don’t like. I’m tired of hearing my neighbors and colleagues complain about some woke bs in the school system when I know they never lifted a finger to challenge anything.
I am unsure if you can tell from the picture, but, the room was standing-room-only, packed with supporters of this resolution. There were no more seats available. Many had to stand in the back of the room. The number of queer people (and their supporters) in this county is far greater than you perhaps are aware. We are in schools. We are in your churches. We are on the bus, in the streets, in your grocery stores, in your family. We have always existed and always will. You can hate us, or you can learn about us. I think you’d like us if you knew us a little better.
These articles are always difficult to understand. By “openly gay” does this mean that the individual has been observed in the homosexual act. These are just public-school kids! Are we to believe that this school would encourage such anti-social, yes sinful and harmful behavior of its students? If the bent of the school is in this direction, and we can’t be sure that it is, then it would need some kind of serious intervention to correct such a deplorable situation. Let’s not be misled by the extreme propaganda of the Left to get us to think that we are in the minority if we are against such a terrible agenda. Stand up and be counted, reasonable and proper citizens of St. Mary’s.
I think this is good for the kids. In schools you are told you can be whatever you want to be so why not just let them do that? If we let them be free they will grow up to do good things.