LGBTQIA+ Students Call On Fairfax School Board To Reform FLE Program

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Pride Liberation Project, an advocacy group representing LGBTQIA+ students in Fairfax County Public Schools, is calling on the school board to reform the Family Life and Education program and make it more inclusive of marginalized people.

"We're calling on our local government, which includes the school board, to protect us, since clearly our Supreme Court doesn't want to protect us," said PLP President Rivka Vizcardo-Lichter.

Former PLP President Aaryan Rawal explained that court's decision to strike down Roe v. Wade and making abortion rights the states' responsibility had a greater impact on marginalized people.

"Overturning of Roe v.Wade, we really fell upon that FCPS school board to make sure that they actually took action protecting marginalized students," he said.

A rising 10th grader at Oakton High School, Vizcardo-Lichter spoke at Thursday night's school board meeting, asking members to adopt the reforms suggested by the FLE Curriculum Advisory Committee earlier in the year.

"The biggest thing that we're asking them to do today is to adopt the reforms suggested by FLECAC, because that is the first step," she said. "It's a small step, but that action of taking that step is momentous. It's showing that they want to include queer students in their curriculum. They want to make space for us. They want us to feel safe."

FLECAC's recommendations included introducing gender combined classrooms for FLE students in grades 4-8 and exploring instruction of gender identity in elementary school to make the curriculum more inclusive overall.

PLP members rallied outside Luther Jackson High School before Thursday's meeting. They were joined by members of Fairfax Pride, who came to show their support for what the students were advocating.

"In Family Life Education you teach kids about family from kindergarten through 10th grade," said Robert Rigby, a retired FCPS teacher and member of Fairfax Pride. "Fairfax, unusually different from many surrounding counties, separates kids for this one or two hours in fourth through eighth grade when they describe you bodies and anatomy and and all of that."

Rigby said that his group and PLP were blindsided when a majority of the school board voted in May to defer the decision until the next school year. He came to speak at Thursday's meeting to ask the board to make a decision to adopt the FLECAC recommendations sooner rather than later.

"Many people in my community were really concerned that the school board is sending a message to trans and non binary and LGBTQ youth, 'You're not really welcome,'" he said. "That wasn't their intent, but that was their effect and my hope is that they undo that."

Rawal, a recent FCPS graduate, will be starting his college career in the fall at Harvard. He also hopes the school board adopts the reforms and demonstrates that it will protect the rights of LGBTQIA+ students.

"We've seen real change in the last year in Fairfax County Public Schools," he said. "We saw Fairfax County protect queer literature. We've seen Fairfax County adopt some of the most inclusive regulations for transgender students across the commonwealth. But to be clear, we still have a lot of work to do. Fifty percent of queer kids are depressed in Fairfax County. That's unacceptable from a public health standpoint and just from a moral standpoint."