Brookland, AR– The confusion continues at Brookland Public Schools, over a new rule that requires written permission for students to be called by their preferred name.
Max Mceuen, a Student at BJHS is one of those students that is “confused.”
According to 4.62 in the school handbook, a part explaining student, name, title, or pronoun if the student is an “emancipated minor or over eighteen years of age, a District employee shall not address a student with a Name other than that listed on the student’s birth certificate, except for a derivative of the name; or Pronoun or title that is inconsistent with the student’s biological sex.”
This all comes after the Given Name ACT was signed into law by Governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
After Brookland News released an investigative report on the rule, Mceuen reached out stating that it wasn’t just written permission the school was requiring and that BPS was also requiring a phone call.
Before Mceuen was told that, he says he had to go through a process. “A friend told me that I had to get a paper, for my parents to sign. Then, I went and I talked to Mr. Richey [BJHS Principal] and he said they weren’t doing the papers, and that I had to have a parent call and talk to them [the school office], and that also send an email,” said Max Mceuen, Student at BJHS.
When asked if a phone call and an email were too much Mceuen said, “I do. I feel like if a parent talks to them, that should be enough. Like, I get they have to have voice conformation and then also written conformation.”
Brookland News reached out to Brett Bunch, Superintendent of BPS, but at this time have received no response.
When Brookland News went to the front office and asked, a paper was said to be in the principal’s office. When we went to the office we were told they were no longer doing papers, and that the principal would have to call your parents on speaker with the student, and that if the parent was to okay the name, an email would have to be sent.
Which is what the school considers “written consent.”
Mceuen says his parent called the office but received no answer, and remains waiting for a call back.
Max Mceuen, a Student at BJHS says teachers continued to call him by his preferred name before any type of effort was made to be able to get called by their preferred name.
When asked about why he thinks the rule was put in place, Mceuen said “Well, we live in Arkansas, there are a lot of transphobic people, and that is all the rule applies to is trans people,” he said, “and they know a lot of trans people don’t have supporting parents. So of course, this eliminates trans people getting to express themselves.”
In the Given Name ACT, teachers are allowed to continue calling a student by the name listed on their birth certificate if it makes the teacher uncomfortable, even if the student has written permission from a parent.