school districts are now the Battleground for culture wars and last night three boards of Education in Monmouth County towns spart over State guidance for transgender students it's known as policy 5756 and IT addresses how school districts can counsel kids who choose to identify as a different gender several districts throughout the state amended the policy this year to require in most cases that parents are notified well that prompted the Attorney General's office to step in and put those policies on hold temporarily as they're challenged in court now some school districts are voting to get rid of the policy entirely doing away with both the protections it includes for transgender students and parental notification with many other schools expected to follow their lead senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan has the latest we just want rights as parents we don't want them taken away from us the intense debate over parental rights and transgender students is Catching Fire driving efforts on three Monmouth County Boards of Education last night to scrap New Jersey's controversial State education policy 5756 it bars schools from outing transgender students to their families in most cases in Homedale speakers argued for hours over the consequences of ditching 5756 is considering outing the children to their parents um it's going to devastate them it's going to be very harmful to the kids we want all kids to feel safe and feel accepted but not at the expense of taking away parental rights to take definitive vote may be premature given the fact that their injunctions in place given the fact that there are lawsuits happening with three districts I think we ought to sort of see how things transpire and then later address it uh once we have more information and once we see how the cases uh play out more than 500 New Jersey school boards adopted 5756 believing it was mandatory on the advice of a private consulting firm in 2019 but during recent court arguments over student transgender policies a deputy attorney general admitted the policies only voluntary Bruce prajula's term represents three districts seeking to alter or repeal five seven five six obviously we all agree that we have to comply with the law against discrimination but New Jersey is a home rule state and these Boards of Education are elected officials they're elected by their community and I think we've kind of lost sight of that a little bit Colts Neck rescinded five seven five six in a preliminary vote Howell's Board of Education moved to repeal the policy or the final vote slated for next month I have already received text messages this morning from parents who are frightened for their children there were there were trans youth people there last night and they are afraid of what's coming next because it was made very clear by the opposition that they are not going to stop it seems as if it's spreading like wildfire and honestly it's deeply disturbing and very concerning that um we are kind of losing focus of who is at the center of these policies which are the youth home deals scheduled for a vote next week but board members discussed the move to repeal in explicit terms this is not about lgbtq this is about severing a beautiful relationship from incredible children and their loving parents period and the sooner this fraudulent policy is rescinded the better I look at each individual issue and what makes sense to me I'm a parent of multiple kids I want my kids to be notified I want my kids to come to me and let me know what's going on and I don't think that it's something that should be rushed at all because I I just I just don't feel that anything about this is Black or White Advocates concerned about repealing five seven five six she a long road ahead this will definitely be something that a lot of school boards will vote for or members will try to pass across the state this isn't going to be a one-time thing I'm Brenda Flanagan and J Spotlight news [Music]