Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Superintendent Scott Menzel told parents this week that he doesn’t require district staff to tell parents about the gender identity issues their child experiences.
Menzel revealed this policy during a Scottsdale Parent Council meeting on Wednesday, with a simple, unhesitating “No.” A parent asked whether school counselors or district social workers would be required to notify parents if their child uses different pronouns while at school.
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PARENTS: Superintendent Menzel confirms that @ScottsdaleUSD staff are NOT required to tell YOU if your child changes their gender at school.A.R.S 1-602 states: parents have a right to make health care decisions for their child.https://t.co/PABddOtM3q@GoldwaterInst pic.twitter.com/ekBHzktl2a
— Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity (@ScottsdaleUnite) December 21, 2023
The response raised concern among Scottsdale parents and the community. Those critical of Menzel’s policy argued that it conflicted with Arizona law ensuring parental decisionmaking in child health care and education, more commonly known as the “parental bill of rights.”
🚨 @ScottsdaleUSD Superintendent: Schools' Mental health workers not required to tell parents if child is social transitioning in SUSD schools
When asked if school's mental health workers are required to inform parents if their child is adopting pronouns in schools,… pic.twitter.com/KLJRrEF2ZL— TheLegalProcess (v2.0 | Post-Election Ed) (@ALegalProcess) December 21, 2023
Menzel’s response aligns with previous findings by concerned parents through public records requests. At the start of this year, SUSD community members discovered and publicized the district’s transgender support plan. The plan included language indicating a workaround to implementing a gender transition plan in the case of parental disapproval of a child’s gender identity.
The transgender support plan wasn’t made public easily. The district denied the document’s existence for the better part of a year. A district spokesperson also told Fox News that the plan didn’t exist.
“The district has no ‘transgender support’ plan that it uses with students to address their needs,” said the spokesperson.
The district also refused to provide additional information about the usage or application of information on a patient intake form for a local hormone therapy clinic that they possessed.
SUSD’s program, Unitown, also admitted to allowing students to be assigned to cabins based on their gender identity during a camping trip.
Transparency appears to be a difficult task for Menzel and his administration. Earlier this month, the superintendent was found to be in violation of open meeting law for having a secretive committee deciding on district strategy and legal action. SUSD board member Amy Carney voiced concern for Menzel’s proclivity for secrecy that effectively shuts out parental insight and oversight.
“The number of Administrative advisory committees, councils, and cabinets that Scottsdale Unified has is of concern,” said Carney. “It’s vital that we have parents and community members who are paying attention and using their skills and expertise to help hold our district leadership accountable.”
The district was found to be in violation of open meeting law last year as well. SUSD leadership structured policy so as to prohibit public comment on contentious issues, such as a proposed mask mandate.
Not only has Menzel and his peers erred on the side of less transparency, they slashed the number of public meetings earlier this year in half. As a consequence, time otherwise allotted for public board meetings was freed up for Menzel and his peers to plan committees tasked with arranging dinners, campus tours, graduation celebrations, happy hours, Q&As with Menzel, and public presentations on hand-selected topics.
Menzel’s administration has lost the confidence of Arizona education’s highest authority. Arizona Superintendent of Public Education Tom Horne called for Menzel’s removal earlier this year.