The board members met on Thursday night only after being informed the night before that the discipline change would be considered. No opposing voices were allowed to be heard, parents were relegated to shouting opposition from the seats and some were ejected from the meeting.

The Student’s Rights and Responsibilities Handbook is issued to each student every year. Students are required to sign, along with their parents. Violations of the handbook are treated as discipline violations that can result in either suspension or expulsion from school.

The new regulation reads:

"No student in FCPS shall … on the basis of gender identity … be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity."

This “discrimination” language means that a student who speaks out against the “gender identity” ideology can be disciplined, and presumably suspended and even expelled, according to board member Elizabeth Schultz, who opposed the change.

Schultz says the school district — which is one of the largest in the country, with 187,000 students — “punishes students all the time for what they say on social media, even outside of the school year. Without a doubt, students will be punished for saying negative things on Facebook and Twitter about transgenderism.”