VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The vote by Virginia Beach School Board members Tuesday night capped off months of contentious debate.
Nine of the members voted to approve following the Youngkin administration's policies impacting LGBTQ students.
The policies say students under 18 years old have to have parental written permission to change their names or pronouns while at school.
"It is a school board's job to make sure that schools are safe and healthy learning environments. I can confidently say that these policies will destroy any sense of safety in our schools," a junior at Kellam High said.
The policies also say students will use restrooms that match their biological sex, but say all students will have access to single user restrooms that don't require permission to use.
Board members also approved language to say participation in sports that are split into boys and girls teams will be based on biological sex and not gender or gender identity.
Some board members appeared to struggle with the decision.
"My district has spoken to me and I have listened. I vote for the people for whom I represent. This was incredibly difficult," said member Kim Melynk.
Member Jessica Owens voted no and Beverly Anderson abstained.
"I am definitely not in favor of not being able to call a student by the name they prefer and that's the one hang up I have on it," said Anderson.
As the debate continued over the last few months, two Virginia Beach parents sued the school board, saying the board had to adopt the policies.
A lawyer for the parents didn't respond to a request for information on the status of the lawsuit and whether it would now be dropped.
Gov. Youngkin responded to a question about the vote during a stop in Virginia Beach Wednesday.
He says he's glad the board took the policies back up for consideration, but still needed to review exactly what was passed.
"At the heart of the policies is empowering parents to be at the head of the table and that no decision should be made for parents without fully being enganged and authorizing it," he said.
The school division's acting superintendent said principals will start to get trained on the new policies in November.
