New protocols, attitudes foster a more welcoming environment for the LGBTQ community

In recent years, general views regarding the LGBTQ community have become more accepting, and people are becoming more open minded. These changing attitudes are reflected as West strives to be more welcoming and inclusive. Contributing to this is the GSA, or Gender Sexuality Alliance, a club that welcomes members of the LGBTQ community and allies to create a safe place for students to learn and grow. 

Special education teacher Kaylee Bork has been an advisor of the club since she began working at West in 2017.

“More often than not we have a couple announcements and the rest of the time is spent socializing in a safe place where students can be themselves,” she said. “Occasionally we have ice breaker activities in smaller groups, and we will start having educational meetings as well with different topics within the LGBTQIA+ community to learn about different identities, sexualities, and terms.”

Senior Jasmine Travis is a member of the GSA and has found a community with all of the students involved.

“You find a lot of people in there that you can connect with on certain levels,” she said. “They have a lot that’s offered to you, so for people who may be struggling finding friends to be with or anything like that, it’s a really good place because it’s such a safe place.”

There are numerous benefits that students experience by joining the GSA.

“I think GSA is just really a place where students can feel safe and be open to talking about their gender and sexual orientation,” Principal Erin Kohl said. “A place where they have allies and can get support in general. I also think it’s a great organization that allows them to be able to advocate for things they may need.”

Recently, new protocols have been introduced to the Oshkosh Area School District regarding pronouns. At the school district level, Director of Pupil Services Matthew Kaemmerer was a part of creating the new policy.

“It really started with some of our teaching staff and concerns they brought up about being able to honor the preferred pronouns and names of some of our students,” he said. “Based on our old administrative guidelines, they needed to call parents and get permission in order to honor a student’s request. In talking with our executive team, we agreed that if a student has a preferred name or pronoun, teachers shouldn’t need permission in order to honor that request.”

Now that parent permission is not needed for students to express themselves however they want at school, Kaemmerer hopes students will be healthier and happier as a result.

“We want students to feel like coming to school is a place where they can be themselves. They can feel as though it’s a positive place where they’re recognized for who they are. That’s the goal of this,” he said. “That’s really my hope, is that when it comes to students who identify as transgender or who make the request to be called by a different name or pronoun, that this feels better and more comfortable for them.

Of those who responded to a survey sent out to all West students, 50% are fully in support of the new pronoun protocols. As a transgender student, junior Cody Ulrich benefits directly from this protocol and is fully in support of the change.

“I think it’s a really great thing to have. I honestly didn’t know you needed parent permission beforehand. Teachers would often use them otherwise or ask about it anyways, even if you weren’t comfortable in front of the class, at least one on one,” he said. “It was definitely a shock to me when I came into the new year and teachers were asking for your preferred name rather than your legal name, and I really like that. It was kind of nerve-wracking at first because I didn’t know, but it’s definitely a good thing to have.”

Another topic making its way into conversations is the gender-neutral bathrooms around the school. There are quite a few scattered around the building.

“The A Wing has been like that for a really long time. There’s one in the W Wing and one here in the C Wing. The two newest ones are in the B Wing and in the F Wing,” Kohl said. “Those were added because all of our gender-neutral bathrooms were on the South end of the building, and we didn’t really have options on the North end of the building for kids who have classes in the B Wing, the S Wing, and M Wing, kids that are in study hall or the O room.”

Despite the numerous gender-neutral bathrooms for students to use, most are not aware of all the options available. Of the students who responded to the survey, 36% believe there should be more gender-neutral bathrooms at West. 41% of students say they don’t mind either way because it doesn’t affect them.

“I think we need some more of them. One of them in the W Wing is literally a coat closet or utility closet, and so it’s really difficult,” sophomore Isabella Mariucci said. “There’s only one that’s available that I really know of in the A wing, but I know a lot of people who struggle to get in there when they need to. I feel like there needs to be more of them where we can fit them.”

Gender-neutral bathrooms are important for students who don’t fit into the traditional gender norms.

“If we had more of them, maybe more students would use them, maybe it would stay private the way it is now,” junior Abi Potratz said. “But there are a lot of non-binary students at West or trans students that just don’t feel comfortable using the opposite gender bathroom because they’re afraid they’ll get bullied. A lot can happen in the bathrooms that administrators won’t find out about.”

In the district, staff members have the option of getting SAFE training, which teaches administrators how to support LGBTQ students. Band director Daniel Singer has gone through this training in past years.

“There are some exercises where you learn about how people from different groups can be, and have been, and are marginalized. Because not everybody has had that specific experience,” he said. “That helps open the eyes of people in the training to other people’s experiences. Then you learn more about what LGBTQ+ stands for and how people identify and how people in the community struggle, and how we can help them through their struggles.”

Band director Brian Wilson found the SAFE training extremely enlightening and acknowledges that everyone has more to learn.

“It was pretty eye-opening to me. I know a lot of the terms but I don’t necessarily know what all of them mean,” he said. “These people have always existed, but now there are terms to refer to them, and learning what all these different terms are helps you better understand the people you work, teach, and interact with. You can reach them better and have a better personal connection to them if you at least have a surface knowledge of what they’re going through and need to be successful.”

Ulrich recognizes the progress West has made in recent years and everything the staff is doing to create an inclusive environment at school.

“I would say the school is pretty good with handling things like that, especially the teachers who are very supportive,” he said. “In general, it’s very accepting with the GSA and new name and pronoun thing. I would say that it’s doing really well. Gender-neutral bathrooms obviously are really nice to have. I would say that teachers and staff take it seriously if you’re being bullied for being a part of the LGBTQ community.”

Kohl hopes to create a safe environment at school for everyone, regardless of gender or sexuality.

“I just think it’s so important for people to respect everybody for who they are, whether it’s gender, sexual orientation, race, socioeconomic status- everybody belongs here at Oshkosh West, and we want everybody to feel that,” she said. “We want everyone to feel welcome and know that they belong here and are accepted here. Regardless of what people’s personal beliefs are about different things, there’s absolutely no place to disrespect people for being who they truly are.”