Alumni raise $5K to help Mount change transgender policy

3/9/2016 VALLEY BREEZE
Alumni raise $5K to help Mount change transgender policy
School hopes to update controversial handbook entry
By SANDY SEOANE, Valley Breeze Staff Writer

WOONSOCKET – A Mount Saint Charles Academy alumnus launched an online campaign this week that has raised more than $5,000 to help the school update a policy banning transgender students.

School officials, meanwhile, said the policy – added to the Parent and Students Handbook last October – was based not on the desire to exclude such potential students, but rather on a belief that the school is not currently prepared to properly accommodate them.

Said Herve E. Richer, president of the academy, “The question is: Can we serve a transgender student if they come to our school? What’s it going to take so we can serve these students fairly and adequately?”

The school came under fire late last week after media reports of a handbook entry regarding students who identify with a gender that differs from their assigned sex. News of the policy sparked a storm of online criticism, and a protest Saturday morning as the private Catholic school held an entrance exam for new students.

The policy, since removed from the handbook, stated: “Mount Saint Charles Academy is unable to make accommodations for transgender students. Therefore, MSC does not accept transgender students nor is MSC able to continue to enroll students who identify as transgender.”

As word of the language hit social media, hundreds joined a Facebook group dubbed “Concerned Alumni Against Mount St. Charles’s Trans-Exclusive Policy.” A petition asking the school to “leave the hateful rhetoric in the past,” garnered more than 1,600 signatures.

But Richer says the policy was based on the desire to make sure all students at the academy are safe and cared for.

“Right now we don’t feel we have the facilities to give them the accommodations they need,” says Richer. “The goal always was that when we felt when we were in the position to serve the transgender student, it will be updated.”

He emphasized that no student has been denied entry based on their transgender status, and added that none, that he knew of, had applied.

Asked what is needed at the school to allow for the change, Richer said, “A lot centers around bathroom and shower facilities, but it’s beyond that,” pointing to the possible need for things like a school psychologist. “We don’t have someone here who can help these students grapple with these issues. It would be an injustice to that student.”

Brendan DeBeasi wants to change that. The former student started a GoFundMe campaign on Saturday, March 5 titled “MSC Transgender Accommodations.”

“It is my belief that Mount did not include this provision intentionally out of hate,” wrote DeBeasi. “The public’s opinion has been heard, and MSC is working on fixing this policy as we speak.”

“Students at MSC are taught acceptance, love, and service,” he continued. “It was these values Mount instilled in us that led to the rapid organization against this new policy.”

DeBeasi set a fundraising goal of $5,000 with the intent of asking the school to provide designated areas of locker rooms that are safe for transgender students, as well as bathrooms. He also hopes the money will allow the school to develop policies that will educate faculty on the LGBTQ movement.

By Monday afternoon, the campaign had exceeded its $5,000 goal.

And DeBeasi isn’t the only former student who has come forward in hopes to help their beloved alma mater.

A group of six recent graduates sent a letter to school officials this week in hopes to set up a meeting on the issue.

“This policy directly violates the school’s mission of valuing the dignity of each student, that we learned in your walls, and that we want to preserve in legacy. Many of us... attribute Mount to playing a key role in our lives and want to preserve and protect it,” the alumni wrote. “Our hope is to work with, not against, Mount in order to better the policy.”

They said several in their ranks have experience in working in LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) circles.

“This letter is a demonstration to you, the administration, and we hope we can move forward in a positive and inclusive direction that is reminiscent to the faith and values we learned from you.”

Signing the letter were alumni Samantha Ward, Nicholas Martin, Dante Tavolaro, Ryan Glode, Julie Hamel McBrien and Alicia Bissonnette.

Richer said the school welcomes the dialog, and that the group is among many students who have offered to assist.

“It is certainly our hope and our goal to be able to engage them in lengthier conversations so they can give us some guidance,” Richer said.

He said school officials are also currently revisiting the handbook to see if the policy was “phrased correctly.”

“Our conversation has never been about whether or not we want transgender students in our building. It’s been: How can we serve transgender students?”

The school president said that while the school has received many angry phone calls over the past week, they all shared a common theme.

“In the midst of all of this, one of the things that we are most proud of is that all of the alumni who have contacted us, even though they have been upset with us, they have all shared how well served they were by this school,” Richer said. “What we want to be able to do is to share that experience with every kid that comes into our building.”

He added, “They felt safe. They felt cared for. We need to be able to continue to live up to that. It’s so important to us when a student comes in that we can take care of them and take care of them well.”

Editor’s note: Valley Breeze Publisher Thomas V. Ward is a graduate of Mount Saint Charles Academy who currently serves on the school’s board of directors. Samantha Ward is Tom Ward’s niece.