North Cook News

A pair of seniors are posing a change to how Evanston Township High School allows students to address one another.

Nova Horrell and Maisy Kobernik-Pollack want the Evanston Township District 202 school board to institute new mandates and guidelines that would, they say, prevent "misgendering," or calling a boy "he" when the boy wants to be referred to as a "she."

The students spoke to the school board in a Nov. 8 school board meeting.

They want the school board to mandate that every student at ETHS to be required to provide their “pronouns” which would be presented “gallery” style on a “classroom wall” and “updated every few months.”

“Right now, some classes don’t allow students the chance to share their pronouns, increasing the chance that they will be misgendered,” Horrell said. “That comes along with a series of negative psychological effects. Or we have this maximalist approach, which is equally as harmful.”

Horrell claims being “misgendered” can have drastic impacts on children and could lead to violence and homelessness.

“You have classes that can put students who are questioning (their sex) or closeted on the spot, forcing them to either choose to out themselves there, which can lead to immediate physical violence at worst,” Horrell said. "Or long-term systemic violence, if that information could get out to their parents who are not supportive. That leads to an increased chance of homelessness." 

If teachers know not to use the name you go by at school with your parents, it makes you feel safer.”

This would accommodate students whose “pronouns change throughout the year,” ensuring other students are “informed” and don’t “harm” them by calling them by the wrong name.

“Being transgender is a beautiful thing,” Kobernik-Pollack said. 

Kobernik-Pollack said the pair created a survey asking about “the way teachers have been handling gender identity this school year.”  

The pair received 146 responses.

The two later drafted a letter requesting school administration step in.

Read the full letter below:

An Open Letter From ETHS Students to Administrators on Issues Affecting the Trans Community and Their Solutions

The way our culture, as a school, city, and nation, has evolved when it comes to the topic of gender has been astonishing. The rate of trans visibility has skyrocketed. At the same time, both anti and pro-trans actions and rhetoric have seen similar growth. ETHS has not been immune to this phenomenon. 

Thankfully, school administrators have been taking a good-faith approach to try and make transgender students feel safe in their learning environment. However, we have collected data through an anonymous survey with over 130 participants discussing both cisgender and transgender student experiences at ETHS, which has resulted in some disheartening responses. 

The current system, or lack thereof, does not have approval from transgender students. When trans students were asked if they thought the school treated them well, we received multiple responses like; “they make it seem like they care but they really don’t” and “I think in theory there's a lot of good things the school does, but in practice they aren't accessible to most trans and [gender non-conforming] students.” 

Change needs to occur so that no student feels this way. This problem is not insurmountable, in fact, we recommend the following policies to make ETHS a safer place for trans students.

ETHS should be a safe place for transgender students. 

On ETHS’s website, the section titled “Support for Transgender & Gender Expansive Students” offers many important resources for transitioning students. However, these resources are not without caveats. 

Some of these resources require parental support, which is something that not all queer kids have. The Student Advocacy Form asks important questions about where the student wishes to have access to, such as the bathrooms and locker rooms congruent with their gender identity. 

Despite this, many students who need access to these spaces do not know about the existence of the Student Advocacy form or even the gender neutral spaces themselves. To find out about the things they can do to make school a safer place, they have to hear about it from other students. Gender identity at school cannot be ignored as it does not go away. 

What we are asking for is that the administration takes a more active role in advertising these spaces and pushing for these spaces to be used by transgender and gender non-conforming students. This is far from our main concern however, at the moment, teachers have no sort of requirements or guide on how to ask students for their preferred names and pronouns that are enforced in any meaningful way. While some teachers take on the task well, the majority of teachers have weak policies when it comes to making sure that trans students' identities are represented but also safe. 

At the beginning of the year most teachers are forced to choose between two options. 

Option one is that they do not ask for pronouns and simply assume students' pronouns. This is obviously problematic as it allows for the greatest chance of misgendering of transgender students. 

The second option is some form of public declaration of pronouns, in which students are pressured to share their pronouns in front of a large group. This process puts trans students, especially closeted and questioning trans students, on the spot, and effectively puts them in two positions; lying and enforcing the perception of yourself as the gender you were assigned at birth, or outing yourself, which possibly opens yourself up to a barrage of unsafety. 

We recommend that on the first days of school, all teachers provide a private space, for example a google form, that asks "what pronouns do you use at home” and “what pronouns would you like to be referred to as at school,” there could also be a second question asking "what name do you use at home” and “what name would you like to be used at school.” 

Teachers will have students make a slide about themselves with basic information, including pronouns if the student is comfortable with that. T

hen students, if they wish, can share their pronouns gallery style (e.g. on a classroom wall, or with chromebooks open around the room) in a classroom, allowing students to share their pronouns in an organic and freeform way that still protects students' gender identity. 

We request that the administration find some way of ensuring that teachers engage in this practice, and make clear that students shouldn’t be forced to share their pronouns, but should be provided with a safe space to do so if they so choose.

Learning someone’s pronouns is as important as learning their name. A standard needs to be created so that it can be met. Regardless of identity, all students wish for some sort of regulated system. “I think some standardization would be helpful,” said one student answering our survey. 

Teachers are hoping for the same thing. Unless a teacher is relatively new, they do not have formal training or advice on how to handle personal pronouns. As good intentioned as each teacher can be, leaving it up to them can have a negative impact on transgender students. We must find the balance between outing students and making sharing pronouns completely optional.

While starting the year with names and pronouns is a good step, it needs to be carried forwards, and spread throughout the year. We are in the second quarter of school, and some teachers never created a space that is safe for people to share their pronouns. This creates an atmosphere in which students cannot share their identities, and opens the doorway to getting misgendered. ETHS needs to adopt a system that is malleable throughout the year. Systems and training can be easily created and enforceable, and we the student body are willing to aid in that creation and enforcement, and simply wish that administrators and teachers will work with us in creating those systems.

Signed,

Nova Horrell    

Maisy Kobernik-Pollack   

Nathaniel Orlov-Mayer   

Catherine Hansen  

 Rowan Leonard    

Jackson Friedman    

Kitty Colton        

Kyle Trzaskus        

George Weiler        

Bennett Fink        

Sanele Stewart        

Seamus Noonan    

Eleanor Granstrom    

Emi Brady        

Joseph Begly      

 Britza Ruiz

Frida P.    

Charlotte Miller    

José León    

Ethan English

Mira Littmann        

Peter Kezdy        

Alix Kerebel        

 Ronen Fisher        

James Montgomery        

Lily Aaron        

Selah Stirnaman      

 B Janes

Katie Drew    

Harrison Grube    

Quintin Brown    

Mackenzie Greco

Traniece    

Isabelle Smith        

Sparrow Hamilton    

Zosia Johnson

Malcolm Lang      

  Alejandro Quiles    

Jessica Rogers-Reilley    

Ash Munson

Talia Bahar        

Aidan Kerwin       

 Alex Millan        

Jay Gurrala

Cindy Santiaguillo        

Myah Davis        

Sophie Brown       

 E Jones

Jasper Dabbs        

Henry Harbison    

Edin McGinn       

 Maya Connell

Anna Marty        

Anna Siddiqui        

Ryder Hallongren    

Clark

Laura Jewell        

Gina Coleman     

Xaiver Chick        

Amelia Brownell

Sarah Zegree      

  Neva Whitcomb    

Eliott Jamieson    

Daniel L

Rory Behm       

 Sophia LeFleur   

Emma Boczkowski        

Bo

Erin Livatino       

 Alejandro Acosta    

Carys Kasprzycki    

Ethan Cummins

Sofia Borden        

Talia Bahar       

 Charlotte Geyskens   

Carmen Tracy-Amoroso

Moksha Paudel    

Andrea Arce        

Damien Feliciano    

Emily Hunt

Linnea Mayo        

Eric Kasule        

Kate Newbold       

 TJ Dennis

Ingrid Halverson   

 Oliver Pratt        

Anna Phillips        

Ilsa Ahmed

Michael Pond        

Sydney TerMolen    

Sari Oppenheimer    

Stella Tobin

Isabel Soto        

Michael Rogers   

 Hailey Guy        

Cecilia Lowman

Amira Grace        

Barbara    

Sadie Dowhan        

Elena

Anthony Orsi        

Eva Morales-Grahl        

Adalia Soto        

Ashley Cochrane

Carolina Pavon    

Maya Connell        

Lily Mason        

Jojo Wertheimer

Haven McIntosh-Lombardo    

Stella Israelite        

Honor Michel        

Hazel Czerniuk

Aleksandra Karpeyev        

Teresa Waterkotte    

Jazmin Herrera    

Lindsey Jacobs

Chloe Kingsbury    

Olivia Zineddine    

Nicholas Bradley    

Audrey Wright

Vivian Steinke        

Kendall Jack       

 Asensa Sadiki        

Heath Grossman

Cooper Walston    

Colin        

Kyra French        

Xiadany Tamayo

Sophia Rocca       

 Maria Martinez    

Ainslie Stoolmaker        

Mateo Lane-Murcia

Barbara Tomaradze       

 Driztin Soleil Anderson    

Sabrina Barnes    

Noemi Soto

Sora Richter        

Maeve Smith        

Britt Bodkin       

 Erin Doherty

Teague Sieja        

Xavier        

Jennet Tempone    

Imani Summers

Alianna Baptist    

Molly        

Mia Tingley        

Elena Helms

Aaron Clarke       

Phoenix Perlow-Anderson       

 Annika Macy        

Ashton Nelson

Kathleen Weber