NJEA’s officers, President Sean Spiller, Vice President Steve Beatty and Secretary-Treasurer Petal Robertson, issued this statement condemning yesterday’s executive order targeting educators who support and protect vulnerable students, including transgender students:
President Donald Trump’s latest executive order directly targets vulnerable students and the dedicated school employees who work so hard to protect and educate them. It is a particularly cruel and harmful attack on transgender students. In this executive order, Trump uses children as political pawns in an intentional effort to mislead American families and divide communities. New Jersey educators have always been committed to ensuring that our students are safe and feel valued in school. That will not change regardless of any cynical attempt to stop us from standing up for ALL of our students.
Working with the New Jersey attorney general, and in partnership with parents, we will use every means at our disposal to protect students and educators. We will fight to ensure that New Jersey’s public schools remain places where all students are safe and respected and where the truth is taught despite the president’s attempts to twist it to fit his harmful and divisive agenda.