A Westerly father visited the Cranston School Committee on July 15.

As he accused the school district of discriminating against the vast majority of city students, the seventh-ranked student from Cranston High School East’s Top 10 quietly held a rainbow-colored sign, no bigger than a medium-sized pizza box lid. The sign said simply: “We love our kids.”

Robert Chiaradio urged the school committee to ignore state and federal policy. He told school officials they were jeopardizing student health and safety by abiding by its own nearly decade-old “transgender” and “nonconforming and transitioning students policy.”

“I am here this evening as part of my state-wide mission to speak at School Committee meetings in all 36 Rhode Island districts,” Chiaradio told the School Committee. “To inform you, everyone here, everyone watching at home, that no district is obligated to comply with RIDE’s misleading and untruthful transgender guidance policy or the illegal hijacking of Title IX.”

Title IX of the education Amendments of 1972 is a federal civil rights law intended to prohibit “discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs and activities,” according to district policy. “Specifically, Title IX's sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity.”

“RIDE’s guidance is not law,” Chiaradio testified. “This committee already knows this yet continues to support a policy which discriminates against 99% of this district’s population. Under this guidance, boys identifying as girls are allowed to utilize the same bathrooms and locker rooms as girls, compete against girls athletically, and room with girls on overnight field trips.”

“Teachers are compelled to utilize pronouns as per the students’ sexual identity,” he continued. “And there is no mandate in the gender transition plan that the school inform parents should their child decide to socially transition at school. This must change and it is beginning to.”

The Kids Count

Recent CHSE graduate Connor Pyne (CHSE’s seventh-ranked student from the Class of 2024) attended the July 15 meeting with his parents, Stephanie Geller and Bill Pyne. His mother spoke following Chiaradio’s three-minute presentation.

“I’m speaking both as a parent and as deputy director of Rhode Island Kids Count,” Geller told the committee.

“We’re a children policy and advocacy organization that works to improve the health, safety, education and … wellbeing and development of Rhode Island’s children,” Geller said. Her organization works toward “the elimination of unacceptable disparities by race, ethnicity … zip code, immigration status, neighborhood income … and this … includes gender identity.”

“In May 2001, Rhode Island became the second state in the country to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity,” Geller reminded the committee.

“The organization I represent stands firmly in support of trans youth,” Geller said. “Today I’m going to be speaking a lot more about my own personal experience as the parent of a Cranston High School East Class of 2024 graduate and a Cranston resident.”

“My son Connor came out to my husband and me as trans in his early teens,” she recalled. “And we supported him throughout this journey. As has this school and this committee. So really, I’m here to commend you all, on what is happening in Cranston Schools, at least as my son has experienced it.”

The summer before tenth grade, Pyne and his parents went to Cranston East to officially change his name and gender marker on his school records. The vice principal was “extremely helpful, supportive, and answered all questions we had,” Geller said. Later that year, the family went to court to legally change Connor’s name on his birth certificate. A short while later a friend in the city’s library system helped him change his name on his library card.

“The vice principal and school nurses were … particularly helpful, in helping us change … school records, access locker rooms and bathrooms he feels comfortable using,” Geller told the committee. “His teachers … have also been very supportive and he has not experienced any bullying related to his gender identity. “

“But in general I really just want to say what a great job the district and that school has done for my son,” Geller said. “I also want to commend the Cranston community as a whole. We wrote up something on Facebook announcing his transition, and shared our support for him, and received many letters, emails and texts of support.”

The three-minute alarm was about to sound.

 “Can I have a little bit of extra time?” Geller asked.

“No you cannot,” said Cranston School Committee Chairman (and former Mayor) Michael A. “Traf” Traficante, who also stopped Chiaradio at the three-minute mark.

“I’m really just asking you to comply with state law and to follow the policy of RIDE and continue your support of students and to speak up for them,” Geller said, wrapping up her remarks.

The Policy

The Cranston city-wide public schools’ transgender, nonconforming and transitioning students policy spells out procedures for the treatment of “trans” students as early as elementary school.

For elementary school students, “If school staff believe that a gender identity issue is presenting itself and creating challenges for a student at school, or if a student or parent(s)/guardian(s) of a student indicates an intention on behalf of the student to transition, the school should make every effort to work with the student and the child's parents.”

“Where the student has expressed an intention to transition, the school should meet with the family to prepare for a formal gender transition at school and put in place measures for supporting the child and creating a sensitive, supportive environment at school,” according to the policy.

Moving on to secondary school, “If school staff believe that a gender identity issue is presenting itself and creating challenges for a student at school, or if the student or parent(s)/guardian(s) of a student indicates an intention to transition, the school should make every effort to work with the student.”

“Generally, notification to a student's parent(s)/guardian(s) about their gender identity, expression, or transition is unnecessary, as they are already aware and supportive,” the policy states. “However, some transgender students do not want their parents to know about their transgender status. These situations must be addressed on a case-by-case basis and require schools to balance the goal of supporting the student with the desire that parents be kept informed about their children. In these circumstances, school administration should ask the superintendent for direction on how to proceed. If the administration determines that notifying the family carries risks for the student, it should work closely with the student to assess the degree to which, if any, the family will be involved in the process and must consider the age, health, well-being and safety of the student.”

As for Chiaradio’s other concerns, school policy clearly states that “all students are entitled to have access to restrooms, locker rooms and changing facilities that are sanitary, safe and adequate.” And for athletics, “students shall be allowed to participate in sex-segregated physical education classes or athletic activities, including intramural and interscholastic athletics, in a manner consistent with their gender identity.”

Chiaradio urged the Cranston School Committee to reverse its policy.

“Last month, the American College of Pediatricians issued a statement calling out all other major medical associations to ‘immediately end promotion of social affirmation, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for children and adolescents who experience distress over their biological sex,’” Chiaradio told the school committee. “Numerous other countries have already stopped these barbaric practices.”

Chiaradio said he plans to visit Johnston over the next few months, to make the same appeal. He already visited his hometown district, as well as Cumberland. He has publicly posted some of his efforts to social media. He attended the meeting with his own videographer in tow.

“My mission continues this week with three school committee appearances: Monday, in Cranston; Wednesday, in Woonsocket; and Thursday, in Middletown,” he wrote on social media prior to the July 15 visit. “We march on for these kids … ALL kids, and for this great country.”

“A Cumberland School Committee member noted when I spoke there a couple of weeks ago, the lack of incidents in bathrooms as a reason to keep the current policy,” Chiaradio told the committee. “He is obviously willing to take a chance that a young lady won’t get sexually assaulted in the girls room as happened in Loudoun County, Virginia two years ago.”

According to a 2023 report in the Washington Post, a “victim of school bathroom sexual assault” sued the Virginia school district, following an alleged “2021 incident in a Loudoun County school.” The teen and her family were seeking $30 million, and also alleged that officials tried to cover up the assault, according to the Washington Post report.

“I am not willing to take that chance,” Chiaradio told the Cranston School Committee. “This district’s Title IX policy is a bit ambiguous in a couple of instances. The current administration’s hijacking of Title IX is illegal and must be not adopted by this committee. Title IX was written to protect women against discrimination based on sex. Not men who identify as women. That is not the same thing.”

Several audience members crammed into the tiny school committee meeting room punctuated Chiaradio’s remarks with sighs and quiet comment. The audience grew after the meeting’s first hour; late arrivals stood in the doorway listening to the discussion.

“Nowhere in Title IX is gender identity mentioned,” Chiaradio asserted. “Not only does the Biden administration’s illegal rewrite and hijacking of Title IX, as well as RIDE’s current guidance not prevent discrimination based on sex, it mandates it. Boys do not belong competing with girls athletically. It is both unfair and unsafe for girls.”

Traficante’s three-minute alarm sounded — somber testimony broken by the tinny cacophony of gentle computer bells.

“Time,” said the chairman.

“I’m requesting one more minute please,” Chiaradio said.

“The committee’s already made the indication that they will not go beyond the 3-minute rule,” Traficante replied.

“OK,” Chiaradio said. “Well, I will wrap up then.”

“Yes, please,” Traficante responded.

The Response

No school committee member interacted with the evening’s speakers.

Following Geller’s testimony, Wendy Becker, Karen Rosenberg and Giona Picheco all urged the school committee to continue its course, supporting the city’s trans students.

On July 22, Cranston Schools Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse issued a brief statement when pressed for a response to Chiaradio’s requests: “We seek to support all of our students and the school community.”

One school committee member, under condition of anonymity, said most districts are reluctant to buck the state and federal Title IX guidance for fear of losing federal funding. Schools are barely scraping by. The Cranston School District is making more than a million dollars in cuts to transportation routes and staffing after level-funding from town government.

“We can’t afford to lose any funding,” said the school committee member.

Since Chiaradio’s presentation before the school committee, a would-be assassin tried to kill Republican Presidential nominee and former President Donald J. Trump. And his opponent, current President Joseph Biden, has announced he’s dropped out of the race. In city government, two Republican mayoral candidates are duking it out; and the Democratic majority on Cranston City Council hangs in the balance.

Political winds may be shifting.

“Twenty states are currently suing the Biden administration over Title IX, and they are winning,” Chiaradio wrote in an email to school officials. “Those that don’t, as well as districts that don’t, will doubtless be sued by their own residents and families. Your choice.”

Chiaradio sent a longer, altered version of his remarks to the School Committee following his appearance at the meeting on July 15.

“Let me ask you, and I know you won’t answer,” Chiaradio wrote. “How would you feel if your daughter or granddaughter were in a girl’s bathroom or locker room, thinking she was in a girls only space, when all of a sudden a boy pretending to be a girl enters?”

“Are you good with her feeling uncomfortable or unsafe, her privacy violated?” He asked the committee members. “How about if your daughter were an accomplished athlete in say track or swimming or field hockey, and a boy who identifies as a girl suddenly takes her spot, or defeats her, or injures her?  How would you feel about her being paired up with a biological boy in a hotel room on a school-sponsored field trip? Or teachers having to go against everything they believe in being made to call a girl a boy and a boy a girl?”

“Lastly, how would you feel if your kid’s school kept life-altering secrets from you about your own child?” He asked. “Every single one of these instances is allowed under your current policy, which RIDE is calling law. (RIDE Commissioner) Angelica Infante-Green is lying to you. It isn’t law, and you have no obligation whatsoever to comply. Tell RIDE that parents and families, through this committee, know what’s best for Cranston’s kids. Not RIDE.”

RIDE Communications Director Victor Morente acknowledged receipt of a request for comment on Chiaradio’s assertions by RIDE or Commissioner Infante-Green, but did not respond by Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Chiaradio’s off to visit the next Rhode Island school committee on his list.

TESTIMONIALS: From left to right, Wendy Becker, Karen Rosenberg, Connor Pyne, Bill Pyne, Stephanie Geller, Giona Picheco and Victoria Eno, attended the July 15 Cranston School Committee meeting to counter-balance Robert Chiaradio’s attempt to persuade school officials to change the city’s “transgender” and “nonconforming and transitioning students policy.” (Cranston Herald photo by Rory Schuler)

HE URGED THE COMMITTEE: Robert Chiaradio, a Westerly father described by some as an “anti-trans activist,” visited the Cranston School Committee on July 15. He accused the school district of discriminating against the vast majority of city students. (Cranston Herald photo by Rory Schuler)

The Westerly School Committee’s new policy, when completed, will right the wrongs I mentioned earlier.  Your new policy must do the same.  To be clear, no matter how much a boy wants to be a girl, dress like a girl, think he’s a girl, or act like a girl…He will never BE a girl.  NEVER. The same with girls who see themselves as boys.  This is not an indictment of these kids.  It is fact.

Following Westerly’s lead and writing your own policy would make certain that Cranston’s kids get the safety and privacy they ALL need and deserve. We will get Westerly’s policy to you when it is completed.  Get this on your agenda to discuss within 30 days, and get started drafting a new policy.  I promise you, we will hold this committee and district leadership accountable.

Thank you.  God bless the families and children of Cranston, and God bless The United States of America.

Director of Communications     Victor Morente   401-222-8700      victor.morente@ride.ri.gov