Do Better, NC!

I've been low key bothered by something for a while now. Public schools in NC are required to use student's legal names on all of their student accounts, including the ones that show up in virtual environments. While I understand why the basis for their student accounts needs to be their legal names, this is a large problem for our transgender students. When BCS switched to virtual learning, it became an even bigger issue. In traditional rooms, they can at least have conversations with teachers in private before the class starts. Those students discovered that when they participate in the virtual environment, the name on display is their dead name and there is no way to change that. Not only does this put the student in an extremely uncomfortable situation that can cause mental health issues for them, but it potentially outs them without their consent and puts them in danger. It's timely that today is Transgender Day of Visibility, as this morning, I received an email about the work that the Campaign for Southern Equality has been doing recently for our transgender students. Apparently, our grading database, PowerSchool, has the ability to add fields that solve this problem, NC JUST ISN'T USING IT.