'Kids are having to use their deadname': Students say gender policies make schools feel unsafe

Many students consider them "forced outing" policies. And they are already creating fallout.

The recent spate of regulations passed by school boards in conservative pockets of California requiring schools to notify parents if a student does something to indicate gender nonconformity is seeping into campus culture in ways some students describe as dangerous and repressive. And the students most affected, they said, are those who have valid reasons for not yet being open with their families about their exploration of gender identity.

"Multiple trans kids are having to use their deadname," said Max Ibarra, a high school senior in the Chino Valley Unified School District in San Bernardino County, referring to a student's birth name before they identify as transgender. "They can't start their new school year by being themselves, because if they do, they will be outed to their families, and there are many cases where that's not safe."

in San Bernardino County in July became the