At a board meeting of 30 teachers, parents, students, and administrators, senior Sasha Perigo began her presentation to the Board of the Trustees by asking people who supported the GTSA cause to stand up.

About half the audience stood up. Perigo went on to propose policy changes that would guarantee privacy protections for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual students, regardless of identity or expression.

Perigo spoke to the board last Thursday with two fellow GTSA officials, freshman Ruby Elson and senior Marnie Ginis.

According to Ginis, the policy will help to maintain privacy by allowing students to put their preferred name and gender on school documents.

“In order to maintain privacy and protect students from bullying and harassment, we would like to ensure that transgender students’ legal name and gender are hidden from other students,” Ginis said. “The policy would be so that students’ preferred name, gender and pronouns are respected by educators in the classroom, during role call, during standardized testing.”

In addition to maintaining privacy, an administrative recommendation coupled with the new policy is to implement gender-neutral bathrooms. Elson said the restrooms would be single stall and available to anyone, regardless of gender, throughout the school day.

According to a 2012 Marin County Youth Commission study, 50 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students in Marin felt unsafe in school restrooms.

The policy also aims to keep gay, lesbian, and transgender slurs out of classrooms and hallways.

“There needs to be a distinction between swear words and slurs aimed at a group of people,” Perigo said. “When bullying and harassment does occur in the classroom, be it directed at a specific student or the use of anti-LGBT slurs, we would like it to be taken seriously.”

Perigo said that the inspiration for this new policy came after she was shown a similar policy that was implemented in the San Rafael City Schools district last year.

According to Ginis, the GTSA club has been working on updating the policy for over a year with the help of Ann Jaime, club adviser Gary DeTore, and district Director of Special Projects Louise Aliano.

The Board has not made a final decision towards this policy, but plans to take action and vote at the next meeting on Wednesday, May 22.

Updated May 22 at 7:15 p.m.