Like many school districts in New Hampshire and across the country, Durham’s Oyster River School District didn’t have a transgender-inclusive nondiscrimination policy until confronted with the reality that a transgender student would be enrolling. Unlike many other school districts, however, staff and administrators at Oyster River decided to craft a comprehensive, district-wide policy for all transgender students, current and future. Jason Baker is a school counselor at Oyster River High School, and James Morse is the district’s superintendent. Both were key architects in the development of the district policy. “I’m looking at what I would want for my son or daughter, or my grandchildren. I would want them to have an education that is incredible,” James said. “All these other issues should not be obstacles.”

“I know there are pockets that have faced backlash on whether to have a policy or not,” Jason added. “But fortunately that hasn’t been an issue here. People ask me, ‘How did you deal with parents? How did you deal with the community?’ and I don’t know what to say, because our community just embraced this.”