Vermont Department of Health Urges Schools Not to Use Words Like 'Son' or 'Daughter'

As students return to the classroom for the fall semester, the Vermont Department of Health is encouraging educators to ditch nouns like “daughter” and “son” in favor of words that don’t presume children’s sexes.

“The language we use matters,” the state agency announced in a Facebook post about its “inclusive language” initiative.

“When talking about family,” the post read, “it’s important to use terms that cover the many versions of what family can look like.”

In a graphic that accompanied the department’s post, the Vermont agency urged school employees to use terms like “child” and “kid” instead of “daughter” and “son,” explaining, “This is gender-neutral and can describe a child who may not be someone’s legal son or daughter.”

It further suggests educators and administrators say “family members” as opposed to “household members,” because “not all families live in the same home,” referring to divorced or incarcerated parents.

For context, it’s important to note this is not the first time the Green Mountain State has sought to police the language used in the public school system.

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The Essex Westford School District in Essex Junction, Vermont, made headlines in April 2023, when, according to the parental advocacy group Parents Defending Education, officials sent a letter home to parents, informing them teachers “will be using gender inclusive language” throughout a course on “puberty and the human reproductive systems.”

In the memo, Founders Memorial School Principal Sara Jablonski explained teachers would say “person who produces sperm” instead of “boy, male, and assigned male at birth” and “person who produces eggs” instead of “girl, female, and assigned female at birth.”

“[W]e are working on editing worksheets and handouts to reflect these changes,” she wrote, “but you may see some worksheets that have not changed yet.”

At the time, according to The Christian Post, the school district was pushing its equity policy, which Jablonski alluded to in her letter to parents. The purpose of the policy, the principal wrote, was to “inform curriculum decisions, including anti-racist education and LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual, +) affirming education, and disability, cultural, ethnic, religious, multi-linguistic, and socioeconomic diversity awareness and representation for educators and their students beginning in Pre-Kindergarten.”

This issue has been cropping up in school districts in states across the country.

That’s why, for example, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation in 2022 banning educators in kindergarten through third grade from teaching children about sexual orientation and gender identity.

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