As if middle school weren't already hard enough

Our daughter is in middle school. One of the girls who was in her class last year decided to change her name from a girl's name to a boy's name. She decideD she was a boy. Someone snitched on our daughter, telling a teacher that our daughter refused to call her by her new name. The principal called our daughter into her office. Our daughter told us about it last night. She had been told by one of her classmates that if she has to go to the principal's office three or more times, she would be kicked out of school. Her mother placed four phone calls to four prominent attorneys.

This morning her mother and I went to see the principal. We asked her why our daughter was brought into her office. She said someone told her our daughter had referred to the girl as "it." She said our daughter denied saying that. We told the principal that our daughter did not have our permission to call her "it" or any other derogatory name, but she did have our permission to call her by any female gender pronoun.

We asked the principal what the consequences might be if she used a female pronoun. The principal did not know, and also denied there was a three strike rule. The principal explained that the District policy requires that all students and staff comply with the wishes of any gender dysphoric student by referring to the student with the pronoun of the gender they identify with.