(The Lion) — A Virginia public school district will no longer offer instruction on transgenderism and so-called gender identity.

Shenandoah County Public Schools recently approved a policy that bans instruction on gender identity at all grade levels throughout the district.

According to the new policy, “Teaching About Controversial Issues,” gender identity refers to “an individual’s self-conception as a male, female, a blend of both or neither,” and “the teaching of more than two genders or the ability to identify as a gender other than one’s actual biological sex at birth,” WHSV reports.

The policy, proposed by board member Gloria Carlineo, bars school faculty from offering instruction, guidance, programming or activities related to gender identity.

“It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be allowing any kind of discrimination, that we’re going to be going after any kids that may have a sense of a different gender identity,” Carlineo told WHSV. “This is very specific to what our teachers are allowed to teach.”

Miriam Munson, a Shenandoah County parent, also supports the new policy.

She thinks schools should educate children rather than use them in “social experiments.”

“Why trouble 99% of children with issues that affect 1%?” Munson asked. “I think it’ll bring more unity, personally, if everybody’s focused on the goal, which is what our tax dollars are intended to be paying for.”

However, Shenandoah County resident Linda Thomas-Fowler opposed the move.

“Reading the policy, it just seemed clear that it had only one intent, which was to make the children it affects invisible and to tell them that whatever is happening to them, the school board doesn’t care,”she told WHSV.

The school board sees the policy as a way for teachers to avoid controversial topics while respecting the dignity of its students, the report said.

The school board has not yet decided whether it will provide additional employee training about handling this issue.