An elite girls school in Tennessee plans to change its admissions standards to include the prospective enrollment of biological males who identify as female.
This week, Harpeth Hall Upper School — in the Nashville suburb of Green Hills, Tennessee -— announced that it would accept transgender girls.
The school has a 157-year tradition of housing only biologically female students.
In a recent letter to alumnae, the school administration articulated its approach to welcoming transgender students.
Here's an opening excerpt of the letter:
"All-girls schools have never been more important.
"For more than 155 years, Harpeth Hall has been an all-girls school. That will not change.
"In a world that continues to serve up a double standard and uneven playing field for women, girls still face challenges in maintaining respect and obtaining equal opportunities. Harpeth Hall has always been focused on giving girls the foundation they need to rise to these challenges successfully.
"In 1865, when Harpeth Hall's predecessor school Ward Seminary opened in Nashville, it was decades before women had the right to vote.
"At that time, providing a girl an equal educational experience to what any young man would experience was a radical idea. Centuries later, the idea of an all-girls education is just as important. Harpeth Hall's mission remains relevant and vital today as female students confront new obstacles in our increasingly complicated modern culture.
"Conversations about gender expectations and gender expression are happening in Nashville and across the country — at schools both public and private, from elementary through college. Throughout these conversations, and especially in the midst of societal change, students deserve respect and the opportunity to develop their unique sense of self in a safe environment.
"... The conversation was not easy. Collectively, the two leadership groups are composed of diversity of all types, including race, religion, political affiliation, gender, and age."
The letter also included the following:
"Harpeth Hall is a girls school. The school culture is unique and distinctly about girls, complete with the use of references to students as girls and young women and the collective use of female pronouns. ... Any student who identifies as a girl may apply to our school. Students who join and remain at Harpeth Hall do so because our mission as a school for girls resonates with them."
According to Breitbart News, the yearly tuition for Harpeth Hall middle school students is approximately $32,000, and $33,000 annually at the high school level.
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