The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page B01

LJ Went ilnquirer Sunday, april 24, 2016 1 philly.com i LOCAL NEWS PIFA's high-flying fun SRC member Farah Jimenez to lead Education Fund. B2 Crafting policies for trans students Schools are being proactive in accommodating those who have switched names, gender. By Kathy Boccella STAFF WRITER When a transgender girl graduated in white gown from Springfield Township High School, her parents made an unusual request for two diplomas: one for her, with her new female name, and one for them, with her male birth name. Springfield administrators say they complied without hesitation as they, like many public and private schools, increasingly are being asked to accommodate students who have switched name and gender. The small Montgomery County district, however, has gone a step further than most.

By a unanimous vote Tuesday, Springfield's school board adopted a policy under which the district must accept transgender Gymnast Sean Kennedy of Flippenout Productions bounces off a trampoline while on a snowboard, ed hille staff photographer Arts festival closes with a street party There are an estimated 700,000 transgender adults in the U.S. students' "core identity" the inner sense of being male or female and provide equal access to all programs, activities, and, perhaps most salient, the bathroom of their asserted gender. Such a policy is un common in Pennsylvania, but not unique. Great Valley School District in Chester County last week approved a similar one. Cherry Hill Public Schools adopted a policy in February; it is thought to be one of only a few in New Jersey.

Other districts, including Lower Merion on the Main Line, are working on their own protocols. Springfield officials said they don't know how many of their 2,300 students are transgender, because not everyone is open about it. However, Superintendent Nancy Hacker explained that the district took action now because "there are greater instances where students are willing to step forward and say, 'This is who I There are even children in elementary schools telling parents: 'I don't feel comfortable with who I am. I think I'm someone Hacker said she had gotten only four or five complaints from parents, and twice as many supportive emails. In the Philadelphia region, school policies have been percolating quietly.

But elsewhere, particularly in the South, the subject of transgender rights is being loudly and heatedly debated in venues ranging from state-houses to schoolhouses, courtrooms to streets, with angry echoes on the Republican presidential campaign trail as Sen. Ted Cruz and business Donald Trump reproach each other over bathroom rules. On March 23, North Carolina passed See TRANSGENDER on B6 By Inga Saffron STAFF WRITER South Broad Street was turned into a Jersey Shore-style boardwalk, complete with funnel cakes, games of chance, and carnival rides, for Saturday's finale of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. The event, organized by the Kimmel Center, got off to a slow start because of the morning rain, but once the sun emerged, crowds packed the street, which was closed to cars from City Hall to Pine Street. As in past years, the festival transformed Broad Street's workaday appearance with landscaping to create a temporary fantasy land.

Sod was brought in to form a large lawn in front of the Academy of Music, while the area outside the Merriam Theater became a giant beach strewn incongruously with brightly painted pianos. The north end of the festival was guarded by the giant, pale blue "squonk," an otherworldly god-robot that sprouted feathers and horns during musical performances. Acrobats rocketed three stories into the air in front of an were decidedly mass market. You could hover above the city on a Ferris wheel, order a bucket of fries from a food truck, or take a chance on a wheel of fortune at a booth run See PIFA on Bll old parking garage undergoing demolition. While the street fair capped a two-week program of highbrow performances, many by little-known foreign troupes, Saturday's offerings on Broad Street Terran Scott, a student at the University of the Arts, was happy to play a tune on one of the "beach" pianos.

Tips from a real escape artist Mike Newall gives a tour of Franklin Court, where Benjamin Franklin's home once stood. AARON WINDHORST Staff Photographer side his hotel room on Bartram Avenue. "I hate the word victim," Reeve told the students in the dark, chilly room on the fourth floor. "There are no victims. There are only volunteers." Reeve, a former resident of Tabernacle, Burlington County, has 25 years of scouting experience but no military background, no shady past in the world of black ops, unless he doesn't remember it, like Jason Bourne.

He grew up in California and used to work in human resources and technical training for Apple in Silicon Valley. "I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in a cubicle," Reeve said. "It was just a heart-See KIDNAPPING on Bll Be vigilant, says a trainer who schools people in avoiding kidnappers and other sticky situations. By Jason Nark STAFF WRITER When it comes to being a tool, Kevin Reeve wants his students to be Swiss Army knives, not just hammers. Hammers, Reeve says, view their problems as nails, and the three men attending his "Urban Escape and Evasion" class out by Philadelphia International Airport learned quickly Thursday morning that it takes diverse skills to survive the end-times he whipped up on a PowerPoint presentation.

Ensuring history-tellers are telling it straight "There are no victims," Kevin Reeve says. "There are only VOlUnteerS." ALEJANDROA. ALVAREZ Staff Being a nail is worse than being a hammer, though, and that's why Reeve, 59, was carrying more blades than a butcher. Some he tucked in his boots and pockets, others dangled around his neck, and a half-dozen were spread across the comforter in I wanted my pin. The glorious white-and-gold pin that would make me a humble, transplanted son of Brooklyn a real-deal, certified Phila Casting a glow in Prince's memory to restore their reputations after some of their less-informed colleagues were shamed for spewing bad history a few years back.

I wanted to give them credit. Plus, I'm a history nerd. I thought the pin would look cool. Now it was test day. Study questions caromed around my head.

The only remaining Colonial-era tavern? Easy. Man Full of Trouble at Front and Spruce. Tallest Philly building until 1856? Boom. Christ Church with See HISTORY on B4 MIKE NEWALL (oiMikeNewall delphia tour guide. I feel a kinship with our city's guides.

I tell stories of a city. They tell the story of a city. City guides have worked hard The Ben Franklin Bridge was lit up in purple Saturday in a tribute to music superstar Prince, WhO died Thursday. CHARLES FOX Staff Photographer.