With a packed room of highly concerned parents on hand, the Mat-Su School Board voted 5-1 on Sept. 7 to rescind one part of a 2015 guideline that had previously allowed gender-confused students to access locker rooms and bathrooms that were not in alignment with their biological sex.
The vote came after hearing from fathers, mothers, current and former teachers and others – all of whom opposed the practice of letting gender-confused students to use the intimate facilities of the opposite sex. As of Sept. 8, that is not allowed.
During the hour-long public testimony, 27 people spoke out against the practice. No one spoke in favor of it.
Testimony was, at times impassioned and emotional, with parents urging the school board to consider the privacy rights of their daughters who were being forced to use the same changing rooms and bathrooms as biological males who claimed to be female.
While the transgender guidelines have been in place since at least 2015, the issue came to a head after a biological male student recently began using intimate facilities designed for girls.
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Several parents said they were completely caught off guard and had no idea that the school district even had such guidelines in place. One mother said her daughter raised the issue about the gender confused male student with her gym teacher, but her concerns were dismissed with no actions taken.
When the mother asked the school administrator whether a boy was, in fact, using the girls’ locker rooms, she said she was told that the school could not divulge that information.
Another mom, Nicole Smith, has four children.
“This is about telling girls and women that they have a right to stand up for themselves, their rights, their boundaries and their bodies,” she said, adding that districtwide guidelines should never require young girls to disrobe in front of males.
Many of the speakers expressed compassion toward children who are confused about their gender, and said there should be private facilities available for them to use. Letting them access public bathrooms and locker rooms, however, amounted to a violation of other students’ privacy rights.
It’s not clear how the district will enforce the new policy, but Superintendent Randy Trani said at least one school is remodeling its locker rooms to create private spaces for students to change. The cost to remodel other schools is unknown.
The lone school board member who voted to keep the policy in place was Dwight Probasco who said he wanted to see a “positive outcome” to the controversy. He expressed concern that providing alternative changing rooms for kids who claim to be transgender might out them to their peers.
While boys will no longer be allowed in girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, the rest of district’s transgender guidelines remain unchanged by the Sept. 7 vote. The guidelines still direct educators, staff and students to use whichever personal pronouns a transgender student desires and to assist in the “social transitioning” of transgender students. The document also notes that a student does not need a medical diagnosis in order to be considered transgender by the school district.
The guidelines also continue direct students who identify as transgender to tell school administrators or counselors about their situation so they can create a plan in consultation with parent(s)/guardian(s) and others as appropriate.”
The guidelines instruct administrators to “institute in-service training and/or distribute educational materials about transgender issues to school staff, as he/she deems appropriate.”
Once developed, the plan becomes a part of the student’s health file and remains private if that is what the student requests. When it comes to clothing or appearance, it says, “transgender students may dress in accordance with their consistently asserted gender identity.”
In order to ensure all teachers and staff are on board with a student’s transgender plan, the document directs the superintendent and school principals to “institute in-service training and/or distribute educational materials about transgender issues to school staff, as he/she deems appropriate.”
Board Member Ole Larson told his colleagues that these aspects of the guidelines will remain in place, for now.
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7 Comments
“When the mother asked the school administrator whether a boy was, in fact, using the girls’ locker rooms, she said she was told that the school could not divulge that information.”… Why not ?.. It’s not exposing anyone’s personal information… “the rest of district’s transgender guidelines remain unchanged by the Sept. 7 vote. The guidelines still direct educators, staff and students to use whichever personal pronouns a transgender”… And here, they demand that a student (and others) must use possibley false gender identification when referring to, or addressing a student that has identified with a false identification. I have a question: Are these Board members California evacuees ?
Home or private schooling and push for vouchers. Academics are abysmal so what is the point of this excuse for education? Get your kids out.
So let’s see if I get this straight: private dressing rooms may “out” a student…..and a teacher using a preferred pronoun in a classroom and the presence of a gender-confused boy in a girls dressing room will not?????? Consider this: why is it always the males? Why don’t we hear much about gender confused girls in the boys locker room or participating in boys atheltic events???? hmmmm. Maybe someone in power doesn’t want a bunch of macho young men who can fight for their country?
All of you father’s we need to protect are daughters.
“This is about telling girls and women that they have a right to stand up for themselves, their rights, their boundaries and their bodies,” she said, adding that districtwide guidelines should never require young girls to disrobe in front of males.
Gender Confusion is a full throated rejection of God, science, culture and the obvious, since the dawn of time. It is also a frontal assault of any sort of limits and boundaries in offense of truth. The confusion seems to be a failure of parenting at the lowest levels, on the grandest scale. When a child ties a towel around his neck and runs around the house yelling ‘I’m Superman,’ you guard him from leaping over tall buildings and keep him out of the street, it runs it’s course in a matter of hours or a day or two. When your daughter decides she’s a kitty cat and tries to communicate by meowing, or wants to eat from a bowl on the floor, you employ some ‘active parenting’ to educate them in realistic societal norms, and shape their behavior, to develop character. You don’t encourage them to be something they are not – a cartoon or fictional character created in the mind of another. Any sub-pubescent child expressing confussion about their gender has had the idea planted by someone or something they’re exposed to, whether media related, teacher, neighbor, family member or parent, the child is being manipulated. We all know how impressionable younger children are and how thoughts, fears and myths are planted in them, i.e. tooth fairy, Santa Claus, and cultural folk lore stories. It doesn’t help that you’ve got the backing of radical teachers (indoctrinators), schools boards and government administration who are affraid to call BS out of some sense of political correctness. We can thank Obama for that term and the onslaught it has brought to American language and dare I say western cuture. Then there’s Nancy Pelosi enacting gender neutral verbage in Congress during the Obama adminstration. “A time for change in America,” and boy did we ever get that. This is the price for entertaining existentialism and redefining truth through the wild machinations of the unspanked. From Romans, “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the incorruptible God for and image in the form of corruptible man…” Instead of learning and studying God, they guessed, speculated and mocked God in willfull ignorance, revealing their hatred of Him. You know the rest, He gave them over to the impurity of their heart; dishonoring of their bodies; abandoned them to degrading passions; women with women, men with men – exchanging natural function for what is unnatural; indecent acts AND receiving in their bodies the due penalty of their unlawful acts. Think of the hoard of sexually transmitted diseases brought upon themselves; siphillis (originated in sheep), Gonorrhea, genital herpes, AIDS (originaled from the African Green monkey), Chlamydia, and now Monkey Pocks (well, monkies), which yesterday the CDC finally admitted was primarily isolated to the promiscuous sexual activity of homosexual men. The comingling of biology through sexual activity; there’s an original thought and the price we pay for pushing boundaries, limits, nature and worshipping the created instead of the Creator. I’m not optimistic, but neither will I cave to new societal norms. Thank you parents for standing up for the wellbeing of your children in the Valley, and to Probasco for revealing some deeply flawed thinking for future school board election fodder. Maranatha – Come quickly Lord Jesus!
Well done!!! I sure hope ALL school board members not only listened but HEARD this loud and clear!! I applaud you!
Since I was told to disrobe and shower in front of my gym teacher and classmates in 6th grade I have never understood why this was necessary and not abusive and perverted. A you g pubescent girl who is extremely self-conscious of her changing body should never be required to do any such thing. Every child and person should have the right to privacy and have their own stall to change and shower in.