Three schools could remain under 2020 rules due to lawsuit, says solicitor.
A policy update up for discussion in the North Penn School District has drawn plenty of feedback.
School board members have voted ahead an update to antidiscrimination policies to comply with a controversial recent federal update.
“Policies 103 and 104 generally prohibit discrimination and harassment from occurring within the school district. They address sex discrimination, but they also include things like prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, religion, disability, age, and other protected characterizes under the law,” said district solicitor Kyle Somers.
“Those policies are the district’s way of ensuring and demonstrating that the district complies with a variety of federal, state, and local laws that prohibit discrimination. It ensures that students, staff, community members are able to access all district programs, and benefit from those programs, to the same extent as anybody else in the community,” he said.
Up for discussion at the board’s Sept. 19 meeting were two policy updates, 103-A and 104-A, updating policies that spell out discrimination or harassment affecting students and discrimination or harassment affecting staff respectively. The policies both include language that prohibits discrimination based on sex, which is listed as including pregnancy, sex assigned at birth, “gender, including a person’s gender identity or gender expression,” their “affectional or sexual orientation,” and “differences of variations of sex characteristics or other intersex characteristics,” with a separate section listing definitions related to Title IX, the 1972 federal law against sex discrimination in schools that receive federal money.
Earlier this year, the Biden Administration issued an update to Title IX that the administration argued was meant to increase protections for transgender students, and which opponents have argued could allow transgender females to play on girls’ and women’s sports teams and could allow boys and men into women and girls’ restrooms and locker rooms.
New federal rules
During his solicitor report in the Sept. 19 meeting, Somers summarized how Title IX calls on agencies that distribute federal funds to issue regulations setting forth the ways that programs that receive federal funds “don’t discriminate on the basis of sex,” by following rules issued by the federal Department of Education.
A new set of revisions were proposed at the federal level this April and took effect Aug. 1, the attorney said, and the policy revisions up for board discussion “are designed to ensure that the district is in compliance with federal Title IX revisions, as they have been updated and effective August 1st,” he said.
The North Penn updates have been based on drafts set forth by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, and have been reviewed by the school board’s policy committee before being up for full board approval.
Court case complicates regulations
One major complication: “there is ongoing litigation throughout the country involving these regulations,” Somers said, including challenges from several states over whether the federal Department of Education has the authority to issue certain aspects and requirements of the regulations.
“There are a number of states that have brought these lawsuits against the Department of Education, and also a number of advocacy organizations that are participating in that litigation. Most notably, the organization ‘Moms for Liberty’ is participating in one of these lawsuits,” he said.
In a case in Kansas, a federal judge has issued an injunction prohibiting the federal department of education from enforcing the 2024 regulations at “any school in which members of the Moms for Liberty organization have their children in attendance,” Somers said.
In that case, the plaintiffs submitted to the court a list of all schools that would be impacted, the attorney said.
“Those schools that have been included on the list of schools that are impacted by this injunction, are North Penn High School, Pennfield Middle School, and A.M. Kulp Elementary,” Somers said.
In those schools, the attorney said, the federal DOE has said they will enforce the 2020 regulations, “the current regulations, that our current policy is designed to comply with,” and for all other schools the 2024 regulations would apply once adopted at the local level.
The new regulations “are not only focused on the issue of gender identity,” and are also meant to address concerns about addressing sexual harassment, and ensuring complaints “are able to be made in a way that doesn’t unduly burden individuals that have been harassed,” Somers said.
Due to the ongoing litigation, Pennsylvania’s state attorney general has said that under current state law, “discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination on the basis of gender identity. And so even under our current policy, the prohibition against discriminating against someone on the basis of sex, includes gender identity.”
What about athletics?
Regarding athletics, Somers said, district athletic programs are governed by the same policies as academic instruction, and are considered another program “in which we are not permitted to engage in discriminatory treatment of individuals.”
“The current regulations were not designed to address the issue of gender identity, and what sports a particular student is able to participate in. There are proposed other federal regulations, specifically addressing that issue, that were not issued by the federal government at the same time as these new more general harassment regulations,” he said.
“As far as the impact on athletics, we don’t anticipate any change in terms of how the district is complying with current PIAA requirements for gender identity as it relates to athletics,” Somers said.
Parents, public speak
Several comments were fielded by the board on the new policies, including one from a parent of students at Knapp Elementary, Penndale Middle, and North Penn High Schools.
“I want to express my strong support for including gender, gender identity and gender expression as protected statuses under the student and staff discrimination policy,” the parent said, adding that the policy update is “essential for holding the school accountable for preventing discrimination and ensuring equal access for education to all students — including those like my child, who is transgender.”
“This summer, one of my teens told us that they were assigned the wrong gender at birth, and they shared their new names and pronouns. I didn’t see it coming. It was a big surprise,” the parent said.
“While we were really taken aback, and we’re transitioning together, what I can say is in many ways, my child hasn’t changed at all. They are still the same beautiful, quirky person they’ve always been. They remain exactly how God created them to be,” she said.
“I’ve learned that gender transition has nothing to do with sexuality, or sexual attraction. It’s about relieving the deep distress and anxiety of gender dysphoria. Transgender students, like all students, just want privacy in the bathroom. I’m much more concerned about everyone else’s kids bothering mine, than my kid bothering anyone else,” said the parent.
The parent added that she was “grateful that North Penn offers unisex bathrooms in all of the schools, where the transgender students can feel safe.”
Resident Don Gallagher asked for specifics on the policy, and what it does and doesn’t address or protect.
“The intent of the changes, from what I’ve read, is to protect those who express their gender identity. But are all those expressions honest? Or would some kids, or even some adults maybe, try to manipulate the system to their twisted intentions? How do you control access, like when there’s a basketball game, and there’s a thousand people in the school coming from elsewhere, how is that controlled — access to the bathrooms?” he said.
Resident Mike Main said he thought the policy “does pave the way for biological boys to compete in girl’s sports. It goes against what women’s rights activists have been fighting for, for the past several decades,” he said.
“Girls in our schools, especially middle school, already have anxiety about using the bathrooms due to the fact that the restrooms are used for other activities and behaviors against school rules, and in some case illegal activities. I feel that this policy change will negatively affect the mental health and safety of our students,” Main said. “This policy is not the answer, and doesn’t address many issues, as we’ve seen across the country.”
Shannon Main then echoed her husband, saying she thought the policy “does not create an atmosphere free of fear and intimidation,” nor do other actions by the board, including reactions by the board to hearing the comments, and social media posts by board members online.
“We’re asking our students to abide by the bullying policy right here — electronic, verbal, and in writing, and your social media accounts — at least three of you — have bullying on social media. You are representatives of this district, and I would appreciate after this meeting, that you don’t go bashing people on social media,” she said, before asking that the policy be tabled until athletics were further addressed, or the litigation excluding the three schools be resolved.
Resident Jason Lanier said he attended the policy committee meeting where the drafts were discussed, and called it “a joke — it lasted all of 20 minutes, most of it was to tell me what I should and shouldn’t say.” Lanier then asked if the policy would allow men to enter women’s bathrooms or locker rooms, before referencing an incident from days before the meeting when an off-duty police officer was reportedly found to be carrying a gun at a swim meet at the high school.
“Everybody’s up in arms about an off duty officer having a gun. I wonder, are you guys more upset with that? Or what if there was a man in the locker room, with the swimmers? Which would be more upsetting to you? Which would be more upsetting to the students?”
“You are doing this for political motivations, not the safety of the kids, not to benefit anybody. This is political bias. This is bad policy. And when something happens, just as it did before” in an April assault by a student on another at Pennbook Middle School — “When something bad happens, what are you gonna do? You’re going to throw your hands up and say ‘We can’t talk about this, because it’s under lawsuit.’ Every one of you who are going to vote in favor of 103 and 104 are OK with men entering girl’s locker rooms, you’re OK with that,” Lanier said.
“There’s no reason for this nonsense, allowing full-grown men in the bathroom with little girls,” he said, and board president Tina Stoll replied, “That doesn’t happen,” prompting the two spar for several seconds before Somers said the resident’s time for comments had ended.
The board approved the first read of the policy, along with a long list of other items on the board’s consent agenda. North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 8 and the policy committee next meets at 5 p.m. on Sept. 30; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.
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