June 21 - 2017 PWCS School Board Meeting

001I would like to call the Prince William County school board meeting to order for Wednesday June 21st 2017 we will begin today's uh public meeting uh with the invocation uh at my request by Pastor Marty Anderson of the Commonwealth Baptist Church in Alexandria Pastor Anderson let us pray God of all things you created humankind as an act of love and you made every single one of us in your image you who created all of this you who created in infite galaxies created each of us with thought and care you your love for every person who runs deeper than the galaxies themselves as be being created in your image you have made us to love each other as well as odd as it may seem even meetings like this becomes opportunities to fulfill Jesus's commandment to

002love our neighbor as ourselves which is a good commandment for all to follow not just the ones who have chosen to follow the way of Jesus tonight we come together as a community to voice opinions to make decisions about budgets policies and the impact the education and the well-being of our children and those entrusted with the responsibility to educate them tonight we will certainly hear differing opinion shared as we seek the best ways to teach and nurture the development of our community students as we share our thoughts please help us to do so in the same way we teach our children to do honestly and with kindness and respect toward one another please help us to remember that when we talk about issues we really talk about people because issues impact people throughout this evening

003help us to keep in mind the people to whom we will be talking and help us to remember that each of them is created in your image and deeply beloved by you help us to seek what is best for each and every one of them remembering that Jesus always chose the side of those most vulnerable those who were seen as outcasts and sinners those who needed an advocate guide our community as we seek the be what is best for all the children and youth in our County for is there's no such thing as as other people's kids our responsibility to them all each of them is a gift we pray this prayer in all the names that are holy in this place amen I know it's a packed house if we have any students that

004want to come up and lead us in the pledge you are welcome to do so but uh any students that want to come up to the front and lead us in the pledge there's got to be one student here somewhere former student quasi student kind of a there we go yeah all right please rise for the Pledge of [Applause] Allegiance okay I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much I'm sorry can you give us your your name your grade and where you go to school I missed that part I apologize my name is Robbie Moser and I go to kogan high school thank [Applause] you all right we

005are moving on to the approval of the public meeting agenda uh motion is an order Miss Williams I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the public meeting agenda as recommended thank you do we have a second I I'll second discussion those in favor of the motion please signify yes by raising your right hand thank you those opposed thank you the vote is seven yes one no Deutch motion passed and we're moving on to adoption of the consent agenda Miss Williams uh I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the public meeting consent agenda as recommended thank you is there a second Mr chairman Miss rson I second thank you discussion those in favor of the motion please signify yes by raising your right hand sorry hold him up I had

006some delay thank you the vote is8 Yes unanimous motion passed so we're moving right along to Fred Lynn Middle School corrective action update Mr Bixby good evening chair chairman Sawyers Vice chairman Jesse members of the school board and Dr Waltz joining me this evening is Fred Lyn Middle School principal George neeves we appreciate this opportunity to provide the school board with an update on the school's corrective action plan and report on the feedback that we received at our trianal corrective action plan review with the Virginia Department of Education on March 20 the school board knows from our previous update presentations that the school's corrective action plan is comprised of three essential actions good evening chairman Sawyers Vice chairman Jesse members of the school board and Dr Waltz joining me today is Miss Jessica Parker she's

007a principal on special assignment at fredland and she's sitting in the front row this slide captures the first two essential actions that focus on implemented literacy and instructional practices that support student literacy and accelerating El learning at the March 20 meeting Vie requested that at Fred Linn's next trianal update meeting scheduled for July 31st we identify student work samples that show growth tied to those changes in instructional practices that have taken place through the essential actions the essential ACS also call for a reporting of observations and walkthroughs that are part of the plan's progress monitoring requirements since our last presentation we have conducted observations in all 12 language arts all four reading specialists in all nine science classrooms slides 4 through six provide an example of a literacy practice observation evidence and student work sample

008that shows growth tied to changes in instructional practices that have taken place through the essential actions the literacy practice is reciprocal teaching reciprocal teaching refers to an instructional activity in which students work independently and in small group reading sessions teachers model then helps students learn to guide group discussions using four strategies clarifying summarizing question generating and predicting the protocol allows for deep processing of text note taking and opportunities to develop oral language skills the professional development was provided by our Title One professional development specialist between August 24th and November 3rd of 2016 next slide will show an example of monitoring of implemented of implementation classroom observations with growth with growth producing feedback after the observation teacher reflects on four areas what did the students do well today what was done to facilitate their success where

009can the students continue to grow and improve and what can be done to facilitate their growth the administrator in reflective collaboration with the teacher provides descriptive feedback this slide provides a lesson artifact student sample work showing change in growth due to these literacy practice the student independently read an article about flying cars may be the wave of the future and responded by predicting clarifying summarizing and generating questions the student processed the text made sense of the text and gained a deeper understanding through Reading Comprehension reciprocal teaching also facilitates small group discussion promotes higher level questioning and builds rigor and critical thinking this slide outlines our third essential action Implement and monitor International Balor middle years's program we have reported last month that we have received formal authorization and Fred Lynn's Middle School is an authorized

010ibmp World School tonight's presentation is the last schedule for this school year as my retirement date of 30 June approaches I would like to thank all school board members for your leadership in setting a 2020 vision for a world-class education and always keeping in mind what is best for children thank [Applause] you questions or comments from the board Miss Jesse I just want to compliment um Fred Lyn and also to the principal who is now leaving uh I've been by school and had several conversations with you but this is a challenging situation when you're called upon to publicly defend the actions in a school and I just want you to know that I'm very impressed because I think that you and Miss Parker you both handle this in a very very professional way and uh

011good luck at all your endeavors are are you going to a farm also because Mr Geller is going to be on a farm and he's going to have a good time but I I wish you well in your retirement and thank you for you for your contributions to Prince William count schools thank you Miss Jesse Miss Williams um I also would like to um Echo Miss Jesse's statements um Mr Nevis I cannot um begin to I don't I don't even have the vocabulary to tell you uh how impressed I am and how professional you and your staff have been in presenting all the information that you have to us as a board um personally I of course I've been to fredland you were one of the first schools that I visited as an incoming board

012member um I think I embarrassed you enough maybe at the eighth grade promotion cere ceremony um for those who don't know at the eighth grade Pro promotion ceremony I presented Mr Neves with a gift um as my appreciation to such an outstanding principal that he's been for that school in the community if you don't know Mr Nevis um which I'm extremely impressed with is a trilingual so he speaks three languages um which enables him to communicate with his students uh to the best of his ability and beyond anything that I could possibly imagine with my single language skills um but he also is a go gone above and be Beyond as a principal for fredlin and his networking with the community providing after school services for students feeding students Saturday school clothing students um making

013sure that they have everything possible that they could need or should need in order to receive an education and that is just something that goes beyond your job as principal and it shows how tall of a measure of a man that you are and how much you care not only for your students but for the community that you work in and you have left big shoes to fill I know that we have a a wonderful principal coming in behind you but you will be deeply messed and it has truly been my honor to work with you and thank you for all the education you have provided me as an incoming board member and not as an administrator or principal and helping me to do my job not only you but your entire staff and um

014also to the PTO I really appreciate it because it all starts with you Mr Nevis the leader of the school facility I wish you well on your retirement I hope that you um go to a nice fancy restaurant and that you get some time to do some things that you would like to do and and um just my final goodbye and thank you I would just be very honored if you would come up front so I could shake your hand sir I wish you [Applause] well getting those extra steps into for the Fitbit additional comments or questions from the board okay thank you I'm sorry no that's it that's it thank you very much all right moving on to Citizens comment time I want to explain a few things uh before we move on so

015um there was some confusion some on my part and some just just general confusion I believe as well um I I'll try to give the cliffnotes version of of what I've learned here recently so um in order to uh in order to facilitate citizens time over the since since being on the board um we've worked with with the clerk to kind of take the list at certain time so there's not so many people sometimes citizens try to sign up for a Year's worth of citizens time because they're they're they're upset with an issue or something may be so we've tried to work with the clerk on how to Corral that a little bit and ultimately there was there was kind of two lists created so ultimately what we're going to do is there's there was

016an original list that was started um without my knowledge originally and I'm happy we're so we're going to start with that list and and work our way down it and then we will work to the traditional list that we work on as well so just want to make sure everyone understands kind of where we're coming from on that uh a little bit of a difference there so what I'm going to do is I will call the first 10 speakers up and as they're working their way to the front I will go over the rules of citizens time so our first 10 speakers are and there's reserved seats here up front I do recommend that you come forward because it does take a while to work with the crowd uh there's Bill hosp Lee louder Claire

017Gast gastanaga Lee Carter Kelly or Orosi Brian Pace Ryan or Amy canava Jay Paige and Alicia Smith now as everyone starts working forward uh we'll go over the normal rules of citizens time which is that you will have three minutes to speak I will run that here uh from my computer and if it's done properly although it is delayed sometimes it takes a while to click on it'll pop up on the screen here behind me uh 30 seconds it'll turn yellow it means it's time to start wrapping it up and at 0 seconds it'll turn red I will I will need you to stop at exactly 0 seconds when it turns red I will say thank you uh when that times comes um please use proper deorum at all times when addressing the board I

018know there's a large crowd today I know passions Run High with the issues that are on on the on in front of the board here today I will say this loud loud Outburst throughout the meeting uh will not be tolerated we need to run an orderly meeting the school board of Prince Willam County ultimately by law is a business board we hold our business here in public I do ask that everyone use proper deorum whether you agree or disagree I will allow for mild Applause but nothing long extended we do need to we do need to move on and and and and get the next speaker up and speaking um if there is a break of decorum whether it be from the speaker at the de or within the crowd um I I will ask

019we will have to ask uniform officers from Prince William County uh to make sure that that that stops and you are removed from the room so I do hope that everyone can use proper deorum throughout the entire time I know passions are on high but I just felt like we could we could cover that from the beginning with that um we have our first speaker is Bill hosp Bill are you here okay Lee louder Lee is Lee coming forward no I saw someone moving I'm just making sure I don't miss somebody okay uh Claire gastanaga Claire Claire were you in the room did you hear my my whole spiel about three minutes and 30 seconds and all that um I did and good okay I I didn't know if you just came from outside or

020not I was just making sure we're all good Claire you have the floor and and actually U my name is Gail dy I am here on behalf of Claire ganaga tonight um we weren't sure how to sub no we we unfortunately that's not something you have to sign up on your own each individual signs up for themselves okay well um Claire is my uh executive director I'm an attorney at the ACLU of Virginia I'd sent a letter to the board um so we were hoping it would be okay for me to speak on on Claire's behalf no ultimately man we we don't we don't really do it that way unfortunately I mean I can do it without objection from the board is there an objection from the board yeah I'll object so no ma'am I'm

021sorry okay thank you Lee Carter thank you Mr chairman members of the board members of the staff uh this is the second time uh that I have been here to address the question uh surrounding policy 60 and every time that this question has come up thus far uh we've had a lot of discussion about the impact that it will have on the students now I'd like to speak uh about the impact that it will have on our teachers our teachers in Prince William County Work extraordinarily hard they don't have the resources that they need frankly I mean I'm not going to sugarcoat that so our current non-discrimination policy not protecting them based on their sexual orientation and gender identity is frankly unconscionable currently teachers in the Prince William County school system can be fired based

022on who they love or the gender they identify as they can also be fired based on rumor about who they love and the the gender that they identify as this is just one more thing that our teachers have to deal with day in and day out that should not be on their plates if we want highquality teaching staff in our schools if we want our students to receive a world-class education we need to make sure that our teachers feel safe in the classroom and don't have to worry about about whether or not they're going to be fired based on who they love or rumors about who they love that's why I'm here again supporting the update to policy 60 because discrimination against our teachers for any reason is absolutely unconscionable thank you very much thank

023you again hold the Applause please hold the Applause to us please we we do need to get the next speaker called um our next speaker is Kelly Orlowski Kelly okay Brian Pace Brian well howdy uh my record should be on file um both here and on Greg liti's website um so I do have uh a statement here and I I didn't know that I was speaking today until about um 45 seconds ago so good evening I want to read something to you uh it is the policy to provide equal employment opportunity to all employees and qualified applicants regard to ra without regard to race color religion national origin sex age disability pregnancy sexual orientation gender identity transgender status genetic information protected veteran status or any other protected characteristic under federal state or local laws further

024we believe in maintaining a workplace diverse and inclusive abil beliefs cultural background job experiences thoughts and ideas these unique characteristics brought together are fundamental to promoting Innovation increasing profitability and driving results for our clients in the world around us diversity includes all of us putting this belief into action diversity is part of our core values and is included in programs and practices throughout General Dynamics according to his bio Mr brand works for General Dynamics keeping in mind that this is a public meeting on the record do you support the discrimination policy and diversity initiative of your employer do you support them here now I don't want to get Shawn in trouble with his company that's totally not what I'm up here about uh what I do want is for him to pay attention to that

025discomfort that he just felt that discomfort is the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not his employer has his back Mr bran glbt employees and students in Prince William County schools feel just the way you just felt right now all the time somewhere the most qualified SU cessor for Ray Darlington is out there they might be glbt or they might have a glbt loved one would you apply for a job at an employee that makes you feel like you just felt you have the ability to fix this do it as school board members you are employers as well you have to create the atmosphere that entices the best and the brightest just as General Dynamics does their job is creating worldclass Aerospace and combat equipment your job is more important creating the future of this

026country do you want to do less than they do thank you thank you our next speaker is Ryan or Ryan or Ryan good evening my name is Ryan my address is unile I live in Gainesville um I'd like to advise you to all vote against policy 060 now I think people need to make this important distinction that policy 060 is not about discriminating against transgender people it is about protecting our children okay we are not here to tell people we we we we really aren't here for that reason okay we really are worried about our children that there are a lot of flaws in this policy because what happens when someone says that they are what they aren't whether they believe it or not um we really need to be putting our children in safety

027first before anything else even if it takes a lot more time to work it out I think that we've talked about this two weeks ago that there are a lot more flaws in this policy than we care to address right now and I think they need to be addressed um the other thing that I'd like to say is that I'm very disappointed that um this politics has entered Prince William County there really is no room for politics in our children's schools in our children's lives and in in what should be very safe spaces for our children in their bathrooms um there is no reason to make them uncomfortable and I think we'll see a lot of um bad Fallout from implementing this without correction I think we need to address the issues before we vote

028but if you do have to vote please vote no for our children that way we can move towards a better safer Prince William County thank you thank you our next speaker is Amy canava Amy good evening my name is Amy Canova I am the chair of the National Association of school psychologists lgbtq i2s committee a board member for Nova Pride the community sponsor for Nova Pride prom former vice president of P flag Winchester a crisis counselor for lgbtq Youth and a school psychologist in the DC Metro area that is how I'd become accustomed to introducing myself because until June 30th of last year I was not allowed to affiliate myself with the county I worked in despite being a nationally recognized expert in the field the ladden County School Board did not recognize my by

029site but they signed my voluntary resignation student staff and parents knew me as a vocal advocate for lgbtq Youth and that is why I'm here advocating tonight I teach my students that the law protects them retroactively but not in the moment and as it stands now many counties in Virginia do not protect lgbtq persons at all because anti-discrimination policies do not apply to them further perpetuating justifiable feelings of being unseen unheard ignored and unvalued in a country that no longer they feel that they no longer feel supported by the policy should protect all persons but also those persons that advocate for them research shows that it literally takes one individual one adult to save the life of an atrisk lgbtq teen but if that adult's Financial Security is at risk and endangered by protecting that

030student how many of them will reach out as I did revisions are needed to ensure that Prince William County remains a safe supportive environment for all what kind of message are we sending to students when the staff members they could look up to relate to and learn from have to hide we won't truly know how many are affected until everyone feels safe at school we won't truly know how many are affected until we let people feel safe to be who they are I beg of you to protect a group of students I have spent the last 10 years fighting for and the staff who work tirelessly to defend them who deserve to be equally protected as well I remind you that as a system the cost of replacing staff is exponential enactment of this policy

031is the beginning of necessary protections and educations for staff and for students Northern Virginia cannot afford to lose another Young lgbtq Life to suicide in a district they do not feel supported by thank you thank you our next speaker our next speaker is Jay Paige Jay good evening chairman Schoolboard members and Dr Waltz my name is Jay paage I come to you today with all asking me with all of my heart to add gender identity and sexual orientation to the anti-discrimination policy this is vital to ensure the well-being of all students in prum County Schools I graduated from Battlefield High School in 2016 and during my time at school I witnessed many accounts of discrimination against lgbtq plus children by their fellow students and staff I witnessed several administrators yelling at LGBT couples for PDA

032while straight couples do the same nearby without issue I among other students was bullied for my sexual orientation and gender and was not allowed to use the bathroom of the gender I identified with under the current political climate lgbtq plus people need as much help as they can get to feel safe because there are so many people who have been endangered and murdered simply for existing the support from the school system system is vital to ensure the safety of this group of students counselors at school who I talked to did not know how to deal with transgender issues and other related problems such as self harm so better training is necessary and this policy could provide a foundation for such training to address an issue which is often used against this policy transgender people have

033no interest in looking at anyone else in the bathroom it is a place of extreme discomfort for most transgender people and they do not want to linger any more than is necessary harassment in the bathroom is already illegal and this policy will not change that this also counts for making sure someone's in their correct bathroom and looking at their genitalia to prove it lack of the policy protecting lgbtq plus students will not prevent sex in the bathrooms kids in high schools do it now and they will do it regardless this policy will simply allow all people to use the bathroom which aligns most closely with their identity this year I was a freshman at Cleveland Institute of Art and the first day of orientation all the students were asked their preferred name and pronouns and

034told we could use the bathroom we felt most comfortable in there have been no issues with perversion in the bathrooms or anything else related at this school or any others which have changed their anti-discrimination policy with people discriminating so persistently bathrooms are some of the most dangerous places for transgender Youth and support by an anti-discrimination policy would help trans kids in Prince County Schools to feel safer and more welcome in their schools lgbtq plus students are just that kids who want to feel safe in their school and be provided the best environment in which to learn and live to become successful adults thank you thank you our next our next speaker is uh Alicia sorry I'm just keeping track of my page here Alicia Smith chairman uh just to clarify I received an email from

035the clerk since Alicia is not able to be here that she added my name to hers on the agenda so which which list is that that's I mean again that's a whole separate thing so you contacted just to make sure we're on the same page you contacted the clerk to replace your name with that is that correct for no right okay correct so we'll have to we'll have to stick with the current list that we're moving down now just like we did earlier okay so let me let me hold on just give me one second to get my list organized because we we have room for for several more people to call give me one second all right based on the people who aren't here in a few speeches that ran short um our next

036six speakers um will be Robert Martin Rebecca Anderson Bill Petra Tim Cox Caleb Dalton and John Dion if you could come forward Please Mr Martin good evening my name address and all that stuff's on file my comments are short before each meeting the school school board and we stand and voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance we conduct commit ourselves to support one nation under God with liberty and justice for all a policy which grants Liberty to one group of citizens but denies Liberty to another group of citizens is bad policy a policy that divides a nation is bad policy just because the acle tells you that you can change a policy does not mean that you should or you must ciens who citizens who believe in the words one nation under God of our Pledge

037of Allegiance have been praying to our creator to get Grant you wisdom to decide to honor God by making a righteous and just determination in regard to policy 060 we have asked God to forgive those who do what is right in their own eyes purposely turning their back on him and to show them their need for salvation knowing that no matter what the outcome this evening that all will stand before God to give an account of our actions and God's judgments are righteous and absolute and there is no appeal to his verdict God created man and woman in His image the sin nature ended in Jesus tells us to love the sinner but to hate the sin and it's a lesson you should think about thank you thank you our next speaker is Rebecca Anderson

038Miss Anderson I'd like to start tonight with scripture from 1 John 3: 16-18 and this is how we know what love is Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters if anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them how can the love of God be in that person dear children let us not love with words or speech but in actions and in truth a few years ago a Christian Student told a mother Muslim student that she was going to hell in fact he told her that all Muslims are terrorists the Muslim student told trusted adults in proper School protocol was followed there was a consequence for the student who made The Bullying

039Choice there was a class meeting held to support the victim and parents of both students were notified every teacher who worked with those two students were made aware of the situation so that they could take proactive measures to make sure that there wasn't another incident like that in a different situation student number one has an older sibling who's recently come out as gay student number two says with an earshot of their entire class that all people all gay people are going to hell and in fact the only thing worse than 9911 is gays student number one tells a trusted adult what was said and the teacher follows through in the same way as before and the teacher is told but student number two comes from a very conservative family that's just what is taught in

040that house and I wonder if the second situation would have played out differently if the pwcs non-discrimination policy had specific verbage that protects lgbtq students from such bullying and or hate speech for as long as I remember when I direct grade level concerts I ask each class to wear a different color of the rainbow having students lined up by shirt color is really easy for uh featuring individual classes and when each full grade level is standing on the risers together the visual aesthetic is really nice each year my students ask me to wear a rainbow shirt so that I can match all their class at once and I always do this past September I came out as pansexual at this very school board meeting and I spoke twice in favor of amending our pwcs non-discrimination

041policy this school year is the first and only year that I receive complaints about the Pres presence of rainbows at my grade level concerts and I was accused of inculcating my political beliefs on young children which could not be further from the truth I have emailed each member of the school board multiple times encouraging you to update our non-discrimination policy and I've only received three replies in your reply Mr bran you told me you were sadden to hear about the bullying that I described but that you had to look at the policy change from all sides imagine if a guidance counselor was doing a lesson on the bullying Circle and they taught the kids to consider all sides before standing up for one of their peers our children are learning from us with everything that

042we say and do and I ask you Schoolboard what will our children learn from you tonight thank you thank you our next speaker is our next speaker is Bill petrak Bill hi I'm Bill Petra from Woodbridge uh Mr Sawyers I don't even know where to begin tonight I'm astonished by your lack of Integrity in the way you conduct yourself as an elected School Board member everything you do is controversial and you mis represent every fact on every subject you speak about the non-discrimination mination policy is no exception as a parent and citizen it's shocking to know that some of you are continuously beating this drum that it is not a bathroom issue when in fact it is ladies and gentlemen as you heard from a previous speaker this is a bathroom locker room and sports

043playing issue once you create a protected class for transgenders a student born a male who says they are female can demand to use the girl's bathroom If you deny that child access to their chosen bathro you will have just violated your own non-discrimination policy by discriminating against a person who is in a protected class I'm holding up a letter written by the ACLU to your board attorney where they urge you to vote Yes on this policy change in the letter it also informs you that it with this change you must allow a child to use the bathroom facilities of their gender which they identify with they go on to say that if you fail to do so you can be held live able under the equal protection act of the United States Constitution so it

044does matter what guid it so it doesn't matter what guidance you give the superintendent on not changing policies you will be sued immediately and the policies will change but some of you folks already know that and it's sad that you will tell such lies put your put our children in danger and disrupt the lives of many families just to advance your political agendas not one no one wants any child to feel discriminated against bullied or made to feel they are not wanted right now the dozen or so known transgender children are privately being accommodated by School staff by allowing them to use faculty bathrooms why do you want to change the policy which would negtive negatively affect 88,000 other students Mr Sawyer I watched the video today of your last minute orchestrated Facebook town hall

045meeting you conducted yesterday you controlled the subject it's right in line with all your other events there was no one there to fact check you so your normal fashion of stretching the truth beyond recognition you answered questions and you answered questions put forward by your political allies of course you lied about almost everything you talked about especially the recall effort to remove you from office for those of you who are here in the audience and watching on television look at the recall Sawyers fact sheet go to their website www. callers.com and go to the Facebook page in all three places I believe you will only see one mention of the non-discrimination policy and that's to get this meet people to this meeting when you see that you'll realize Mr Sawyers doesn't have an ounce Integrity

046in his body Mr pet Trak our our next speaker our next speaker is Tim Cox Tim we we need order in the room we will I will I we will clear the room I mean I know that's not ideal but we we we absolutely just need to have order within the room at all times so look I I'd prefer you be here but we need to have order at all times so that's fine um Tim Cox is our next speaker Tim Caleb Dalton Caleb thank you Mr chairman name my name is Caleb Dalton my address is on file with the clerk I reside in the aawan district opposing policy the change to policy 60 as written is the right thing to do for multiple reasons one of the primary reasons is that the current non-discrimination

047policies were designed to address systemic pervasive and malicious discrimination based on irr relevant factors like skin color as you well know such policies were necessary to secure equal rights for all the current issue however is different Miss Jesse my representative in a recent article you quote were quoted as saying that having separate restroom locker rooms and overnight accommodations based on biological sex reminded you of the racist separate but equal policies of the not sood distant past but recognizing biology is not bigotry nor is it anything akin to racism there were never good reasons to keep the races apart but there are good reasons to separate intimate facilities based on biological reality as an attorney I understand that the guidance that this proposal offers is not binding and does nothing to guarantee the privacy and dignity

048of my daughters and others who find it immodest to be exposed to an undressed member of the opposite biological sex we have to be honest changing the policy will impact the privacy of our children Mr chairman you now say that the intimate facility issue is a mere distraction but the latest Federal Administration said it was about intimate facility use in overnight accommodations the ACLU says it is and even you yourself has said it is in the past playing games and being dishonest with what this policy does and what it does not do is not appropriate and it does not serve any of us this change will inevitably impact student privacy and when it does you cannot look a high school girl who has suffered sexual assault an estimated one in four have in the eye

049and tell her that her discomfort with a biological male in her intimate space is bigotry or that she should just get over her trauma I'm not saying that transgender individuals pose a greater threat to safety than any other individuals but my daughter's right to privacy is not based on someone's identity it's based on biology and Anatomy which does not change regardless of a student's struggle with gender dysphoria this is a much more complicated matter than just adding a few words to a one siiz fits-all policy members of the board if you are serious about enacting fairness policies that work for everyone you will specifically detail out in the policy you propose what it actually does and does not do additionally any wise legal councel would tell you that the state of the law here is

050up in the air especially since Prince William county is already a welcoming community and there's no pressing reason to change the policy now it would be wise to wait until the legal matters are resolved changing the policy now could expose the school district to liability from parties on both sides of this issue it would be wise to leave it as is I urge you to vote against the policy changes to 060 thank you for your time and for your service on the board thank you and our our final speaker for this round of citizens time is John Deon John excuse me Mr chairman I'd like to make a point of order um you said this is our final speaker for citizen comment time and we have quite a few speakers lined up and last September

051on the 21st we did let all the speakers speak before we vote and I'd like to um call the point of order uh well the point of order please this is not this is not an Applause line moment where the board is having discussion um the point of order uh is that policy says it's 30 minutes to begin and then then we everyone else goes to the second session that's been policy for for a very long time so that's that's we're following policy on this one that's correct Mr chairman um I'd like to appeal to the board um because we have made the exception before and we did this last September 21st when we took up hold on one second Mrs the motion hasn't been made yet hold on one second we got to make

052sure we get this right um you're not appealing to the board you'd be voting to suspend the rules um to to allow everyone everyone to I'm appealing to the board which means this is going before the board for the I'm just explaining what we're doing here policy and the rules allow for allow for 30 minutes at the beginning then everyone else to the end um policy also allows for it to be the sole discretion of the chairman to decide how how how many people uh move on I excuse me how long if we extend the first 30 minutes of citizens time so if you'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules it would need to be a unanimous vote um to suspend the rules and and and therefore uh the the Roberts Rules

053of Order protect minorities when they have a Min and in this case I'm a minority of one as as we've discussed with parliamentary procedure before so this is my this is my sole Authority so it would be a unanimous vote to to uh to suspend the rules I appreciate that description I'm on Robert in Robert's Rules of orders right now an appeal takes presidents over any question pending at the time the chair makes a ruling from which the appeal is made um it Le yields to all privileged motions there's nothing under an appeal that talks about suspension of the rules and um you know I'd like for this to go to a vote of the board like for the V vote excuse me I'd like for the board to decide um on um what you

054just ruled you said I asked for an appeal again let let me I asked for I asked for the point of order because you have said that we're going to be ending citizen comment time and then you made your statement of why we're ending it and I asked for an appeal that means it goes to the board and the board gets to decide if we get to continue on or not no I I understand exactly what you're saying whoever if we know who that was they can be removed ultimately yeah and I believe this motion requires a second yeah hold on one second M Miss I just want to make sure everyone's on the same page here ultimately um to explain this one more time um Robert's Rules of Order protects minorities of less than

055onethird in this particular case it is the exclusive authority of the chairman by policy to determine if we extend citizens time therefore four I would have to give up my rights as a minority in as a minority of one in order to extend citizens time that is how it works so therefore you can appeal the decision of the chair you can vote to suspend the rules whichever way that you want to do it but it would take you unanimous vote to do so is there a second to the motion Mr chairman I already seconded thank thank you excuse me Mr chairman I do want to say in Robert's Rules it says a majority or a tie vote sustains the decision of the chair and that's um number seven it's on page uh or it's it's

056under um it's under appeal that it doesn't it appeals to the chair don't circumvent the rights of the chair or any minority that it has less than oneir Roberts Rules of Order protects minorities of less than oneir so it absolutely does this is no different when it comes to Prior notice when two members need notification and everything else it has to be unanimous vote in order for the minority to chair we we covered this in our parliamentary training last meeting they specifically covered this type of instance I'm 100% sure of this decision I know that minorities have rights when it comes to Robert's Rules of Order and the minority essentially has to give up its rights in order to be overruled otherwise it's not a minority that can be protected through Robert troll War there's

057no point if the majority can take away the rights of the minority on a whim of less than onethird Mr chair Mr chairman point of order is not debatable and it does say in Robert's Rules of Order a majority or TI vote sustains the decision of the chair on the principle that the chair's decision stands until reversed by a majority what you are asking presiding officer as a member of the assembly he can vote to create a tie and thus sustain his decision what you are asking to do is to suspend the rules which we have which is the policy no I asked to appeal the point of order first of all a point of order is just asking for clarification order was EST you gave your clarification I'm appealing your decision but the decision

058I have the sole right to that decision we this that you're basic you're trying to suspend either way you cut it is to suspend the rules whether it be appeal of a chair or that so we can take a vote there is no discussion on a suspension of the rules which is what the rules allow me to have sole discretion of Citizen time therefore the vote is called and so the vote on on an appeal of the excuse me on suspension of the rules is it it is put in the AFF it is put in the affirmative of who wants to sustain the decision of the chair so a yes vote would be agreeing with the chair a no vote would be dis would be disagreeing with the chair and allowing citizens comment time to

059continue so therefore those in favor of sustaining the decision of the chair when it comes to suspending the rules for Citizens time please vote Yes and raise your by raising your right hand Mr wil Miss Jesse Miss Williams and myself those opposed Mr Deutsch miss ralon Mr bran yeah and and we need to clear them out sir we need to clear them out they need to be removed we need they need to be removed we'll have a brief recess why they're removed I'm sorry real quick so the four the four four four were Miss Williams myself Miss Jesse and Mr wil sustaining the rolling of the chair opposed to the rolling and and suspending the rules was was Miss uh miss satte Mr bran Miss Ralston and Mr Deutsch one second okay Mr Dion you

060have the floor he can he can be removed as well thank you thank you you can you can you can be removed thank you thank you we did it mi mi Mr Deon you have the floor Mr chairman and members of the Schoolboard my name is John Deon my wife Lisa and I live in Gainesville we have raised five children in Prince William County all of whom have attended Prince wh County Public Schools one of whom will attend Patriot High School this fall I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latterday saints which has congregations throughout Prince William County and neighboring counties all of whom joined with neighbors of all political and religious Persuasions to build faith in God care help and care for one another and to make for better communities

061the LDS church is one of six Faith groups that have filed a joint friend of the court brief in Virginia's glester County Schoolboard case before The Supreme Court in that Amicus brief the church stated gender is a divinely ordained characteristic is Central to the doctrine and beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of latterday saints the Bible records that God created human beings in His image male and female created he them in 1995 the church's Apostolic leadership issued the family a proclamation to the world which reaffirms the church's long-standing doctrinal position on marriage family gender and sexuality it teaches all human beings male and female are created in the image of God each is a beloved Spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents and as such each as a divine nature and Destiny the proclamation

062then underscores the profound religious significance of gender gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal mortal and eternal identity and purpose Latter-Day Saints believe that birth as a male or female carries spiritual meaning gender identity in large measure defines who we are why we are here upon the Earth and what we are to do and become from an LDS perspective the unique combination of spiritual physical mental and emotional capabilities of both males and females were needed to implement God's plan of Happiness men and women are not interchangeable a person's gender to be embra red along with the complimentary but distinct paths that God ordained for men and women while gender is an essential and eternal attribute of personal identity the church acknowledges the reality of gender dysphoria and related conditions they impose heavy burdens and

063those who bear them deserve compassion and respect the church welcomes efforts by responsible officials to seek mutually respectful solutions that reasonably accommodate transgender concerns while fully preserving religious liberty in response to this brief the church provided the following to Media who inquired there have been a growing discussion related to access to public restrooms school locker rooms and similar facilities the Church offers the following principles that are consistent with its teachings and values one we believe that everyone is entitled to respect two all people should expect an environment of safety dignity and privacy in settings such as restrooms locker rooms changing areas Etc and three We Believe reasonable Solutions can usually be found when people of Goodwill come together to find answers we encourage public officials to create and administer laws and regulation thank you sir

064that properly balance these thank you very much all right we are moving on to item 16.01 which is the revision of policy 060 NIS non-discrimination and commitment to equity I will make the motion that the Prince William County School Board adopt the changes to the non-discrimination policy policy 060 by adding sexual orientation and gender identity in doing so the prince Willam County School Board gives guidance to the superintendent that he is not to change the current regulations and practices regarding bathroom and locker room use is there a second Mr chairman Miss Williams I'd like to Second thank you that opens discussion um in order to kind of keep this orderly if the board doesn't we can we can put a little bit of a time limit on each person to be able to talk to

065make sure it's even if that or you just want to kind of roll through it okay um Mr wil we'll start we'll start down on your end with Mr wil okay thank you all very much um so um as I've communicated uh with all my constituents uh whether they're for or against this issue um all my constituents need to hear their voice and I do want to respect people on both sides of this issue for having civil conversations with me over emails over phone calls um I've had multiple multiple multiple meetings and phone calls with constituents from all walks of life this morning I had a talk with a priest in the parish in Mount Vernon uh a couple weeks ago I had a meeting with a b a Baptist minister in aawan last weekend

066I met with four Muslim leaders at the darlor mosque this is a very important issue and not listening to all sides and all viewpoints of this would be negligent and something that I would not deem uh responsible of an elected official um as I was going through this process in the fall of last year of this past year excuse me um I wanted to understand the major concerns of this topic uh overall looking at this topic it came down to my opinion the issue of safety people taking advantage of the changes and privacy issues now I can't speak for the other board members but I took it upon myself to do my own research on this topic and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to talk about this right now and I will try to

067be brief Mr Iman so if we look at the non-discrimination policies across the United States I looked at keep going sorry Mr Ean or do I look like her here oh sorry okay so what you see up there and I do have in a full Excel spreadsheet is these are the top 42 two largest districts in the United States um I talk to all of them all of them and their contact information is up there so I bid any of you who disbelieve me have fun navigating through bureaucratic school systems who you think our school system has a large Administration team talk to New York City public schools so that's the chart the yellow represents and I'm absolutely transparent about this the yellow ones and you'll see in a second they'll get bigger the yellow

068ones represent school systems in the United States that do not have gender identity or sexuality in their non-is discrimination Clause the white ones are districts who do have both gender identity and sexuality in their non-discrimination clause and then the purple ones represent school districts who only have sexuality and not gender identity in their Clause to be completely transparent with the amount of time I only called The Districts that were looking at adopting both words and spoke to the districts who have both words adopted in the language so summary as I mentioned 26 of the largest school systems in our country out of the 42 have both terms five have only sexuality 10 have sexuality and gender identity one which adds to 42 is US Prince William County where we're making that decision tonight out of

069the 26 districts I talked to with gender identity and sexuality outline these are the types of people I talk to One director of counselor five Director of Education equity board attorney legal counsel assistant board attorneys nine of them director of diversity two of them ADA compliance officer one civil rights specialist one one board member one Deputy student rights two excuse me two Communications officers one chief of staff and one superintendent of student services ladies and gentlemen if you think these are short conversations I again ask you to have these phone calls work working a full-time job and also having the full-time job it seems like as a Schoolboard member finding time to have the these calls was very important to me and I made sure I gave each of them the amount of time that

070they wanted to talk to me on this as a result of the language uh and the fears that I'm seeing and hearing from my constituents about this as we're hearing tonight I asked my school districts and the people I spoke to how many transgender students have attacked or have been attacked in the bathrooms since youve adopted this language I also uh asked although the people I spoke to thought this was absurd but I said this is fair this is what my constituents are asking how many heterosexual males are dressing up as females to enter the restrooms and attack them starting New York Department of Education 1.1 million students zero transgender attacks zero boys dressing up as girls Los Angeles school system zero transgender attacks zero boys dressed up as girls Chicago Public Schools 400,000 students

071zero transgender attacks zero boys dressing up Mr wil has the floor and the right to speak pleas Miami dat Schools home of the Dolphins 4 345,000 students zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up as girls Clark County home of what's happens in Vegas stays in Vegas zero transgender attacks zero boys dressing up as girls Broward County school zero transgender attacks zero boys dressing up as girls Houston Texas home of the red state of Texas 215,000 students zero transgender attacks zero boys dressing up as girls Hillsboro Florida 205,000 students zero Transit checks zero boys dressing up as girls I want to add something here our policy again exp explicitly says this is not changing our bathroom and locker room policy majority of these districts have transgender bathrooms and they are still experiencing zero zero across the

072board the ones who don't unlike the lawyers who' have already said that they are not going to be able to do that incorrect they should talk to Dallas Long View Texas who have individual policies and do not have transgender bathrooms and have these words in their language so I would encourage them to talk to other districts Orange County uh Hawaii this was fun try talking to a district 6 hours behind your time we finally spoke at 8:00 at night for over an hour the entire state of Hawaii interestingly enough has one school district it's run by the Hawaii Department of Education zero trans attack zero boys dressing up as girls Fairfax County Schools 188 ,000 students zero transgender attacks zero boys dressing up as girls Palm Beach Schools zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up

073as girls gwick County does not have gender identity or sexuality again I'm being fair and going down the list and giving you all the information Dallas Texas another they say a blue dot in a red State that's what they describe themselves 160,000 students zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up as girls woo sorry Mr is Wake County North Carolina does not have either in their policy Montgomery County Schools only has sexuality in Maryland Shelby County home of Memphis and graceand only gender identity sexuality Charlotte Mech only gender sex uh gender identity and sexually not included Philadelphia Freedom 131,000 kids zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up as girls San Diego zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up as girls Duval zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up as girls Prince George's County Maryland zero trans

074attack zero boys dressing up as girls Fairfax uh Cypress Fairbank schools does not have gender identity or sexuality Cobb Georgia does not have either Baltimore County Schools to our North zero zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up as girls pelis County only sexuality in it San Antonio schools does not include gender identity or sexual ual ity Jefferson County which is home of Louisville Kentucky zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up as girls theal Georgia gender identity sexuality not protected pulk neither as well Fulton neither as well Albuquerque School zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up as girls we're almost done Lee only sexuality Denver Denver made a point and telling me we have had this language in our school system since 2008 zero trans attack zero boys dressing up as girls Jefferson County not to

075be confused with Kentucky this is outside of Denver 87,000 zero trans zero boys dressing as girls Austin only sexuality attack uh included Baltimore City School zero Transit attack zero boys dressing up as girls Fort Worth Texas one of the districts that does not have transgender bathrooms has both in the policy have not been sued to have bathrooms in uh Incorporated zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up as girls it's sight based like ours says Davidson County Home in Nashville Tennessee zero trans zero boys dressing up as girls Long Beach California zero trans zero boys dressing up as girls ladies and gentlemen the red representing because being fair with colors I don't want to say this is not all Republicans for or against all democrats for or against I've seen both sides on both spectrums of

076this um but using the red the red is the schools that have both yellow are not and purple are only one of the languages and that is that altogether out of the schools that have transgender and sexuality in the top school systems 3.6 million kids zero trans attacks zero boys dressing up as girls Thank you Mr W Mr Mr wol still has the floor Mr w a themes we heard from the school districts that I talk to students very accepting of these policies individual differences recognized in our student populations we are a world-class education system to attract 21st century jobs and businesses by having our updated non-discrimination policy accommodations made for all students this is about civil rights not our personal beliefs the language provides that extra protection that's extend students federally I do want

077to rec uh recognize and thank and credit our school-based administrators for handling site-based issues on a one by one case I want this to continue but I think it's time that we give them support in the regulation to validate their job and that they're doing the need to meet all students to retreat and to treat them with respect and dignity our administrators are dealing with these issues every day and this language needs to codify the work that they're doing to protect these students I will admit as I punted this issue in the fall and wanted more time to look into it as I hope evidence I have looked into to this this issue has become a political hot issue and unfortunately it's become about political talking points and partisan bickering at the end of the

078day I think we need to do right by all students in our school system again this has been a very deep issue for me something that I've had to really really dig deep in I want to show something real quick I'm going to go with it um for those people who who think that I'm doing this blindly as a partisan or that I'm doing this because I'm following the orders of chairman Sawyers for those people who don't know me this is or was my brother-in-law Scott he's holding my first son Dominic who ironically looks just like him Scott is dead Scott was gay now he did not die because he was gay he was not attacked because he was gay which caused him to die my memories and what I remember with Scott and all

079at the time we had very very heated disagreements for many many years growing up the way I did I fought strongly in my faith on an issue like for example marriage in my belief in marriage and Sacrament between a man and a woman I would get in heated arguments with my brother-in-law to a point where I wasn't even invited to his wedding I realize that we have so many different beliefs out there and what we believe and how we involve is a big issue it's something we have to dive deep in I think we're allowed to be entitled to our beliefs and what we have but when these beliefs infringe on rights of others that's when it crosses the line Scott grew up in Franklin County Virginia openly gay now this was 20 years ago

080and I know things have changed but I still remember stories that Scott used to tell of what it was like to be openly gay down in Southwest Virginia he tells me of teachers who didn't know how to handle the situation and I don't fault them he had a PE teacher a PE teacher who thought it was best to let Scott get out of class and stay in his car so he didn't get teased in gym class again I don't I can't 20 years ago truly fa at the teacher he didn't know but what I will say as a teacher myself and as someone who leads and is part of the school system as a teacher I saw it I did see it I think we need to do right by these kids and update the

081non-discrimination policy as outlin in policy 060 thank you thank you Mr W thank you Mr W anyone who would like to be next is there someone who would like to speak next we just go on line M Miss Jesse it's very difficult to follow that um Justin I want to commend you for your research your in-depth research and your sharing of that personal moment this is a very difficult situation um as Justin say you grow up in households and in my community we didn't say bad things about gays or we call them gays or queers um we just made fun of them you know and I'm sure you still have families and I have friends who do it now where you make fun of a person you know I remember everyone would say oh certain

082singers oh he has a little sugar in his pocket there are all those kinds of phrases and so overcoming this has been challenging uh for me personally um when it comes to safety for kids I think everybody knows where I stand I'm never going to do anything to jeopardize the safety of anybody's children you know the only reason one of the reasons I fought for the bathrooms outside I just think it's unsafe no nothing has happened but it's an unsafe situation when you have children going to a bathroom outside and I will continue to fight for that but tonight I received an email today and I called the individual and I asked if I could read this email it's very personal and I asked should I read it can I read it do I have

083your permission should I use your name and he said yes so this memo this email came from our technology person who usually sits in this seat here Mr Howard pwn we've talked about children but we haven't talked about adults and so he writes this not long ago I asked board members and more importantly my buddy Allison exactly what recourse I would have to protect my employment here with Prince William County school should I be fired simply because a direct supervisor does not like gay people this is just what this is just a scenario my actual supervisor is awesome total rockar let's just pretend I get a new supervisor and they began harassing me based on my sexual orientation I recall the answer being when he talked to her it would never happen and then we

084got sidetracked on another discussion so let's all visit this now what would be my recourse officially should it occur you should note that a couple of years ago my partner was called a fairy by Prince William County administrators because he was wearing pink and said administrator Al was also during the the loose R risk scenario marking my partner my partner complained to the supervisor at the time and was told he should shouldn't wear pink so to pretend there was not there's not anti-gay people in positions of power that need to be placed in check by a policy that protects lgbtq staff and students is silly the policy is not about bathrooms I'm not reading it in its entirety protecting through po this the policy is not about bathroom it's about ensuring that we are protecting

085through policy vulnerable minorities to boil my civil rights down to freaking out that we will have some Mass tital wave of transgender students invas in a bathroom is silly and for me it's offensive and this is the part of the email that was just I I couldn't speak I couldn't I couldn't think after reading it another experience in PR Prince William County I had as a youngster that was very traumatic I shared this detail only with Allison and Lily but I've shortened it here for all in Middle School and living down in Montclair I had a buddy best buddy who was gay and out his older brother and his older brother's group of friends would ride ATVs through the trails and me and my best friend would build tree forts or rope swings totally the

086Stone Age by today's standards my friend's older brother and his group of older friends rode up to us quickly and began calling me a they knew both of us were gay my friend was spared because his older brother was in this particular group however whereas I wasn't so lucky then I got hit in the face so hard I almost passed out and probably had a concussion in hindsight they beat me and beat me and beat me while calling me a and sitting on me laying in the mud on the trail then they stood me up bound my hands and ankles attached me to the back of an ATV and druged me through the trails all of that climax being all of that climax was being drugg out of the trail at the corner of mindville

087Road in 234 tying me to a tree and and and doing target practice above my head with a bow and arrow the details are grossly undersold but the point is people like that seldom let go of that level of hatred and if any if any as if any of them out there in the positions I and if any of them are out there in positions of power I'm confident folks like me wouldn't fair so well in the employment space if any of them became teachers I doubt a gay student would get a fair Shake either this is one thing policy can help with and that's putting protection in places in a place that have consequences if violated one might be homop face phobic or racist but they're likely to check themselves in order not to

088jeopardize their own employment status my husband uh has worked in this area and he used to say to me frequently we don't ask a person to change from being a racist we don't ask a person to change from being a homophobic we just ask that you don't demonstrate it at work I plan to vote for this policy change thank you thank you Miss Jesse thank you Miss Jesse anyone else like to go anyone Mr BR do you want to go Mr Brent all right I'll guess I'll go first from the other side first of all I I think this is one of those topics where it's very easy to make assumptions and those of you you know out in the audience you're looking at a few of us up here and you probably have a

089good idea how we'll probably vote in the end so you're making assumptions based on who you think we are as people and our backgrounds and where we've been and what we've done um first of all I want to appreciate everyone for coming tonight I really don't care where you fall in this topic if you feel like the policy should be changed or if you feel like the policy shouldn't be changed I appreciate you all coming here tonight and being willing to to speak your mind on this topic I I think you all have valuable points to say I listen to every speaker I read every email I appreciate all your concerns all your comments whether you fall on the left or whether you fall on the right or whether you fall somewhere in the middle

090um first of all personally this is is not as easy as some of you probably assume for me um as a former teacher Mr WL and I have talked about this um I've had the opportunity to teach kids of all backgrounds um kids of all faiths kids of all cultures kids of all religions and of course kids of all sexuality and I adored all of them um and of course I you know I was I had the benefit of teaching the cfpa Woods High School a lot of Fine Arts kids awesome kids very creative very funny very humorous very talented and some of those students were straight some of those students happened to be gay and I loved them all taught them all to the best of my ability didn't matter what they were um

091Faith wise I've been one of those people where you know I'm I'm going to steal a line from you too uh who performed in the area last night probably still haven't found what I'm looking for in that topic um growing up Southern Baptist you can imagine my background was very conservative very very conservative um but for most of the last 13 or 14 years uh I've spent a lot of time in the Episcopal church and during that time in the Episcopal Church you notice they've had some issues with this topic at a national level and you'll you'll know that um probably Le definitely lean more to the left than the right when it comes to this topic so I've had the opportunity to share pews um with folks that are of the same sex that

092are couples that are raising kids together and I've had the opportunity to have conversations with those folks um and last but not least you know I've had bosses in my professional life that you know happen to fall happen to be gay in fact one of the best bosses I've ever had in my lifetime was a lesbian woman um loved working for her would gladly work for her again um so I I guess that's my little preface just to kind of start things off is that when it comes to this topic it I don't think it's really a republican topic or a Democrat topic a leftwing topic or a right-wing topic I I think it's a topic where unfortunately and I think I said this back in the fall when I first got on this board

093I feel like we we definitely could do a better job at finding some common Middle Ground um transitioning to some other thoughts on this topic um a couple speakers at the last meeting brought up that we had not done our due diligence on this topic and that's that's the thing that kind of keeps sticking with me with this with this topic um back in the fall I definitely um I think was my first board meeting back in October I was definitely supportive of the idea of a task force so we had we put Dr Walt and his staff to work they went out and they they came back to us and Janu with the framework of a potential task force to study this topic a little bit more um nothing happened after that point and

094of course a lot of people came here in January and there were some folks that had some opposition to this topic they voiced concerns about the topic the fact that we were bringing it back up but I feel like that topic was never fully explod excuse me explored and should have been EXP explored and developed a lot more um I reached out to Dr Waltz last week and um you know eventually I'm I'm going to roll off this my time is temporary probably I'm down to my last three or four meetings give or take whenever Mr trenum will officially find out he's coming back and I offered to him you know if this task force is still a possibility I would love the opportunity to be a co-chair of it in a bipartisan fashion um

095I don't think that topic that idea is going to fly I think there's probably some people here that want to get this topic done tonight but I just want you to know that I made that offer that I feel like I can see things from different sides I have different points of view on different topics and no matter how I vote tonight I think we could have done a better job when it comes to studying this issue and looking at all factors involved um some other topics let's see I'm a little concerned about other policies and regulations that if we pass this tonight effects again it may be minor we don't know but in terms of the the ramifications of another 15 16 17 18 policies and regulations this will affect I don't know if

096we've studied that enough um so I do have some concerns about that I'm not sure if we've done enough to get community input and you know I I think tonight's a good example where um again I appreciate all your wonderful emails uh I did not reply to every single one of them because there was no way possible to keep up with was the uh the amount of email that all of you were sending from both sides um but I think other than the board meetings in September and the last two that we've had at the end of the school year again this is where I kind of come back to maybe there's something more we could have done when it comes to getting uh some some Community feedback I'm also concerned about the legal ramifications

097I think um a lot of us in here all of us are taxpayers a lot of us live in Prince William County I'm worried about the implications of passing a policy tonight when it comes to to the potential lawsuits that are going to follow they will come and there will be ramifications in in terms of the the budget when it comes to that I think those are things we need to consider um some other things process was a big topic last year when it came to the seat that I'm sitting in so as you know um Mr trenum has some thoughts in terms of how he thought the seat should be filled um there were some folks up here that disagreed with that and said they did not agree with the process specifically one individual

098in particular so again if if we're going to use the process argument for one thing I think it's okay to use it in other ways as well so when it comes to the process of getting this policy on this agenda tonight and potentially passing it I don't think we've done our due diligence when it comes to coming to a fair decision on that um again again I I I want to point out that as a person of faith I do have concerns about the students the teachers and administrators who are not vocal who um who are vocal on their beliefs on this topic I want to make sure that they're protected as well um I know we heard from the ACLU on this topic they definitely had a lot of opinions in terms of how

099this you know would affect certain groups of students I want to make sure we hear from them as well on how it would affect students of faith I want to make sure that they give us some guidance on that um also I'm a little bit frustrated and I guess you could say disgusted that not everybody got an opportunity to speak tonight [Applause] um personally I believe that again if you sign up to speak does not matter your viewpoint on this topic whether you fall in One Direction of making policy changes or not making policy changes I believe we should have replicated what we did in September and I think every single person who signed up to speak should have had an opportunity to speak at one time um I'm a little frustrated that four of

100my board members did not agree with that point of view as well um in closing and I'm getting close to the end here uh first and foremost I represented District in Prince Wham County Schools um and the vast majority of the constituents in my district the brinville district who contacted me on this policy change definitely did not support any changes to the policy or they wanted us to do our due diligence and homework before we made any changes in order to do it right um in closing the um the topic tonight has brought a lot of you here tonight and again I appreciate that with whatever way you fall in this topic but I encourage you in 2007 and 2018 I'm switching topics here please don't be one trick ponies there's a there's a a

101lot of fact there's a lot of things that affect this school system on a daily basis and I would encourage you and I would appreciate and I think all these board members were would as well that come to more board meetings be passionate about other topics because there's more than just this one policy that affect our students uh and that's all students so again we look forward to seeing you in the fall come as often as possible we want to hear your voices on a plethora of topics that is all thank you Mr bran uh Miss Williams um I first want to start by clearing up um something that Mr Bron just said I absolutely do care and want to hear from everyone I've never ever ever ever said otherwise even people who know me

102know that like I have problem shutting up because I'll continue to talk to people whether I agree with them or not on a personal level um what I did feel was important was that we do the business of the board and do like we've done in every other meeting which is um sometimes we allow everybody to speak sometimes we don't and that's so that we can get the work done um I appreciate what everyone has to say and I whether I agree with you or I don't agree with you does not mean in any way shape or form now until I leave this planet that your voice or your opinion is not important or should not be respected I don't have to agree with you to respect you period ever and I will always be

103that way um now onto this policy decision when this was first brought up I abstained because personally I was in such such such shock I could not understand why we needed a task force for something that our nation's government had already put into place Fortune 500 companies had already put into place my own employer and everyone else that I associated with doesn't mean it's everywhere because it's not but I was a little I was to say a little shocked would be an understatement um as a person who has never had a a true home because I'm not just black or I'm not just White I am of mixed race of mixed background I am the only one on this board who grew up here and went through Prince William County schools I absolutely hate crying

104so I'm trying to get through this without because this has been very emotional and very personal to me I've been in hallways I have had friends who didn't make it through school because they were teased relentlessly I am a person who walked every group because I didn't have a group so I walked with LBGTQ students before it was cool to be an LGB school student before you had a flag in school before you could even think to bring a flag with you to school I defended one of my best friends who I didn't even I who told me to my face he was not gay defended him fishlyn gay later decided to come out when he felt safe and in college for me it's not about whether you're gay you're lesbian you're transexual you're queer

105you're heterosexual you're black you're white you're Muslim you're Christian it doesn't matter and it shouldn't matter to anybody who sits in this seat because you took an oath of public office period that's what matters when you sit up in a seat and you sit choose because you make a decision to be a public official it is your absolute duty to represent your constituent body which is everybody I have a person of faith when I sit up here I bring my faith with me everywhere I go but when I make a decision my faith cannot Trump my decision because if I do [Applause] that I'm doing a disservice to the people who elected me to sit here I could quote scripture either way I could cherry-pick pieces of policy to go on either side of this

106issue absolutely everyone up here can what I do know is absolutely what it feels like to not be protected to not have a home to not have a voice to not feel represented I know that when I sit in the seat it's my job to protect 89,000 students and our staff because in 2017 it's not just about our students it's about our staff too because it's supposed to be very carefully here's the word everybody misses and there's no exclusion when you add someone to a non-discrimination policy you're not excluding someone else the whole point is an you have these policies because these people are not protected and they are vulnerable population of our of our of our society that's the reason why you have non-discrimination policies if everybody and that word if we were all

107inclusive of everybody we wouldn't have this discussion that it's very simple everyone can come and and people can give me newspaper articles about adult males going to bathrooms at Target people can give me articles about never as Mr wil finally demonstrated and for the once I'm so sad you're not a teacher cuz my goodness that was great tonight um I enjoy having you a board as a board member despite our back and force but yeah tonight I was like man the students are missing out that was thorough um it it's just it's simply a matter of just common decency we want we say all year long we can't attract a a quality staff because we don't pay them or we don't hire them at at a certain time or we don't do this or we

108don't do that do you think honestly that in 2017 Millennials who read everything yes they do actually it may not be in a book but it could be electronic they read they check these things this is important that's an important part of being an employer and we are the second largest employer in Prince William County it's not just about students and for the parents who are are worried about bathroom usage I would absolutely be worried too I have a 16year old I have a matter of fact I have a child hasn't started school yet that's going to be entering into this world into these dealing with these policies and everything else by the time he gets to school I mean it's going to be a couple years and I have to think about him I

109am a female I am absolutely for those who don't know which is pretty much everybody up until tonight I'm also a sexual assault Survivor didn't happen in a bathroom but it absolutely happened with somebody I absolutely knew in a very trusted environment which most cases of sexual assault absolutely occur that way and if you don't know I would encourage you to go read about it please because as one it was very very hard to sit here and hear that sexual assault only occurs in bathrooms and I'm putting little girls in Jeopardy being one and having been a little girl when it occurred I really found offense to that and even if that hadn't happened I took time as a college student because I went to school for interdisciplinary studies which means I studied a little

110bit about everything then to top it all off I specialized in conflict resolution and PE studies which means I had to go back and learn a lot about everything because that means I have to be able to talk to everybody whether I like them I don't like them they smell they smell good it doesn't matter when you do conflict resolution doesn't matter who sits on that table what matters is you find a resolution to their problem period and that's my job that's what we do up here we're supposed to be in the middle ground and I've sat up here all year long and listen to politics and been accused of being political this way or that way most people who know me once again know that I am a horrible politician I've said that time

111and time again I always say things that irritate people because I speak from the truth that I know it doesn't matter to me whether you're a Democrat or Republican what matters to me especially in this case is are you safe do you feel safe and when we do this policy I absolutely listen to everyone talk to me about restrooms and then I had to stop and think even if we didn't pass this the Virginia High School league which the controlling body for sports has had this policy for non-discrimination and and that word I love again for transgender students which is the one thing that everyone seems to get caught up on in this policy which is not the entire policy but they already have had systems in place since I think 2014 I want to

112know why no one objected then I want to know why there was no object until it became political this is not political this is people's lives absolutely we're talking about a class of people that has the highest risk of suicide if you're worried about bathrooms give me a policy you're going to be happy about we can discuss that this is not the end all Beall of everything this is what makes public space great is that we can take public comment and make changes all the time this is a non-discrimination policy absolutely it affects and goes upon the fringes of everything else that we do of course it does nobody's saying it doesn't what I'm saying for me personally when I respond to my constituent pace and said this is not a bathroom policy I'm saying

113to you I absolutely recognize your concern your fear but a non-discrimination is not about going to the bathroom a lot of this started because the former president's Administration decided to release a a memorandum from the Department of Education on transgender bathroom usage the same time we decided to talk about non-discrimination policy and then people ran with it there's this great thing about reading when you read a lot about everything you can make your own determination about things but you can also separate the issues that we're talking about and that's a big deal when it comes to this everybody safety everybody safety is important and to tie it all home that's why we have a code of behavior in there it very specifically states that you are free to practice your religious beliefs that's not being

114infringed upon in this policy we're not changing the code of behavior at all in any way shape or form matter of fact when I was in school and I know this hasn't changed because I still read it now as a parent as a parent or legal guardian of a student or as a student of this school system at at any point in time you feel you are not being uh able to do something or your rights or freedoms or whatever it is are being infringed upon you have a right to take that up with your administrator what makes this policy so different and so important to that very statement is it backs it up for everyone who's not covered right now it does not take away in any way shape or form from anybody else

115when we do something to protect someone else it doesn't mean removal for someone else it means and and as a person who lives in and because I don't have one or the other it's always and every day every day and I would implore our public body to be more inclusive of that word and because it's very important nobody is any more special or any less special than anybody else I don't want to get into statistics of crime and all of those things but I would encourage everyone to educate yourself because the biggest driving factor is always fear and it's fear of the unknown I know I took the time out to educate myself on the things that I didn't know about especially when it came to transgender I feel blessed in the fact that I

116actually had the opportunity to not only belong to a group that had someone go through a transgender experience that started as a child and ended as an adult so I KN was able to personally speak to people I don't know everything there is to know about being in the lgbq community I don't know everything there is to know about being Muslim or anything else that's why we listen but it does mean that I have no right to take my fears and put them on somebody else because I don't understand something ever I'm going to support I'm going to support this policy and I want to be very clear when I say that I'm supporting this policy as an and it is not a trampling of anybody else's rights I absolutely respect every single one of

117my board members and anybody here who disagrees with me because that is my duty to do so and before I stop talking I just want to remind my fellow public officials of that oath you took when you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to be a public official for everybody because that is our job and that's all I have to say thank you thank you Miss Williams please we need to we need to keep debate we are in the middle of debate please thank you um Miss rson asked to be recognized next Miss Rolston thank you Mr chairman please sit down you have stood a long time sit you may sit sit everything is fine okay well stand up there you um thanks for coming out and let me thank everybody who called

118me that I actually talked to um I appreciate that I thought it was interesting everybody's conversation was a little bit different from the other um and there's a person standing up and I wish she would sit down too maybe everybody else would um came to me a year ago and we talked and I told her don't worry there we go see sitting is okay when I guess for as long as I can remember there has been someone that was gay in my family and for as long as I can remember they all died of AIDS so way long time ago I was really busy with taking care of people and it was very interesting because of some of the friends that they had that I met now California is interesting place and I always talk

119about it only because generally we don't try to tell others what to do with their life we believe that your life is truly yours and just have a happy time with it and as I listened this past week I had PE I wonder where some people come from because what Lori was saying is it's true when you are of a class I'm of a a protective class I'm African-American and female and had it not been for all those things I wouldn't be sitting here today neither would Lily or Lori we wouldn't be sitting here because the discrimination and what we would be allowed to do would be less and so what did that mean it meant I was less than less than someone else anybody just less than and as I've listened there's not much

120more to say uh but I do thank everyone for their comments I did not grow up in a environment of lots and lots of bigotry no but but I did get to experience it a couple of times when people tried to hurt me with glass by throwing glass at me and just for your information I went to a Catholic school and it was after school and finally the police had to take me home every day but it didn't stop how I felt about human beings and about people if you don't know somebody walk up to them and shake their hand and get to know them they're not going to bite you and guess what this does not rub off what can I tell you so so last year I asked the chairman and this board

121to put this item over for another year and they did and now is the time it's a come to Jesus time now because whenever we say here and however I vote it's my vote it's mine and you can get angry you could get happy whatever but it's mine and only I have to stand for it and you can vote for me the next time or not vote for me the next time none of that matters either to me it doesn't matter so I'm not going to take up any more of your time but you really like standing um so let me just say that my love for all of you irrespective of who you are what you are and how you see yourself that's okay cuz I love you just the same thank you thank

122you Miss rson Miss sat Miss Miss s yes ma'am thank you Mr chairman um I have to start off by saying um Lily I didn't know you were going to read that email and I had responded to him today and we traded some emails back and forth and I cried when I first read it I cried when he first told me the story and it got me going again today Howard is a dear friend and um it hurts for me what he has been through um I was saying to someone yesterday that I spent well over 60 hours preparing for this meeting and then I realized um yesterday that I spent well over 30 hours just working in the past two days and that doesn't count today there's an abundance of material to read learn

123and study while considering a policy change involving a non-discrimination statement and adding sexual orientation and gender identity and I think Mr wils did a good good job of showing all the work that he's done with this I'm going to start with Prince William County School's policy and regulations regulation 1401 Section 1 states that each proposal must be accompanied by completed policy regulation justification form attachment one it's attached to the policy this justification form was never provided by chairman Sawyers in September 2016 and was again not provided for this June 21st meeting this form is not only for the board but also for quote staff analysis of the proposed addition or changes in terms of the following legal legal implications educational benefits impact on the administration of the school division immediate and future changes a number

124of assignments of personnel immediate and future budgetary impact the form is signed by division Council after review none of this happened because there was no justification form section 1401 section 4 States the board May by majority vote wave the normal process and take what AFF action it sees fit this board has not voted to wave the justification form so we still don't have it speaking regulations I'd like to know why we're considering such a considering such a controversial policy change without any accompanying regulations to reflect the change it's like saying we're going to pass the healthc care bill and then find out what's in it well we kind of know that didn't work too well it's irresponsible to pass okay it was a joke okay it was a joke it is irresponsible to pass this

125policy without any definitions without any consideration of the impacts on the School Division or any explanation available to all of our constituents of what this will entail in an inside Nova article yesterday it quote Sawyers hopes that the task force the board previously discussed could study the policy change and address those questions the board took the initial step of creating a steering committee to form the task force but Sawyers notes that satte and several other board members opposed any work to assemble the group and start studying the issue as recently as late January that's a quote from an inside Nova article the fact is this board did hear from the superintendent's workg group with details on how the task force could be set up this board never directed the superintendent by any motion or vote

126to put the task force into action I have to point out that Accord according to policy 131 the chairman or vice chairman have complete control over what goes on our meeting agenda Mr chairman if you'd really wanted the task force to consider this policy change you could have brought forward a motion or voted any meeting and activated the task force and you didn't do this I have to wonder why and Mr chairman just to refresh your memory I originally suggested the task force in one of my prepared speeches on September 7th 2016 the national Schoolboard Association has a really good 23-page document entitled transgender students in schools frequently asked questions and answers for public school boards and staff this was originally published in 2016 and it was updated in May of 2017 with information on

127current court cases on page five it says schools must Implement policies that prevent transgender students from being bullied and harassed and they must address accusations of such bullying and harassment promptly it goes on to say in this shifting legal landscape your goal and challenge this is addressing Schoolboard members as public leaders remains clear to provide educational access and to main safe maintain safe learning environments for all including transgender students Schoolboard members have an opportunity to lead through your policymaking function you should engage your communities engage your communities regarding the most effective policies and procedures that will ensure equal access to education while reflecting Community concerns and values public schools belong to all and policy decisions about important issues should be made only after the appropriate involvement of all of those affected by the decision and

128with due consideration for the rights of those holding dissenting views seeking to reconcile sometimes deeply conflicting Community views and legal imperatives on these issues it goes on to say there are no quick and easy answers to these questions while social change can be painful and challenging it can also be a process of enrichment and growth especially when school leaders engage and guide communities in conversations that respect disparate beliefs and opinions a key tenant to understanding this guide the guide I was discussing is the belief that all children have a right to learn and they deserve Public Schools free from discrimination and harassment this board this board in my opinion has not shown through word or actions that it's concerned about the voice of all in our community or about the desparate beliefs or opinions because

129we have not involved the community members we've insulted community members we've walked some people have walked out when students with differing opinions were speaking others have tried to make this all about political party here's a quote from last September in an email entitled PWC black pastors opposed Schoolboard gender identity revision it says our churches are politic Ally diverse conversations in eastern Prince William County and represent Democrats Republicans and independents it would be wrong for the Prince William County School Board to ignore the will of its people by making this change while so many citizen concerns exist within our community we believe that every person is created in the image of God and deserving of respect and compassion we unequivocally denounce all violence and bullying against lgbtq people but this revision will result in the discrimination

130against the majority of our children to deny basic privacy in our to our students is the surprise of their rights like you we want to make sure children can learn absent a hostile environment such as bullying for that reason as parents and pastors we are grateful for your anti-bullying policies as they stand because they promote decency and order so this isn't about political party as Mr um Mr bran said this isn't about ha or bigotry we all have our own stories talk to us as some as Dian said talk to us shake hands with us we'll share this isn't about pitting neighbor against neighbor that's not who we are in princi William County and some Of You' have heard me say that in different forums this is about a proposed policy change where we have

131to again quoting from the nsba document navigate The Journey without the benefit of clear law at the federal level this board should have as its goal the development implementation of a policy that is informed by law protects students and makes sense for the community that we're serving leading this conversation with an eye this is a quote leading this conversation with an eye towards informed policy development can help increase awareness and understanding minimize resentment I think we've built out resentment instead of minimizing it and ultimately we want to contribute to the safe learning environments for all right now in my opinion I would venture to say that most of the people in this room have resentful sentiments toward members of this board and how this policy change has been handled it remains my opinion that this

132board is not prepared to pass this policy or answer the questions that the public has regarding its imp implementation excuse me I got to take a drink I asked last September how many policies and regulations would have to be changed because the proposed policy change and that's been touched on tonight there are 18 policies and regulations that will have to be changed as a result of this Mr Sawyer said in a princ Times article that the reality is that policy changes are not just symbolic they have a real impact on people's lives and he's right the public needs to know that the regulations what the regulations are for policy 060 they need to know what they're going to be and what changes are needed before passing this policy change because yes policy changes are not

133just symbolic and they do have a real impact in people's lives so what can be the impact of words in a legal motion or law many of the school divisions in Virginia because I've studied some of them many have passed sexual orientation and gender identity or even just gender and they've defined those terms in their policies many of those School divisions distinguish between employment and students in their non-discrimination statements with separate statements for each the proposed policy changes to 060 do not do either of these Mr Sawyer said in PW times this is not simply a policy that protects students and staff to make them feel more welcome well I also decided you know what let me look at what's what the government says about employment so I took a look at title 7 in

134the Department of Justice website title 7 is one of the legal references for our current policy um if you look at 060 on what the legal references are and it covers employment rights title seven the of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone on the basis of race color natural origin sex including pregnancy and gender identity or religion it also goes on to to state that discriminatory discriminatory practices under title 7 also include harassment and it goes on to talk about that it says employment decisions based on stereotypes or assumptions about abilities traits or performance of individuals of a certain race color natural origin sex or religion and denial of employment opportunities to individuals because of marriage to or association with individual or particular race color natural origin sex

135or religion employment decisions and harassment based on an individual sex including gender identity transgender status and non-conformity with gender stereotypes so these things are covered under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 title 7 our policy takes guidance from that so if those are and this is a legitimate question I have if we add if we need to add to our non-discrimination question non-discrimination policy why would we do that if we're already covered under title 7 that's a that's a confusing thing to me so I've heard it said please let me speak I've heard it said that our federal government includes sexual orientation and gender identity and law so the least we can do is put it in our policy actually what's currently listed in many government agencies is not infect US law but based on

136Executive Order House Bill HR 2282 the equality Act has been introduced to Congress it amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sex sexual orientation and gender identity along with the prohibited categories of discrimination or segregation in places of public accommodation accommodation at the same time House Bill HR 2796 the Civil Rights uniformity Act of 2017 has also been introduced to Congress this month discussing interpreting and defining civil rights laws and who has the right to do so Congress is also still trying to Define our non-discrimination laws there are many people who are associating Guidance with law um you all know about the Department of Education Office of civil rights dear colleague letter from May 2016 that describes Title 9 as encompassing discrimination based on students gender identity including discrimination based on a student's

137transgender status there are many people and I've seen it in some emails and I've seen it in in many Publications who are still erroneously interpreting from this guidance that letter as you know was withdrawn by the dear colleague letter of Fe February 2017 um and when you're looking at Title 9 nobody really knows what the definitions in Title 9 mean there are so many court cases so those interpretations gave the interpretations that were given in that guidance letter 2016 gave rise to significant litigation regarding School restroom and locker room use that's why so many people talk about the school restrooms and locker room they have a legitimate reason to talk about it it was guidance given by the federal government last year so there's been the eruption of litigation due to those letters this is

138not by any means settled law I also have to point out that the redline policy of policy 060 provided by chairman Sawyers of the proposed policy erroneously cites guidance of the US Department of Education as a legal reference in support of the policy change this is just not accurate continuing the thought that words mean something and the policy changes can have an impact on people's lives has this board considered or addressed a trans transgendered student's preferred name or pronoun used have we discussed how this will be done under the proposed policy change how will this be impacted by passing a non-discrimination policy protecting gender identity what if a student or staff member has a religious or sincerely held belief and does not want to use that name or pronoun how do we handle these situations

139at the same time working to treat all of our students with respect and dignity we have not addressed those issues with this policy change Canada Senate this week addressed pronoun use in a Major law with the passing of bill c16 this bill Bill places gender identity and gender expression into the country's Human Rights Code in a hate crime category of its criminal code lawyer D Jared Brown also an appointee to the committee pointed out as an example quote mandating use of pronouns requires one to use words that are not their own that imply a belief or an agreement with a certain theory on gender he was quoted as saying if you try to disavow that theory you can be brought before the Human Rights Commission for misgendering or potentially find yourself guilty of a hate

140crime to sum up on the subject of gender we're going to have government mandate speech that happened in Canada we also know that there have been lawsuits in the United States where teachers have used the wrong gender it happens so if we don't identify in policy how we're going to work with that we're being negligent we've got to identify how we're going to handle it so how do you enforce the policy change without the accompanying regulations what would need to be changed what would enforcement look like student safety is mentioned as to why we need to pass the policy change so what do we have in place currently to protect our students well recently we had a safe schools presentation um and we've had some presentations from our counseling staff we've talked about the many

141things that we offer in Prince William County schools so Prince William County schools has a 10-page bullying regulation and it's based on the state guidance it covers all of our students the regulation defines bullying it explains the complaint procedure it it outlines the guidelines for responding to student bullying complaints it covers education of faculty and staff regulation 738- and that's a bullying regulation is 733.702 is the complaint procedures for student claims of discrimination and harassment again their definition of discrimination and harassment the complaint procedures and provides instructions for appealing complaints as well as forms for filing complaints and appeals regulation so as you know goes over the code of conduct at the beginning of the school year and they're encouraged to go over it at home and then it it's talked about at school it's

142available online on page 17 There's a summary of discipline code that includes a list of conduct currently viewed as just cause for disciplinary action shall include but not be limited to it also lists preventative or corrective measures available to school administrators Miss Williams made a statement tonight that this will not be changed in any way shap perform and I would make the statement to not change the principal and County School's code of behavior if this this policy is indeed passed would be negligent because it would negate what has just been passed so think about that we know that there have been high rates of student suicide in the lgbtq community at large and they've been cited as a reason to approve this policy change principal in County schools has already been responding to community concern

143about student suicides in the county all right this is personal we have offered many student and parent programs including a suicide awareness information night sponsored by the safe School advisory Council the ladden county rock opera wilter survive was prevented presented at Battlefield High School Forest Park High School students continue to host the sprigs United suicide awareness walk that's well attended by members from all over the county these are just a few and our staff can provide a list of resources and programming that we've offered or are working on suicide is something that I believe all of us in this division take incredibly seriously I've seen lots of comments in social media and from board members about bullying that has occurred in our Prince County schools with lgbtq students you've heard from staff members you've heard

144in the community there have been no documented reports and This concerns me so we're seeing these things reported in social media but we hear from staff we haven't had it documented that's a concern for all of us so I see the comments that it's not a protected class and students don't feel safe but what about the parents if you if your child is being bullied or if you know your child is being bullied for heaven's sakes please report it advocate for your child if we don't please let me speak if we don't know there's a problem we can't help with it and I will tell you things might have been different a few years ago but this is something that I can tell you we're taking very seriously we are listening and I will also

145point out thank you thank you not on she has the floor please let her speak thank you Mr chairman we were provided information not too long ago about about a staff training that was done last summer and I read over the training that was provided and I'm very glad that princ County Schools without any kind of policy change took the steps to provide a staff training for how to work with and provide for lgbtq students and I don't think everybody realizes that's happened there's nothing in our policy that says you can't report bullying because you're lgbtq bullying is bullying assault is assault harassment is harassment no matter who you are if you're our student you're important we want you to feel safe so what do we do as a division now we have to work

146harder in all of our schools to promote a climate of respect Civility and kindness toward each other no matter or differences and this is something I've spoken on in many places and many times we've seen how in our culture respect has declined we've seen how people you you can see it on social media just the last few days we can see how people talk to each other we have got to work with our children kindergarten through grade 12 and help them understand that we have to treat each other with respect doesn't matter if we have differences we learn what this what we have in common this isn't something that can just be put in a poli and like magic it's done this has to be a priority and not just in our schools but all

147of us working together in the community people on both sides of the issues have been making statements the last few days on social media that were full of hate and misunderstandings folks that's not representative of who we are in princecam county and we have to do better than this the Centers for Disease Control lists on its um website things schools can do to promote healthy and safety among lgbtq LBGTQ youth I'm sorry LGB btq youth forgive me my mouth is feeling like Pac right now after all this talking we already do many of these things in Prince William County schools they say to promote health and safety among lgbtq youth schools can implement the following policies and practices encourage and encourage respect for all students and prohibit bullying harassment and violence against all students identify

148safe spaces such as counselor's office Des offices designated classrooms or student organizations where lgbtq youth can receive support from administrators teachers or other school staff in encourage student L and student organized School clubs that promote a safe welcoming and accepting School environment example gay straight alliances which are School clubs open to Youth of all sexual orientations and most of our high schools have those ensure that the health curricula or educational materials include HIV other STD or pregnancy intervention prevention in information that is relevant to lgbtq youth such as ensuring that curricular materials use inclusive language or terminology encourage school district and School staff to develop and publicize trainings on how to create safe and supportive School environments for all students students regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity encourage staff to attend these trainings facilitate

149access to community-based providers who have experience providing health services including HIV STD testing and counseling to LGBT youth facilitate access to community- based providers who have pre experience in providing social and Psychological Services to lgbtq youth we can't always know if your child is struggling or needs help you have to talk to us so that we know when there are concerns we can't help if we don't know there's a problem I want you to know that I will will continue to advocate for each one of our kids with all the passion that I've advocated for each of my own your kids are your most important resource and we realize that we also value them and we also want the best for each one of them a couple of questions to reflect on before we vote

150is our current policy working for our students yes I believe our current policy is working can we do better yes and I believe we will what are current practices these are questions that I asked last year what what are current practices do we need to improve our current practices as a policy change our current practices have involved working compassionately with care while respecting the privacy of each of our families that approach our principal and County School staff I said last September that if we make a decision now and the courts later change rulings then we're taking all of our constituents on a legal and very emotional roller coaster the Supreme Court has sent the Gavin Grim case back down to the fourth district um the national Schoolboard Association has a document on their website with

151transgender litic that is 27 pages long that was updated in December federal state and even local government non-discrimination statements are not in agreement how can we consider doing this now so some districts in Virginia and 40 of the 50 largest school districts in the country have adopted sexual orientation and gender identity into their non-discrimination statements how does it signify that just because they did that it's right for principal County schools and our constituents right now especially with the negligent way this policy change has been introduced and handled and the way it has stirred up the public so that right now I don't know how we'd have Community Buy in we need to work together on this not cause this kind of division in our County as in a as in a as a national school

152board as a National School Board Association said public schools belong to all and public policy decisions about important issues should be made only after the appropriate involvement of those affected by the decision and with due consideration for rights of those holding dissenting views seek to reconcile sometimes deeply conflicting Community views and legal imperatives in these issues we haven't done our job this policy should not be passed at this time and until it's properly vetted with with the community and has the accompanying regulations and everybody knows exactly what's going to be included and how it's going to work I feel it's irresponsible for us to pass this at this time thank you thank you Miss satte is there any further debate Mr M Mr Mr Deutch thank you Mr chairman today or tonight we're here to

153discuss a policy amendment to policy 060 uh the question at hand is a very specific amendment to a very specific policy and that's what I'm going to address tonight uh before moving on to really the the meat of the policy analysis and discussion uh there's there's been a lot of talk about emotions on both sides and I will I will just say that sadly this issue has been poorly debated on both sides um and that has not been helpful uh as a as a culture as a community uh and in this particular instance of it uh I have walked out of a church service where it was implied that we should go back to uh policies of 200 years ago of how we dealt with LGBT people lgbtq people uh I have also seen and

154I I didn't go back uh I I have also seen though incredible hate on the other side uh as people who have wanted to have peaceful discussions of this topic have been labeled uh haters just for not taking the uh the new approach and the the hate on both sides is not helpful to figuring out a policy solution and that is that is what we are at hand to discuss first of all a couple of couple of terms first policymaking and this is what we have to do here on this board policym is where we go ahead and we identify what the problem is we then identify a solution and we ask ourselves whether that solution solves to the problem without creating significant unintended consequences and that's what we should be going about here today

155second is the word discrimination uh we are specifically amending the non-discrimination policy and the question of what it is that we need to solve is a question of what is the Discrimination currently going on that we're solving for it's an important distinction to understand that we are not solving uh there are both bullying and sexual harassment policies as well as policies that cover numerous other things we uh per what's being brought forward intentionally those policies are not being amended those topics are distinct from the topic of discrimination and that's that's important as we think through this so then the next question is what is going on in the status quo uh and first is why are we here where we are today there's been discussion of the discussion back in the fall uh we had

156a uh multiple meetings on that topic we've had a vote uh the at the time the thought was to push it towards now in order to be able to get clarity on the legal landscape and also to be able to work out details and specifically to do that through a uh policy working group there has not been any uh Clarity brought to the legal situation there are still cases being worked out on the on multiple levels and there is no binding case on the merits of this topic in a jurisdiction that governs uh our locality uh secondly is the question of working out any sort of details there's been no effort to do that uh there's been there was when a when a pushed made to actually direct the uh group on or the task

157force on doing something nobody wanted to bring a motion forward to direct them uh and there was there's been no public hearings to to hear people out uh moving towards this point there's been no discussion on the details of what this policy change will do uh and that's that's important to understand about where we are today uh next is current policy lgbtq students in Prince William County under the direction of our staff receive some of the highest level of attention uh to work with and provide accommodations uh we regularly talk about the need to improve special education in this Division and we definitely do uh but lgbtq students receive attention from much higher level staff in a much faster uh fashion in order to provide the the accommodations and make sure that they are receiving

158the quality education all students should have uh next we've also understanding where we are right now we heard a lot of zeros earlier uh it's important to when you're trying to figure out what it is that you're solving right now you identify what's the problem and the problem is very hard to put a finger on there have been there have been zero OCR complaints from lgbtq students in Prince William County now the office of civil rights under the previous administration was very open to said complaints investigated complaints in other school divisions and took them very seriously there was Zero complaints to uh to the office of civil rights uh at that time uh also we have had no one fired for being uh lgbtq and no one who's been tried to be fired for that

159to to bring that up uh as something that we might do really is fearmongering and that's not helpful to figure out what it is that we're trying to solve uh and so we have to figure out what our specific thing is that we're trying to solve here we have students and employees who both work and attend school here and are able to do so successfully now the question uh well and then one other one other discussion of the current landscape there's been a lot of talk about the vsl policy and well it's already in place life's all good VL actually worked at a very detailed policy in terms of what it uh what the definition is for qualifying and there are three medical standards there for who qualifies for their policy I I would surmise

160that if we tried applying that same definition here we would have people very upset for requiring people to meet that definition and that's because we already work with students on a much broader level here than uh than that policy but not all policies across the board can be applied Apples to Apples uh on on this topic and that's because other policies have actually worked out the definitions of who meets criteria and what the implications are of those policies and that brings us also to the the question of other School divisions uh we we heard a uh a fair bit of research on that topic earlier uh but what that leaves out is the work done to get to those points and also what's resulted since then Fairfax is our closest neighbor and Fairfax also rushed

161very quickly to implement this policy and they've since had to put their implementation on hold because they hadn't worked things out in advance and we've had there have been other school divisions uh throughout the country that some spent two years working out the details before changing things and it's that level of figuring out what this policy means what it is that we're doing that's critical to effective policym the so then getting to the uh to the plan and I think Keith could you just put up the slide real quick I think it's important to keep in mind what it is that we're actually voting on here this is the redline proposal for what we're voting on um this is uh I'll make couple notes on this this is the same proposal that was brought forward

162uh last fall uh in it's it's identical um I'm going to read uh an interesting note on it uh let me see so the inside Nova article yesterday uh stated uh Sawyers argues that this view continues to conflate the description discrimination policy change with transgender bathroom use he originally proposed a policy to address school bathrooms but elected to defer to each School administrator to make their own decision on the matter well this is the policy that was introduced a year ago and apparently there's an admission at that time it was to deal with bathrooms now what's what's important to know about this policy is the the supposed language that excludes bathrooms and locker rooms isn't in this policy it's merely guidance to the superintendent which really doesn't even take a public or official vote to

163change or alter so this is what we are specifically voting on here we're also voting on this with no regulations or understanding of what this is going to do in practice uh so the the interesting question though is what what is included here and one of the things that is included is and this is why uh it's important to actually dig through on what we're dealing with here uh under the legal references what was added was the guidance to the US Department of Education this is at the time last year when this was introduced that guidance is very explicit that changing this policy will change our bathroom policies our locker room policies our overnight field trip accommodations and numerous other policies so it actually is in the policy uh the other question is when we're

164trying to figure out what it is that we're actually changing because everybody's been dodging around the topic no one's been willing to say this policy will actually do X to fix things and a lot of people are claiming it will do numerous different things some of those claims are actually in conflict with each other and there there is a a complete lack of clarity of what this policy will specifically do uh we've got some people here holding up signs saying this is not about bathrooms we have other people coming forward advocating saying this is about bathrooms and uh that changing this will change our bathroom policies uh the the ACLU sent us a letter uh laying out that if we don't if we pass this and don't change our bathroom and locker room policies we

165will be discriminating under the policy we pass here and this is where actually knowing the details of what we're passing is critical and we're having done the work in advance to actually bring people together figure out what we're voting on is actually critical to effective policym uh the other uh and then there's also the uh the other document when there's when there's no details the other document uh that hasn't been listed yet is the document schools and transition it's written by the ACLU the Nea different equality groups uh advocating for exactly what these policy changes will do uh it covers numerous of the same things that have been stated it's also explicit that students should be able to on overnight field trips sleep with people of the gender they identify with and those students nor

166their parents should be notified about this like think about that for a second to to to think that that wouldn't raise any concerns or alarms with other people uh and be a a both a privacy and a religious thing that should be balanced but this is this is the extent of the the regulations that are being advocated for passage of these policies uh it's also as we look at where these policies have been passed before uh there was just a story out of Richmond uh where they were working through these policies where a young Muslim student uh has been now pushing back on the implications of that policy on her religion and the expression of her religion and that's where trying to effective policymaking knows what it is we're passing before we pass it and

167that's not what we're doing here because fundamentally there hasn't been the effort to engage the community to lay out what it is that we're voting on and actually bring Clarity with before we have this vote and that's why this issue's been stirred up and become so heated uh because the people advancing this are are really not doing it to figure out to to lay out a a an effective policy here uh and so that's that's the kind of work that should be done in advance and sadly sadly has not uh so I for those reasons I I have numerous concerns about this and really the the poor policy work being done to uh to bring for this policy I would like to uh offer uh one Amendment uh and uh per policy our amendments had

168to be uh submitted in advance uh and so the amendment I'd like to offer is to the guidance given to the superintendent of Staff stating that in implementing this policy no student employee or parent shall be required or encouraged to violate a deeply held religious belief I think that's critical to uh having an effective policy sure so miss uh M ralson just asked me to read it again and I'll uh read it again I email it to the chairman and vice chair in advance uh it states in implementing this policy no student employee or parent shall be required or encouraged to violate a deeply held religious belief would you second it under hold on one second I I think that that ultimately um yeah gets into the territory of Regulation um which would be which

169would be driven by the superintendent when we pass a let me just finish driven by the superintendent when we pass a policy um so ultimately Mr Deutsch I I I'm going to rule it not Germain to this particular motion um at this time uh but Mr chman you've given guidance to the superintendent in other parts of this policy so are you saying that that guidance is also not gerine I mean religion again religion is already in the policy so I'm again I I I think it's ultimately I'm going to rule I'm going to rule the motion not Germaine all right Mr chairman I move to overrule the decision of the chair we have a challenge decision of the chair Mr wil I just you make sure um so Mr deut challenges the decision of the

170chair um that his that his Amendment um is Germaine um is there a second to that uh challenge okay Mr chairman Miss Ralston I second Debbie I'm just Debbie has to write all this down I can't necessarily enter this on on my computer here so miss Ralston seconds um like I said I'll be very brief I I just think I think this is already covered in policy and this is this is ultimately um is part of a part of regulation in relation to religion that is already in the policy so that's that's where I am with that Mr D well the motion uh put forward since there is no regulation is also giving guidance to the superintendent in the things that should be balanced in working out the regulations on here and so I want

171to offer something that is also critical to effectively figuring this policy out thank you anyone else all right um those wanting to sustain the ruling of the chair meaning agree with the chair that the motion is not um Germain uh to this that Mr Deutsch's motion is not remain so agreeing with my decision sustaining the role of the chair please uh vote Yes by raising your right hand sorry let me say it one more time the chair he we had a question we had a question down here the question is you sustaining the thank you we are sustaining the ruling of the chair that the motion is not Germain uh to Mr Deutsch's motion is not Germain to to this to this agenda item and to this motion is that is everybody clear on that

172okay on the board I'm talking we good okay sorry I you're right so those in favor and agreeing with the chair that this motion is not Germaine please vote Yes by raising your right hand thank you those opposed I'm sorry let me say that again Mr wil uh Mr wil is in favor sustaining Miss Jesse myself and Miss Williams sustain those opposed miss satte Mr Deutsch and Miss Rolston thank you Mr D still has the floor I'm just waiting that's all thank you Mr chairman yes uh well then on that note uh I would also like to offer another amendment uh the Second Amendment would be that uh in implementing this policy the fundamental right to privacy shall be upheld uh for all students and staff in implementing this policy the fundamental right to privacy

173shall be held for all students and staff the same uh ruling will will apply of not being Germain uh that this is this is part of uh regulation excuse me we need to be we need to be we need excuse me we need to be able to operate the meeting here uh Mi Mr Deutsch I I will make I will make the uh I'll make the same ruling U that is not gerain and this is this is part of the superintendent's perview and when creating regulation then Mr chairman I'll make the same motion over decision of the chair for the same reason sure sure thing uh I've already explained myself is there a second to overrule of decision of the chair Mr chairman I'll make that second Mr bran uh seconds the motion I've already

174kind of made it clear that I think this is this is part of this is part of Regulation so I won't I won't say too much if anyone else wants to go Mr Deutch uh well I will state again that we are offering guidance to the superintendent in this motion and therefore all guidance should be on the table thank you any other further discussion those again want to sustain the ruling of the chair agreeing with the chair that the motion is not Germaine uh again agreeing with the chair that the motion is not Germaine sustaining the ruling chair those in favor of the ruling of the chair please vote Yes by raising your right hand Miss Williams Miss Jesse and myself those opposed Miss site Mr bran Mr Deutsch and miss rson and those abstaining

175Mr wil Mr Deutsch let me get let me get your exact wording so we can get a second to it let me click on the right buttons give me one second Mr deut and make sure I get in the right place here Mr is is it okay I'm asking you would send an email about this is it okay if I copy and paste the wording in the email that is the fundamental right to privacy shall be upheld in implementing this policy that's fair [Music] okay and Mr Deutsch made the motion and do we have a second for that motion Mr chairman I'll second that Miss site thank you Mr deuts the motion is yours thank you uh this motion uh well granted all regulations are going to have to come back to this board for

176a vote but this motion does uh give guidance to the superintendent within it and I think that this is an important balancing uh uh effort in terms of how to uh give that guidance thank you anyone else no as far as this is just the amendment we're only voting on the amendment that the fundamental right to privacy shall be upheld in implementing this policy that would be that those words will be added I copy and pasted directly from Mr deutch's email that he sent guidance correct Mr chairman Miss uh Williams that's your name m Williams think so for the moment um I just want to clarify for the public that we're adding this to the guidance section and not to the actual non-discrimination commitment to equity policy that we are voting on and I also

177wanted to just ask Mr Deutsch um is there a place somewhere that we don't currently do this that we need to add this because I'm pretty sure that that's part of what we already do in specific um I'm not sure how we're violating someone's privacy right so maybe I could just kind of ask you for further understanding on how you feel that someone's privacy is going to be violated sure well nobody knows what the implementation of this policy is going to be so uh we're trying to balance these I mean I've offered similar dis questions of where specifically are people being discriminated against in terms of getting an education and a job but I think there are some differences on that question and I think we need balancing guidance in terms of how those regulations

178are going to look I'm sorry Mr Joy how their privacy was going to be violated that's what I'm looking for is I'm I'm trying to figure out how this non-discrimination policy is going to affect someone's privacy rights being violated that's what I'm asking right there are there is no Clarity or details on what this policy change will do period so I'm offering some l to help uh with that and how do you define that sir the right to privacy I think it's been defined through numerous court cases over the last 40 years like the policy we're voting on now I'm s just for my own understanding because this is a new addition even though we received this I'm curious to know for myself and for the public how it is that we are defining your

179right to privacy because that has been the major objection is everybody's definition to things and if we are going to nit definitions of things I'm not trying to nitpick but I really do like I do with everything else want to know what you mean when you say that okay the right to privacy is a phrase that has a 40-year history in terms of what it means within the US court system uh it's actually a very clearly defined term especially comparative to the current term that we are discussing here yes can you provide that definition please that's what I'm asking it is a fundamental right that uh stems from the pen numbers of the uh bill of rights per uh Griswald and has been further fleshed out in numerous Supreme Court cases how do you define

180Mr chairman I'm willing to move on I just wanted to make a point and that is it's not fair to nitpick one way or the other if we're going to nitpick it should be on all sides not just part and that is my point to this back and forth with you like I've said before if you're going to nitpick we should do it equally this is about equality and and that's the point so if we're going to add things we have people here who are upset because they don't understand what it is going on or they don't have an understanding of what it is that we're voting on and the reason why you're objecting so far is because you don't feel that we've done our due diligence and we don't and you don't have definitions

181on what's going on this is my point we can do this all night and I don't want to but I'm just saying to you as someone whose major objection is that we have not done enough studies and we don't have the proper definitions of what could occur next what is the definition that you're saying sure I I will just state that in policy making the burden is on the people pushing forward to policy change to actually Define what they're doing that would be you sir uh no that would be pushing policy change any further discussion on this matter M hold [Applause] on Miss sat you have the floor thank you Mr chairman I appreciate that um for clarification is this for guidance to the policy or is this an amendment to the policy Amendment this

182is the way I have it WR I'm I'm going to answer the question at least how I have it written uh based on what Mr Deutch said is this would be just like the guidance that's already in there this would be additional guidance that's how I have it that's how I currently have it written okay Mr Jo is that what you intended yeah all we're doing here is there's guidance being given to the superintendent to set some boundaries on the regulations we're going to have to vote on eventually and I'm just adding some okay okay that thank I appreciate that and you know if we're going to talk about definitions one thing also we haven't defined what sexual orientation and gender identity specifically mean in our policy and many school divisions have done so so

183just a thought I'm not any further debate okay M Mr woke yeah I just want to say a number of those districts that have updated their non-discrimination have given you know obviously same similar language of respecting privacy and balancing rights of you know LGBT students so I I don't see it as an issue with guidance to the superintendance any further debate okay the those in favor I'm going to read it the amendment is additional guidance to the superintendent that the the fundamental right of privacy shall be upheld in implementing this policy those in favor of the motion please signify yes by raising your right hand I got everyone but me I will abstain [Applause] sorry I'm just making sure I click the right buttons everyone the vote is seven yes one abstain Sawyers motion passed

184okay all right um it is no surprise um that I uh fully support this motion I'm glad some of you were sitting down for that um and so uh ultimately um it's time to call the vote um those in favor of the motion that the Prince William County School Board adopt the changes to the non-discrimination policy policy 060 by adding sexual orientation and gender identity in doing so the Prince William County Board gives guidance to the superintendent that he is not to change the current regulations and practices regarding bathroom and locker room use with the amendment that just passed with with additional guidance to the superintendent that the fundamental right to privacy should be up upheld in implementing this policy those in favor of the motion please signify yes by raising your right hand Mr

185wil Miss Ralston Miss Jesse and myself I'm sorry and Miss Williams I apologize lauia did not mean to miss you those opposed Miss sat Mr bran Mr Deutsch sat white Mr bran and Mr Deutsch the vote is five yes three no motion passed [Applause] I'm sorry ma'am you cannot approach the board thank you all right ladies and gentlemen we have we have the remainder of the meeting to go through I ask that you be quiet whether you stay in the room or you exit I please ask that you do so quietly you with no objection we can take a very brief five minute recess I know I some people have to use the restroom 5 minute recess no objection from the board we are in recess [Music] oh [Music] e [Music] oh [Music] a [Music]

186he [Music] oh [Music] he [Music] he [Music] he [Music] [Laughter] [Music] which is the FY 2017 fourth quarter budget review Mr Klein Mr chairman members of the board uh Dr Waltz Mr Klein I apologize members in the back uh citizens in the back we'll need to have quiet please we'll need to have quiet you can talk out in the atrium but there there's no more communicate no more talk only Mr Klein is talking now Mr Klein Mr chairman members of the board Dr Waltz Mr Wallingford director of financial services will'll give a brief interim update on the status of the fiscal year 2017 budget Mr going for thank you Mr Klein chairman Sawyers members of the board and Dr Waltz very brief presentation this evening no slides uh we have just a handful just a

187handful of days left in the fiscal year our inter interim audit work has been finalized Auditors will be coming out shortly we'll be doing financial statements and the information that Mr Klein presented to you at the third quarter presentation uh are the number we expect to see at the end of the fiscal year for fiscal 2017 thank you any questions from the board comments thank you thank you uh this one is tucked under superintendent time but it is an action item uh maybe that's supposed to be that way either way uh Career and Technical education advisory Council superintendent appointees um there is this is an action item again the this is uh for the for the CTE advisory Council superintendent appointees uh I'll make the motion that the Prince William County school board approved the

188appointment and reappointment of individuals to the Career and Technical education advisory Council for a two-year term effect of July 1 2017 through June 30 2019 is there a second Mr chairman Miss satte I'll second that thank you Miss site discussion on this those in favor of the motion please signify yes by raising your right hand and I have everyone Miss Jesse I'm sorry did I get it okay Miss Jesse thank you it's unanimous vote is8 Yes unanimous motion passed and Ronda superintendant Time Dr waltson thank you chairman Sawyers members of the board congratulations to Maddie Kramer a graduating senior at Battlefield high school and daughter of staff member Amy Kramer Maddie won first place in Virginia for the invest right essay competition this is the second consecutive year that the state winner of invest right

189has been a battlefield student congratulations also to Fadel Mohammad Rising sophomore at osbor Park High School on winning first place in the gaitherburg Book Festival short story contest for high school students two schools recently received exciting grants the Laura Bush Foundation awarded PTO View Elementary School a grant of $6,600 plus doar to purchase new books and other resources for the school library congratulations to reniger who applied for the uh Grant Miss zenzinger and the also the sule elementary school received a grant from Lowe's for $4,200 to create an outdoor classroom teachers staff and volunteers including an eagle scout at four high schools l literally put their backs into creating certified wildlife habitats see our website for details the projects were possible through a partnership with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and Environmental

190Protection Agency as a reminder to students and parents I ask that you make time to read during the summer months read to your children and encourage them to read the summer reading list is posted on the school website and in all Prince William County County Libraries also a reminder to parents of rising sixth grade students all students entering the sixth grade in Prince William County Public Schools this fall must present proof that they have had a tetanus diptheria and pressus Tdap booster shot within the past five years by state law without proof of this immunization or an exemption on file children will not be able to enroll in school for the 1718 school year without that next next two important dates on College fairs that students can put on their calendars the first will be

191at osbor Park High School on September 25th the 2 at Freedom High School on October 12th details will be provided later this summer on our website and speaking of college I'm excited to report that the class of 2017 earned almost million in scholarships this amount this amount marks an $18 million increase over the previous year 2016 in total 1,564 scholarships were earned by 630 students remember that news keeps flowing from our school division throughout the summer to stay informed download the pwcs mobile app sign up for ews and be sure your email account is current in Parent Portal for the 12th year in a row just wanted to let you know I did finish all of my school visits this year to all of our 100 Schools and education centers so uh it's always fun

192it's always enlightening to talk with staff students and parents uh in addition to uh everything I've reported thus far each uh two weeks I had the opportunity to attend the School of Excellence celebrations at Ashlin Woodbridge Middle School and I congratulate them on their achievements also attended uh since the last meeting Garfield and Freedom High Schools graduations and they were beautifully executed uh wanted to just send uh Goodwill send off to uh two people who will be leaving our leadership team Craig Geller who is uh moving to New York and I just want to thank you for a tremendous job over the last two years as an associate superintendent attendant uh you've done an incredible job you hit the ground running you uh exceeded my expectations for someone in a position for that length of

193time and uh you really did a great job and finally and finally I wanted to congratulate Ray Darlington who is retiring and uh this is her last school board meeting and I know she's going to be deeply saddened uh but I've assured her that living in Prince William County she'll be able to continue watching on television um when I came to Prince William County uh she was an associate superintendent and uh assumed the second deputy position in the history of Prince William County Public Schools and uh served uh did an extraordinary job being my rightand person for almost 11 years and uh I I just want to make a couple of brief statements about Rey uh one of the things I truly admired and respected about her was I really truly always felt that she

194had kids at the center of her work and that was not always easy um she was the kind of person that if I thought maybe we had maybe not handled everything quite right with the situation she could go in and dissect that um whatever amount of time and energy that took and if we had made a mistake she would correct that and uh apologize and do whatever needed to be done to make that right couple of other notable things I want to mention about her is uh contrary to all the rumors of the board who hired me uh there were not a lot of things that that board wanted me to do initially coming in uh one was they thought it was a very good school system and they coined this world class concept and

195wanted it to be made even better the second thing is they wanted a better accountability system and Appraisal system for employees and one of the best decisions I ever made was to put Rey in charge of that and uh I had to come back to the board because the board was a little antsy about why it was taking so long but she was very smart in terms of involving lots of rank and file teachers in a process that took three years and actually helped to serve as part of what was eventually the state model for a Statewide appraisal process and she continued to get input and feedback from teachers even after we implemented our appraisal process and we've made a number of an improvements since now that's only a very few things but uh there's

196lots of other people wanting to talk I think but I just want to say Ry I will miss you there will be never be another ray Darlington and uh I look forward to working with you through the rock program [Applause] and so I am grateful to the school board the employees parents and Guardians and of course our students for their support this year thanks as well to our elected officials our business partners and the community for supporting the Prince William County Public Schools I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable summer and I look forward to working with everyone and our students returning on August 28th for the start of another great school year thank you thank you Dr Waltz um moving on to item school board approved the revision of policy 744 short-term suspensions of

197students thank you m Williams is there a second Mr chairman Miss Jesse I second thank you discussion those in favor of this motion please signify yes by raising your right hand thank you the vote is 8 yes unanimous motion pass revision of policy 745 long-term suspension and expulsion of students readmission and excl inclusion admission it's the second reading a motion is in order Mr chairman Miss Williams I move that the princ County School Board approve the revision of policy 745 long-term suspension or excuse me suspension or expulsion of students readmission and exclusion admission thank you Mr Williams is there a second yes second Miss Jesse that's good enough Miss Jessie Miss Jack Miss Jackie is that a new name Miss Jesse seconds uh discussion those in favor of the motion please signify yes by raising

198your right hand I'm sorry I got everyone to my right please give me thank you you put it down I look left first and then right I'm sure that's no surprise to anybody sorry I couldn't resist it was low hanging fruit I apologize the vote is eight yes unanimous motion passed and 1903 revision of policy 747 office of student management and alternative programs it's the second reading and yes a motion is an order Mr chairman Miss Williams I move that the princ County School Board approve the revision of policy 747 office of student management and alternative programs thank you Miss Williams is there a second Mr chairman that surprises me Miss Jesse a second Miss Jesse thank you discussion those in favor of the motion please signify yes by raising your right hand thank you

199vote is eight yes unanimous motion passed on to board matters I would request that every member be as brief as they possibly can uh we will start I started with Miss Sato I believe last time so I'll start with Mr wil uh to my far right Mr wi thank you Mr chairman um just wrap up I had a great time attending uh four graduation ceremonies uh the two of my district and also uh great to be a part of Garfield again and um trying to think the other one I went to I p no I went to my two pic force park Garfield there was oh Patriot oh Patriot yeah and I mentioned that last time that was a great ceremony I went to the fifth grade graduations of Henderson Montclair and dumphries I try

200to rotate them because everyone puts those on the same nights so uh it was good to be there um and uh I guess I'll wrap it up I do want to I want to just commend I don't Sean I know you're hopefully coming back in the fall but I I really enjoy working with you um and all the conversations we have um I I think we have very similar obviously not all similar views tonight um but uh I think it's important to have that discourse between us and um I I I actually don't feel it's appropriate for the shot someone took at your job um and uh I know how hard you work uh as as a dad uh as I do too and um I I wish you could stay longer but um I

201realize you know and it's good that Gil's coming back too but thank you Sean thank you Mr W Mr Dutch thank you Mr chairman uh it's been an exciting couple of weeks uh with uh numerous High School graduations in uh in a packed week or yeah packed week two weeks ago uh got to learn a lot about different uh School cultures and uh traditions and the way that all of them celebrate the exciting uh time of different students graduating I was able to attend graduations at Patriot Stonewall Jackson uh new directions op and Hilton and I got to uh meet and be there for numerous students and I think that's really what what we're all about at the end of the day is just it's it's incredible to see the the raw excitement and emotion

202uh with uh students who have put so much time and energy into getting through those first uh critical 12 years of their education and uh no matter what challenges uh they've had to face have been able to uh meet that accomplishment so thank you all thank you Mr Deutch M Ron just briefly um it has been a wonderful school year I'm very glad that I made it through well it has been difficult from time to time um so I wish everyone a great summer I need you all to relax and be ready uh in sept in August for another great year uh the students have been superb I attended uh graduations and promotions from 5ifth to sixth grade and um Middle School from 8th to 9th and then I had my went to my granddaughter's

203uh graduation at Garfield so I say to you have a great summer and I'll see you in August thank you Miss Roston Miss Williams thank you Mr chairman um I just want to first uh say to my board member Mr deuts I'm sorry for bickering back and forth I just was making a point and I didn't mean to just pick with you specifically I try to come back around and do those things and make those statements and um piggy backing off of Mr wil Mr Brun it's been an honor um we've had plenty of Back and Forth George Mason times and some other things and um as much as I'm looking forward to Gil coming back I am equally saddened by you not going to be sitting in that seat and hopefully hope we get

204you for a little bit longer it's been uh couple more meetings it's been great to uh hear New Perspectives and I'm always interested in in in learning new things so thank you for that I just wanted to say to my board um it's been a very long year I think that we've all done a tremendous amount of uh growing and learning about each other we definitely still have um a ways to go because we're all so different but I think that tonight's vote is a good example of how we can be so different on different sides of the core and still be civil with each other and come to a decision and I just want to say I myself personally I'm very proud of this board for handling the situation uh and the decision we

205made tonight um which which such thought and uh respect towards each other I think that's the goal of all of our tough decisions and I think that we should take time out as we do um to pick with each other but also to congratulate each other on our growth and our progress because if we don't do that who will do it for us um I want to apologize to the public I'm a little under the weather today not Jeremy but allergy and quite tired um so if I sound a little crazy that's why um I also went to a few graduation ceremonies and they are my favorite time of year being a Woodbridge alumni I love to see the tradition and Pomp and Circumstance continue uh new directions always hearing the students and all of

206the things that they go through in order to walk across that stage reminds me once again that I have no business being tired and this is why I sit here no matter what's going on um I also attended to share plenty of Elementary School promo motions from fifth to uh grade to sixth grade and I believe one Middle School it's just um exciting to see these students and I love the fact that we take the time out to recognize their accomplishments and that it's not just graduating seniors that we take time out to um congratulate especially in today's Times a lot of our students deing at the elementary school level have responsibilities that are unimaginable to us as adults and I think it's important that we recognize everyone um and just keeping with a trying

207to keep it short I'll say what I always say just because school is over doesn't mean learning is uh you got to keep reading I know my son just loves me for that um you got to keep reading through the summer I encourage everyone to try to uh learn something new every day and hopefully um as I've been saying here since I've been sitting in the seat we will see more of you in the upcoming school year because that is how we do our job best is when people come and they share their opinions and their thoughts um and I hope that we can continue to hear from the public and we can continue to better refine how we dialogue and how we um interact with each other and as Mr Bron so nicely pointed

208out a few minutes ago some of our school policies are so outdated and there's only eight of us and central office and there's a lot of things to go through as time moves on um there's nothing wrong with someone bringing something to our attention that needs to be fixed and let's work it out so um um as I say always let's keep learning and I'm going to wrap it up there apologize for saying that twice but hopefully everyone has a good summer and see you in August thank you m Williams Mr bran thank you Mr chairman um my notes are a complete mess tonight I'm usually one of those organized people that types things up but I tell you this this is absolutely horrid you know what I'm looking at right here but but I'll

209do my best um since the last board meeting I did attend a couple graduation ceremonies uh one of those was New Directions at the Hilton Performing Arts Center uh which was a very powerful ceremony I'm very glad I went to that um the words of the students who graduated especially the the key speakers was very inspirational very moving very emotional so I'm glad I I got a chance to take part of that and um also attended the District High School graduation in noville and uh that was on a Saturday morning at the high school and I guess going back to my teaching Roots at Woodbridge I do appreciate graduation ceremonies that actually happen at the schools uh and we don't we only have a couple of those uh in Woodbridge and brinville where they actually

210do occur at the schools so I I and it's it's always a joy to to D I'm not a noville resident but I always enjoy going there and I love the things they put in their Post in town and and when you went into for graduation they had the names of all the students on on the post as you go down the street you know with the the boys with the and the black hats and the whites and the girl I'm getting my words all jumbl but you know what I mean all their names were on the post as you're you're driving into oxville so always a very positive experience um let's see other things um The Joint CIP meeting uh we're still having those uh so uh the next one is on Saturday morning

211bright and early at 7:30 this will be held at the noville school um let's see we do uh I think the agenda was sent out today so you should see that on online I think I probably need to repost that um or some others need to repost that maybe to to kind of let you know where you can go find information about that uh the agenda should be posted surely any documentation uh other papers that relate to those meetings are all posted online for you to to for you to look at and um speaking of a building related topic um the 13th high school went before the County Planning Commission tonight that was passed unanimously so hopefully at some point we will see a shovel going to the ground with that badly needed 13th High

212School um I want to thank U Miss Williams Mr will for the kind words tonight I really do appreciate that um you know I'm I'm definitely one of those lifelong Learners in this year has been a learning experience and um Mr trinum should find out his departure from jibuti Africa at some point over the summer so I'm assuming I will be for a couple meetings in September and possibly one in October but we'll see we'll see what his orders end up being and I I do want to say it's been a pleasure to work with Craig and Ray um you both have been incredibly uh helpful to me um I will there was one board meeting this year where I did not attend um that was back on the 18th for for personal reasons but

213I did tune in when I got home and I will tell you I did discover that if there's there's certain beverages that if you're consuming them while you're watching a board meeting makes it go a little bit better so I just want to throw that out there that if you do happen to pull up the feed online wherever you happen to be on TV partake all [Laughter] right I'd like to wish everybody a great summer thank you I will second Mr br's motion for alcohol in the day is that what you said I'm sorry I Mis I misunderstood I read into that I apologize miss miss miss site you have the floor thank you Mr chairman okay it's hard to stop laughing after that one okay um I have the joy of attending fifth grade

214graduate or fifth grade promotion ceremonies at Mullen Sinclair and sley elementary schools as we wrapped up the school year it was so much fun to go to the schools and catch up with teachers and students again um always a joy to see the parents and families and see them celebrate um just as Miss Williams said I want to encourage students to keep reading I want to encourage you to check out the summer reading program at Prince William County library and I know I am looking forward to reading for pleasure for change instead of studying everything I'm studying for the meetings so I'm looking forward to my break I want to wish all of you a very safe and fun summer look forward to seeing you when we end up back here again in August thank

215you thank you Miss s Miss Jesse let me clarify that school in August meetings in September correct thank you I'll let that go Miss thank you Miss satte Miss Jesse uh I I I want to say thank you to all board members and to the new board members uh I've learned a lot from each one of you and you have changed this board in many ways but I've actually learned a lot of about just bringing new people on and that whole process and I appreciate that it is a learning curve and I hope that we've been supportive of each one of you uh as I look at the end of the year um of course read to everyone including those women who are having babies you need to read to those babies as soon as

216they come out of the womb so it's from the womb to the classro uh I want to um I went to Woodbridge High School for their Capstone uh presentation it was awesome and I want to thank Mr Iman for putting it on our website you did a fabulous job and I think I sent a note to you also attend the Cappy's award um at the um Kennedy Center and Woodbridge high school did receive a Cappies for aell so congratulations to them um Serena SS um retired and I thought I was late in retirement but Serena has been here forever and um um I made a joke about the food and I wanted to make sure it was clear what I meant by that and I said I was here when we could eat pork chops

217for lunch and all this stuff it was really good but we at the time we didn't know it would kill us so uh but we still miss it a lot because there was a time before site base that you could go to Antioch Elementary and get the best fried chicken and pork chops uh but she has taken this this program to a different level and I think with the help of Dr waltson when I saw the new uniforms everybody I knew that was a touch of Dr Walts because you know he he's like that and I just wanted to say thank you to her um graduations uh Woodbridge High School Osborne Park New Directions pomac Garfield and of course Woodbridge which is my my area and my favorite I love the outside and I love

218that crisscross uh graduation ceremony also went to Hilton High School for their scholarship uh ceremony um for fifth grade uh promotional ceremonies orbridge and Rock Ledge and aquan tremendous and I want to congratulate orbridge because orbridge did something that was very unique and in that they invited all the the high school graduates from Woodbridge High to come over and they formed a line and all these graduates went through the line and Miss flemon met some of the students who went to Oldbridge and they actually remembered the song and they all start singing their their uh theme from Oldbridge but I've had a wonderful year in terms of just learning a lot and it's been challenging I I must say I've done a lot as a principal but it's it's just a different kind of challenge

219being on this board uh but it's work that has to be done and I want to thank all all of you for all that you've done we have had difference of opinions but there are things that we all agree on and I think the one thing we all agree on is high levels of learning for all of our students thank you very much thank you Miss Jesse um I think one thing uh in my first um full Academic Year in review as chairman um you know obviously we we can all talk about the disagreements and the arguments and all those types of things and that certainly certainly part of it certainly what we're elected to do we weren't elected to to agree all the time um and that's uh that's certainly part of the business

220um I'm obviously very happy with the result of the non-discrimination update that we had today but first and foremost I want to basically uh be very brief and and thank my wife Jamie and our two kids um who have lived this every single day with me uh since the day that I announced it uh since they as I announced on June 15th my of 2016 to bring this forward and September of 2016 um when I when I sat and watched the bodies uh add up at the paulse nightclub and realized that I wasn't just someone who could send my thoughts and prayers anymore I was someone who could actually do something about it and um things don't happen at the things happen at the speed of government sometimes and certainly they don't happen as fast

221as I can but I'm obviously as as I want to excuse me but I'm very happy uh with the result today but um what doesn't get uh a lot of Praise is the people who support these elected officials every single day every single day our wife our spouses people that I see in the room today um and I want to thank you all for your passion and support of me and my family um to get through this you learn who your friends are real quick um when you stand on conviction a lot of times and and we did just that um and in some ways good it Whitted down the friends list a little bit and that was probably a good thing uh in some ways but the other part I want to touch on

222too is the that you don't talk about you occasionally hear about someone who has to has a personal thing in their life where they can't make a board meeting or there's some struggles that they have that are very open um and this is true for every member on this board and I realize there's plenty of people in this room who don't agree with me on much and I realize there's plenty of people in this room who agree with me a lot but everybody on this board sacrifices a massive portion on their life of their life for essentially no pay what essentially is volunteering and I realize that the the the magisterial members get 12,000 roughly and I get a whopping 13 on top of I get 13 so I get additional Grand I know uh

223for for seven times the constituents um so uh and I want everyone to realize the sacrifices that every board member puts into this job but not just the board members the other people sitting on this day as the countless calls that Dr Waltz and his staff get when we try to and good good natured we're trying to rationalize we're trying to figure out what our jobs are we're trying to understand big problems um and we're and we so we we we have a lot of questions uh to our clerk to our attorney to everybody that that we have to deal with on a daily basis and work with I shouldn't say deal with but work with um I I I didn't mean it that way I apologize Sean they deal with that that's true I

224got it wrong um but we all we all um need support we all need each other on occasion um we've all need a confidant to to talk to CU not everyone necessarily knows what we see every single day they don't know the problems that we face they don't know the things that we have to talk about in close session and things like that and so we have to rely on each other even when we disagree um we all have we all have to sacrifice in our personal lives to show up at this day twice a month um to go out and go to schools that aren't our children's to to go congratulate and and to put the sacrifice in to to to better serve our community which is we got involved for involved in this

225business for but with that um I want to make sure that everyone knows that that that that I'm proud of this board and and and I'm proud of the the sacrifices that every one of us make uh to serve our community um but even when we fight through that adversity even when it doesn't look like there's any place to go I'm going to quote my favorite animated fish just keep swimming just keep swimming just keep swimming it's citizens comment time called by I'm going to call off the the the the names from from the the original list that we still have to work down if I get the name wrong I apologize and we'll see who's and we we we'll move uh through this um the same Rule still apply 3 minutes it'll turn yellow

226at 30 seconds it'll turn red at 0 seconds and we'll ask you step aside proper decorum is to be used at all time um our our next speakers are Ben pvis Joseph George John McCardle Bridget McCardle Rohan roboam Mack hadow Jeanie louder it says and Darren so I'm not exactly sure if that's two separate speakers or you got to use but we can split that up either way Britney Malone Carrie beis Margaret lozelle and Kevin Allen those are our uh next speakers is Ben here Ben you're up sir good evening Mr chairman and members of the board Dr Waltz my name is Ben pervis I'm a County resident my address is on file with the clerk um I've adjusted my notes since I wasn't uh permitted to speak before the vote but as I have

227learned about the proposed policy change regarding uh gender identity I know myself my family other friends uh many in our congregation uh other friends from other Faith communities have been greatly concerned about the implications and the implementation of policy 060 should the revision go forward um these concerns are real uh parents are concerned uh students are concerned uh we appreciate the guidance uh given to the superintendent uh however there is still concern about trust it's hard to engender Trust in the community uh when the aclu's letter uh published June 15th is distributed by members of the board to concern uh citizens in the community with which contradict the guidance that's been provided uh such as uh page page three and four excluding boys and girls who are transgender from the same restrooms as other boys

228and girls subject them to discrimination on the basis of sex and then at the end of the letter Prince County School Board uh must allow transgender students to use School restrooms and other sex segregated facilities that correspond to their gender identity so to hear these conflicting messages from the ACLU letter being distributed by members of the board on social media and email uh with the guidance uh does not create trust in the community um we are still wondering how our concerns will be addressed I know several families that are thinking about withdrawing their children children from Prince William County schools um I believe that God has wonderfully and immutably unchangeably created each person as male or female and that these two distinct complimentary genders together reflect the image and nature of God and while I

229disagree with the proposed policy change that was approved this evening I also believe that every person every student every teacher must be afforded compassion love kindness respect and dignity so we ask uh rather than a repeat of this last year uh can we enter into a greater dialogue with you and work through our concerns will you serve your community particularly your faith community by working to resolve these concerns uh thank you for your time uh may God give you wisdom thank you our next speaker is Joseph George Joseph George John McCardle John Bridget mardle Rohan Ro bam M my name is Matt had from the Gainesville District make two two quick points uh I don't know that the comments that anyone makes at this Podium after you voted on this policy would have made a

230difference in your vote but neither do you and you should have given the citizens the right to make their comments because this is a democracy and it's sad that you did not allowed to be to do so secondly Mr chairman respectfully you do not understand parliamentary procedure you need to go back to the book you were wrong in your ruling and you've consistently been wrong now I like earlier speaker member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints our church strongly believes that we should support non-discrimination policies and employment and housing because we don't believe that there is a constitutional right of anyone to discriminate that is an employer or a provides housing a landlord or a mortgage we believe that people should be protected there but when it comes to the policy that

231you voted on tonight we believe that there are two specific constitutional rights that are held by children one is the right to privacy which you addressed in part with Mr Deutsch's Amendment but it it it's unfathomable that you would disagree or preclude a young girl in a locker room or in a bathroom to have a mail by their own self- selection to come in to that bathroom and not sense that there is an invasion of their personal privacy the right that Mr Sawyers talked about the one to protect the one and that's what we're talking about a constitution right of privacy that is well documented not only in the courts but in the Constitution and the interpretation thereof taken by the courts and the second right is that of religious liberty our church believes the

232gender selection occurs by divine right at Birth it doesn't change after that and that is our religious right our religious liberty in order to have that belief and to hold it to be true and the protection of our children in the school system derives from that that constitutional right so Mr wil you said it right when you said we should we should not be intervening on the rights of an individual student and you stress the safety based on an assault that was done either physically or sexually but that assault on the right of an individual student whose constitutional right to religious liberty and to their right of privacy should be protected and it's that kind of assault that happens because of the psychological damage that occurs because in that restroom in that confrontation that's where

233it OCC URS and it's not reported to the police it's found in our homes where parents have to deal with it and that's the tragedy and so you can hold up that chart of all the school districts that do it and you miss the most important function of that religious liberty and the right to privacy that should be constitutionally protected and it's a sad day here in Prince William County when you didn't stand up for the rights of those citizens those children and families based on religious liberty and based on their constitutional right to privacy I look forward to the day when you revoke this policy in the future thank you thank you our next speaker is is Genie louder and Darren are you both here are do you want to are you guys speak

234you're listed together but if do you want to speak separately we're we are definitely separate you're separate okay and female so it'll be jeie jeie first and then Darren second okay um I would also like to to note um it is quite possible that um the Lee louder that was announced when we first came in here could have been me um but I am the oldest of six and I'm used to only things that start with J so um that could have been me I did put in my submiss my submission on May 3rd and again on June 8th at 8:33 a.m. so um there are a couple of different things I'd like to to note knowing that I have such a short period of time um one is we all have our stories you

235all gave your stories this is mine I'm the mother of four children I protect them with everything I have that is very important to me and as you have P passed this policy I ask you to really think through how this will be implemented because my kids are waiting at home wondering if they're going to be homeschooled come September um one is uh the second thing is is your lack of communication with parents as I have been involved in the recall Ryan Sawyer's effort from the beginning I have talked to hundreds of parents who are against this and non-parents I want you to know that parents care about this issue they want to know that their kids are going to be okay whether they belong to the lbgt c community or not they want to

236know that their kids are okay the other thing is and this is very personal to me I have a daughter with a neurological disorder who has to have the temperature at 66° in our home she has to wear shorts throughout the winter she has to have accommodations in the schools in order to learn but I am not asking the schools to put their temperature at 66° for my daughter to be comfortable this is important because you are asking my daughters and my son to be uncomfortable the other point that I want to make is I am a counselor I have worked with rape victims I have worked with sexual assault victims I have worked with children who were sexually abused I have worked with pornography addicts as well as their spouses I have seen what

237these things do to families so I want to make sure that my son is not exposed to pornography and by that I mean naked women in the locker room so there are lots of different things that need to be addressed and that you need to think through the other thing that's super important is there are a lot of teachers that want to sign the recall Ryan Sawyers and they cannot because they fear for their jobs they fear for their jobs because they feel opposed to this policy so you need to keep in mind inform parents inform teachers and let them know how this is going to impact them and let them have a voice the other thing is there are lot people who do not want to hear you were thank you uh Darren louder

238the last week I was traveling and um the gate agent made me check my carryon luggage I'm sure you've all been there um I was concerned because of a quick layover and the airline had not delivered my luggage the previous week on the outbound trip on time um the gate agent personally assured me that the luggage would get there they even asked me to leave it at the top of the gate and they would walk it to the plane they told me it would be on time um and I'm sure that he was genuine in that Assurance two and a half days later when my rain soaked luggage arrived and I opened it to find everything as it would be in a rain soaked luggage um it occurred to me that that gate agent had

239made assurances and promises he had no way of keeping the assurances that this board has provided about the policy change that you just pre maturely passed without knowing its impact without possibly knowing its impact because there were no regulations attached to it um is like the gate agents assurances I'm sure some of you believe those assurances uh and some of those uh I appreciate Mr wil's diligence um but holding up as Max said that the lack of reported felonies should somehow provide comfort that this is not going to harm anyone when many people as as as has been pointed out believe that the exposure to others in Intimate settings is harm is really appalling and it points to the lack of communication with parents it shouldn't have been dispositive it should have been the beginning

240of a diligence process nine months ago I stood here and said that every day the parents in this District entrust those most precious to them into the care of this District if you cannot ensure us that the policy change won't increase the risks of those children you should either build a case for that over time which you have not done or modify the proposal until you can do so um some of the guidance that was described has since been uh withdrawn F found by a federal court to be unconstitutional um and there's a lot of caution as has been mentioned tonight of the role of the um States and others um what you could have done over the past nine months I noticed that clearly there was a lot of organizing for pro and con

241and making us to be for or against a policy you could have gone and held informational Town Hall meetings throughout the district you could have done that just over once a month and covered the entire District's high schools you could have explained how those the need for this how people are being discriminated against what the need is and why it's necessary how the current meth method is insufficient uh you could have pointed out how anti-discrimination law regarding gender identity as a protected class is new and unsettled um and there's no idea for example whether a transitioning PE teacher next year will be allowed admittance to a lock room that they were not this year you don't know and a court will decide that you won't uh so your policies are not going to be provide

242Assurance if you can't do that but I'll tell you we will hold you morally and personally responsible for any harms that do result thank you because of your actions thanks our next speaker is Britney Malone [Applause] Britney hi um again I'm a parent in the Gainesville District I spoke at the last board meeting and um I just wanted to stick around and personally thank Mr Deutsch Mr bran and Mrs sat white for voting no sorry when I spoke last time I spoke about the lack of due diligence and I spoke about the lack of specifications of this policy change and each of you spoke on that from what I understand your reason of voting know because of the lack of due diligence the lack of information the lack of getting input from parents and the

243lack of having a clear specification in place before voting on this and I just wanted to say thank you for recognizing that and for addressing that and I did appreciate Mr bran your comment about not being a onetick show that's what I am seeing this as an issue being brought up really making me want to be very heavily involved I feel very sorry now for Dr Walts the heavy burden that he now has on his shoulders I know I'm not very I guess educated and how this all works now but I see a very big problem of you can work here but you can't use the restroom you identify with if you really are to not change any policies on how the restrooms and locker rooms and everything else is currently used isn't that a

244conflict you can do this but you can't do that and I just have to say like I thought I I I'm not a victim of sexual assault or molestation or anything like that but stories I read is a lot of people are afraid to tell when they've been assaulted afraid to tell that they've been molested afraid to come forward when they are put in situations that threaten them or that make them afraid I don't know if the rest of you took that into account just because there are no reports yet it doesn't mean that it is happening that it's not happening rather I think a lot of it is just people are afraid now to come forward and tell you that it's happened to them I will be one of those people that will be

245withdrawing my kids and I will homeschool them until we come move out of the county I along with two other people that I've spoken with today T stomach that this has just happened but again thank you Mr dech Mrs sat and Mr BR for voting no and for all of your comments thank you thank you our next speaker is Carrie Carrie bilos Margaret lozelle Margaret and Kevin Allen Kevin okay going to go to the other list here I'm going to read off the next uh I we're going on to this the one that Debbie sent early okay so I'm going to read off uh roughly the next 10 um so the next 10 speakers are delegate Bob Marshall Danica Rome oh skip number three uh Heather Moser skip number five Liz voar Gloria Jordan Robbie

246Moser Daryl Jordan Mary riller and Mickey Sullivan and Evelyn bumar those will be the next speakers delegate Marshall you're up you can you can go to the I'm sorry didn't mean to make you sit down you can go straight to the podium sir excuse me Mr chairman before I speak could I just ask that the board fix your website September 7th it hasn't been working uh the I think the first time you had the transgender meetings uh I've been trying to access it for several days and it just it just won't work okay all right thank you very much Mr chairman the constitution of Virginia states that the mere separation of the Sexes shall not be considered discrimination Mr chairman you took an oath to uphold the Constitution yet tonight you broke your solemn oath

247this important provision of the Constitution was also ignored in the ACLU unsolicited uh letter that was sent to you seven Virginia attorney generals four Democrats three Republicans and the Virginia Supreme Court in 2000 all denied that localities have any authority to ADD protected classes to so-called discrimination policies without Express approval of the general assembly last fall superintendent Walt said the oneon-one approach was working in May of 2016 The Washington Post reported the Garfield High School principal worked with a transgender student noting that quote his philosophies is to build a school around students the solution was the single stall bathroom in the main office there have been no reported instances of sexual orientation discrimination in the past five years Prince William could have continued to use the single person facility the fact that uh Mr wil

248didn't find any uh problems only indicates he didn't ask the right questions for example he didn't ask whether or not crime reports are required from schools he didn't identify the incidence of transgender individuals in the population and he completely ignored that rape is significantly under reported you only have to look at significant Under reporting for example in Gwinett County Georgia 24,000 instances of violence including sexual assault weapons charges and such were completely unreported you didn't ask the right questions no matter no wonder you found nothing I'd like a copy of your report you you're going to have to face the question of whether or not you're going to have speech codes why do I say that even though you deny it DC public schools have a policy Minnesota Public Schools the state of of Washington

249and Chicago Public Schools also have this policy Fairfax School Board is making in their Family Life program transgender compliant transgender indoctrination will start in grade seven in 10th grade students will be taught that can be quote assigned the wrong sex at Birth and they can transition to living and presenting themselves as the gender that matches their gender identity at sex our sex is at Birth is not a signed like a seat in a restaurant our sex is determined at conception by DNA and chromosomes and reproductive organs evidence on sonograms even before we're born under the the First Amendment to our constitution no public school student may be forced to accept such miseducation as true when clearly it violates religious beliefs of others Mr Mr Waltz you're going to have a problem there's at least 27

250permutations of gender the 2005 law that I wrote finally required reporting of some crimes which weren't being reported it required parents to be told it resulted from a kid bringing three firearms to a school because he was bullied and the parents were never told the communic ation here must be between parents and students and you don't seem to want to do that thank you sir much thank you our next speaker is Danica Rome Danica are you here Danica Heather Moser Heather Liz bohar Gloria Jordan thank you all for your hard work and dedication to Prince William County employees and schools I appreciate my school board member Justin wils looking at all that data um before making any decision I too have read quite a few reports that there has not been a single documented report

251of gender conforming boys dressing up like girls to gain access to girls bathrooms I would totally agree with that however what actions have been taken to survey kids of what does happen do kids always report every creep every bully Every Act of discrimination as an African-American female I've been profiled and discriminated against more times than I care to admit and I've never filed a case I would also say from talking to parents in Maryland and other counties where this has already passed that boys aren't dressing up like girls to go into a bathroom they're just boys going into a bathroom um in this case there were three boys who would brag in the guy's bathroom about going into the girl's bathroom if they want to some of the other boys recognized that they were creeps

252and they would tell the girls if they knew the boys were about to go in this is a violation of privacy and the girls don't feel safe so the other boys try to protect them I appreciate Willie Deutsch requesting the right to privacy to be included in the guidance I was also told about a trans girl who was harassed by those boys in the girls bathroom saying if he can be in here so can we we like titties too that sounds a lot like bullying to me and in a place that is supposed to be safe in a bathroom that is the antithesis of unity also as I said in our last meeting for my son sex and bathrooms is already regularly occurring in high schools both consensual and assault without Administration knowing about it

253clearly the school cannot monitor every bathroom and identify if everyone is using the gender appropriate facility please explain how you will keep bathrooms safe how will teachers and administrators know what gender any child is identifying as and what about the hundreds of outside visitors and volunteers that come in will the restrooms be made neutral please consider the this as you seek guidance the AC luu States feeling safe or uncomfortable at school can negatively affect a student's ability to thrive and succeed academically particularly if it results in that student avoiding School Miss Williams I am saddened by your experience and I appreciate your vulnerability in sharing that dark part of your life there are numerous children in foster care that have been sexually abused if they think someone is in the restroom that is not supposed

254to be there that can cause further their trauma have you considered how they might feel I would also argue that there are more adopted kids who have been abused mine included it took years of therapy to get her to be okay to go into a bathroom and she's only five she was adopted as a toddler as we move forward please keep that in mind about people who have had sexual trauma um finally what I would ask that you would do is that we would train our teachers counselors staff parents and students how to support the lgbtq community they're vulnerable and feel alone changing a policy alone doesn't protect them thank you please protect all of our kids our next speaker is I know Robbie's not here Daryl Jordan Daryl okay Mary riller Mary Mickey Sullivan

255Evelyn bumar hi I wanted to um let you guys know who I am because if you know me you might love me and might want to protect me and anybody that's just like me I am a victim of sexual assault I don't share that with everybody and I am a victim of rape and it wasn't by any member of an LGBT community it was by a heterosexual man and not at school it was at home and a place where I felt safe so let me share a story with you about me being in a school system that didn't have any protections for LGBT youth it's a true story my story I was a student in a system that didn't protect lgbtq youth I know that it was diff it was I was different I knew

256that I would be targeted and that I had no protections I headed to I heard the nasty jokes at school and at home talk about lgbtq people seen the bullies of kids who were just slightly looking gay or acting gay that led to beatings that led to off-campus jumpings where hospitalization stays became the common I chose to be closeted not learning but striving just trying to survive not thriving but existing both my parents worked two jobs paying taxes for me to be in public school education I am the first generation American and I failed them and I failed myself I fought I fought to protect my lgbtq friends and myself I might be I might be little I was but I'm explosive I have been broken I have been beaten with a bat I have

257been slashed with the blade jumped by five kids at one time because they assumed I was lgbtq and I didn't have any protection to come to any teacher to tell them that but the school was aware and told my parents I lied to my parents playing it straight because I knew that I would be disowned and homeless I put my safety at risk I put my health at risk I killed my spirit just to live a lie to make others feel comfortable then when I found the strength to be who I am and to be honest and live my truth I was disowned I had no protection no family no support from a community or a tribe I sold my plasma sold my hair did what I needed to do to live I even entertained

258death but I am stubborn and that's why I'm here I found my tribe I found my community and with their support and love I am here to share my story to fight for and protect other students like me in Prince William County to give them the opportunity that wasn't given to me to be their Advocate thank you thank you um our next speakers I'm going to roll off about 10 or so um our next speakers are CID Ketchum Deanna Bayer Cynthia Mohan Aaron Edmund Amy Cannon Jim o' Conor Ken bod skipping a few here on the board so everyone knows then Dianna tro Anna tro uh Alicia and Chris Smith and Tim Cox so with that Cassidy catchup um okay well I guess my speech has changed a little bit um I wanted to read

259a quote to everyone I have recently started working in DC I was prek teacher here in Prince William County and now I got I still live in Prince William County but now I'm working in DC and yesterday after work I went to the Jefferson Memorial and there was a really good I've been organizing for this uh vote and yesterday there was a really good quote that I just would like to share that I thought was relevant to this um it's by Thomas Jefferson I am not an advocate for free frequent chances in laws and constitutions but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the process of the human mind as that becomes more developed more enlightened as new discoveries are made new truths discovered and manners and opinions change with the change of

260circumstances institutions must Advance also to keep Pace with the times we might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regime of other barbarus ancestors of their barbar sorry reading from a picture um but I thought it was a great opportunity tonight for the school board to update their policy to kind of fit where we are as a community in Prince William County and to protect those of us who have been here uh since the beginning of Prince William County people who are part of the lgbtq community but are just now getting protected in public schools and I just want to thank everyone who voted for it um Miss Williams Ryan for your leadership on this Lily Jesse Diane

261and Justin wil thank you so much for voting for this it will save lives in Prince Willam County and it will help the bring more economy here to teachers will want to come here because we protect lgbtq Youth and I also wanted to say that if Sean and Allison and Willie really need more research on this issue um you all have Google you can research it we have reached out to you and sent you uh emails about this topic we've sent you peer-reviewed research not uh research that is from 10 years ago great then I don't understand what the confusion was tonight um I encourage you to read more on those topics that you're confused about and to do your job and up and figure out what it's how it's going to affect the policies

262if you're so concerned about those issues thanks thank you our next speaker is Dianna bear Deana separation of church and state our forefathers knew how important that was please keep your religion out of my government and the government should stay out of religion religion should have no place in any decision that you make as a government official schools should be a safe harbor for all students teachers and staff recently friend sent me a um story about a high school student whose parents rejected him when they found out he was gay but it was his school his teachers and his classmates that gave him that caring community and he's now on his way to college with a scholarship I've worked for 20 years in the criminal justice system I was one of the 10 women that

263started the first rape Treatment Center in the nation I have dealt with more pedophiles and rapists than most of you have ever even heard about or seen on your TV shows I have never in all of that time had a member of the LBGTQ community be a pedophile never I've dealt with many but never I have dealt with many Pentecostal Christian preachers who were pedophiles many of them I also am a victim of being a p of a pedophile I was a child of 4 and five and it was a preacher in his home his brother was gay when I grew up I lived near his brother and I was very happy to take my three daughters to his house they were safe I never took them to the preacher's house they weren't safe I

264also want you to understand about bullying and missile if you think that that title 7 took care of this then why were you fighting to V vote against this if you think it's already covered you shouldn't had any problem with this one there is so much hate there is so much hurt I have many friends who are transgender and they go back 30 40 years nobody's going to want to be anything except who they are and be safe that's all it should be safe and thank you for voting thank you our next speaker is Cynthia mahanti Cynthia Aaron Edmond chairman Sawyers Vice chairwoman uh Lily Jesse other board members um thank you tonight I would like to thank the Prince William County school board for voting yes to add the word sexual orientation and gender

265identity to the non-discrimination policy today I stand in support and absolute solidarity to protect our children and our teachers with a now approved policy update despite the stoking of fear bigotry and intolerance we know this important decision was never about bathrooms but this decision was about protecting the most vulnerable in our public schools now more than ever in the era of a Donald Trump presidency we have to make deliberate choice to stand up for each other reject hate and demand that all deserve to be protected from discrimination in the era of trump lgbtq rights are being rolled back at a startling rate and more Americans find themselves living in a constant state of fear no one should ever have to fear losing his or her job being harassed or bullied or being left out because

266of whom they love or because of their gender identity I know for a fact that navigating through adolescence is difficult enough and even more difficult when you're made to feel less than or that you don't deserve equal protections that we all have the right to be granted Martin Luther King Jr once proclaimed the Ark of the moral universe is long but it bends towards Justice today thank you for joining us in this fight to demand equality and protection for our students our teachers our PWC staff our our friends our neighbors our family members and also to ensure that the Arc of the moral Universe bends towards Justice tonight together we are one nation and are all created equal so this board's ultimate decision goes so much further being a political statement or a proclamation to

267add to our divisions but a chance of will claim that lgbtq rights are human rights and human rights are lgbtq rights tonight we had the opportunity to show that love is Love Is Love Is Love Is Love and that the moral fabric of our character strong in Prince William County and tonight we did just that today during LG lgbtq pride month together we can make a difference we prove that when we see the rights of others being infringed on we just don't sit idly on the sign lines We join in the arena today's vote was a matter of life and death for every child who has ended their own life because of having to endure endless bullying because they weren't accepted or protected to live in their own truth and be their beautiful selves One

268Life loss is one to many especially when we don't do all we can ensure that everyone's given a safe space to live up to her his or her god-given potential because I firmly believe after all we are all God's children who loves us all just the same and the words of Harvey Milk it takes no compromise to give people their rights it takes no money to respect the individual it takes no survey to remove repressions bursts down those closet doors once and for all and stand up and start to fight for the members who did vote I appreciate it and for the ones who didn't I definitely understand your point of view I don't hate you when the death settles history will judge which side you are on thank you our next speaker is Amy

269Canon Amy okay open the page here Jim o Conor Ken bod good evening board another long night I see my name is Ken I live in the Aquacon magisterial District my address is on file and on the internet now thanks whoever did that um I wanted to first thank each and every one of you I know that this has been a year-long process and I know that no matter where you came from when you came into this room you took a long time to think about this this wasn't just a snap decision this wasn't something that you just came to as a point of your own perceptions and your own beliefs you talk to folks in your districts you talk to folks from all of life and being someone who was just a candidate for

270the house of delegates I know there's a lot of pressures from everyone from your family from advisors from people in your community from your from everyone so I want to commend you for coming to the decision that you did regardless of how you came to that decision regardless of how you voted I sent an email to each and every one of you earlier on this week because I believe that we should be wholeheartedly supporting this addition to our our policy um initially I didn't really want to have a stake in this because I don't frankly have any children in the school system right now my fiance and I both don't work in the school system um but after I've spoken to people over the long course of the last few months I reflected on that

271I've looked at the fact that many of the things that folks talk to me about those both faculty and students share a lot of experiences that I had in my youth I'm from La originally one of the most diverse uh inclusive places you can think of but being someone who's biracial you don't always have a home like Lorie talked about there's people that look at look down you whether they're black whether they're white whether Hispanic and I was beaten up almost every other day when I was in elementary school I was called el Chocolat and all that other stuff just because I look different and when we went went to the uh the administrators about it they didn't have anything to say because they'd rather protect the reputation of their school than have anything out

272there about that going on so as I talked to people I saw that many of the things that I felt in my personal life was reflected in how people were talking in their lives their lived experiences because we talk about racism we talk about uh homophobia these things aren't always overt they're not always something that people go after someone and they say I'm going after you because you're ex there's systemic things that go on in our society that are pervasive that go under the currents that we know that even if no one said anything specific they look at you a certain way because you're X Y and Z they treat you a slightly different than they treat everyone else and that gets out of the heart of what we're looking at here because at the

273end of the day regardless of your faculty your students you should feel that we acknowledge you for who you are we respect you for who you are and yes we protect you for who you are regardless of where you come from regardless of what you look like and regardless of who you love because that's the foundation of our country that regardless of where you come from you should be welcome you should feel protected so that's the basis of what I believe and why I support it and thank you again for your time have a good night thank you our next speaker is Diana tro Diana and then Anna tro Alicia and Chris Smith chairman and board um my name is Chris Smith I'm here on behalf of myself and my wife Alicia who couldn't be

274here um and Miss Roston she send her regards she's not going to be able to come by afterwards and talk to you of course because she's not here but um she really appreciated the discussion that you guys had yesterday and and she wanted me to pass that along and I think I think I had some notes prepared but I think I just want to touch a little bit on that you know I think it was not an easy conversation because you and she came from different perspectives but I think at the end of the day talking to you and understanding where you were coming from and the the perspective that you would considered to form your opinion was really helpful to her and I think that informed discussion that we had later on that night

275that kind of allowed us to learn things about our position position but ultimately I I think that is what didn't happen over this entire process I think that we did not have the opportunity to dialogue with you the board and the board with the community to really elicit feedback from diverse perspectives we we care about lgbtq students and and the harm that they face on a daily basis and and you know hearing some of the testimony today that's heartfelt and that moved me but there was no opportunity to understand that and vice versa I I believe that I don't think that our concerns those opposed to this were also legitimately acknowledged so you know what I would propose is that you now that the motion has been passed and and I appreciate the addition of

276the amendment to protect privacy that we come together we we we we figure out a way maybe a framework similar to the task force that was suggested to solicit feedback from the community to to help form the regulations that Mr that Dr Waltz is going to have to come up with um what I wanted to discuss prior to the decision had I had the opportunity to speak about it was that you know we we never really had good input on what was the underlying set of issues that was driving the desire for the change to the policy right we asked the questions but at least I wasn't seeing a lot of response and input on what that was so let's form a group that can understand and study the concerns and underlying issues here from

277all sides you know equally represented across your constituents across the county you know then come together based on what those issues are def Define what your desired outcomes are right and and also based on those desired outcomes identify the solutions that'll achieve those while still respecting the legitimate concerns of those who have legitimate concerns um and then analyze what those solutions could be and provide recommendations to form these regulations ultimately we desire that you protect our children's privacy while still protecting uh students who are struggling who are victims of various forms of abuse we want to make sure that all concerns are being addressed and listened to right now we feel that they're not and we ask that you please do that instead of a framework to do that going forward so that all your

278constitues can be heard thank you thank you our next speaker is Tim Cox Tim he may have I'm sorry if if I missed him okay so skipping ahead uh board members just so you know I'm on I'm on number 46 on on the current list um I'm going to call some the next group of speakers here Patrick O'Neal William card Langston Carter Joseph Gilly Jennifer Gilly Denise Duncan and Melissa Soban anybody here of that anyone I just call yes ma'am anyone else have the one two three six or seven speakers I just called anyone else else your name ma'am my name is Melissa sban and the clerk has my contact information on file Winston Churchill said Success is Not final failure is not fatal it takes courage to continue that counts Prince County Citizens who

279oppose this policy made today have courage I a teacher I'm a mother I'm a daughter daughter and a sister and I oppose this policy change today that happened because it's unnecessary unwarranted and unsafe for all our children it was an uninformed not identified or well-defined policy the sexual orientation and gender identity laws are not about the freedom of LGBT people to engage in certain actions but about coercing and penalizing people who in good conscience cannot endorse those actions by voting for this policy change today you have penalized me and my family who in good conscience cannot endorse these actions this policy infringes on my beliefs before any law or policy can be justified and crafted there must be a documented need for it Advocates of sexual orientation and gender identity identity policy changes must therefore

280provide evidence proving the need for this coercive policy change a requirement that the Prince William County school board has failed to meet there has been no evidence or documentation or information provided on this policy change referring to the Prince William times June 16th article Mr Sawyers countless is not a number there are no Prince William county numbers published to Warrant or substantiate this policy change Miss Williams the ACL UVA letter which was mentioned earlier and previously department of justice has come back and said everything was rescinded on on the previous president's policy maybe policy is not the right word there but this policy change voted today does open our County up to lawsuits and as a Prince William County taxpayer I think a waste of money to to litigate and that's what's going to happen

281Mr wil your impressive research was well documented however did you speak to any of the 100 plus schools and education centers within our County on this issue I think we're in a race to the bottom and right now we're winning Mr Deutch you had a great amendment that that will hopefully slow down that race the reality is this policy change is not just symbolic it will have real impact on people's lives by voting for policy 66 thank you finally because his policy Chang than went outside the board process with no Jus form our next speaker our next speaker is R mcken I'm going to go through the list here rayel mckennett um Josh hler Richard Wy Andrea laferty Joe Downer Steve Bender uh Bethany Kim Deborah Weber Kimberly Dal rimple Patrick Money uh Chuck azard

282Duran Hala AA David Turner Jeremy Cox Brian Shaw Dustin ainson and Hillary esina ra yes good evening chairman and members of the board since this measure is already passed I'm hoping that my comments will inform the guidance that the superintendent will put forth and maybe even regulations that the board will consider in the future first codifying and providing institutional or governmental approval for gender dysphoria is dangerous for minors second the Encompass group needs clearly defined parameters for the purpose of governmental imple implementation since when it is broadly determined at the whims of underage students it is subject to abuse third changes to this policy um must consider the right of all students for bodily privacy thank you Mr Deutsch and equal competition in sporting events and finally there's an inherent assault risk and safety issue

283in mingling gender since gender identity and sexual orientation are not related according to the W the WebMD site since many of those points have already been covered extensively by everybody here I will stick with the first one which is that codifying gender dysphoria is dangerous to Min and should gender dysphoria in minors be acknowledged by authority figures as a right deserving of equal Pro protection before the Scientific medical governmental and parental communities have reached that decision many who' have counted this cost have indicated that encouraging children to make life-altering decisions at a young age results in high suicide rates amongst transgendered individuals and increased rather than abated mental health issues while as many as 80% of transgendered youth outgrow those feelings in adulthood they suffer the lasting consequences of their decision including permanent stability caused

284by sex change hormones the loss of healthy body parts and compressed ribs collapsed lungs and back pain from chest compression devices Dr Paul McHugh a distinguished service professor of psychiatry psychiatry for John's Hopkins states that policy makers and the media are doing no favor favors either to the public or the transgendered by treating their confusions as a right in need of Defending rather than as a mental disorder that deserves understanding treatment and prevention and Carrie Stella who underwent a pediatric transition blogs about her regret and D transition on YouTube Courtney fin Finn l a pediatric endocrinologist who has prescribed cross- seex hormones to miners warns that miners may not understand the full ramification of their decision we don't protect a Minor's right to engage in other risky behaviors we don't let them drink we don't

285let them because it's dangerous to themselves and others they're not mature enough to handle it and we should not treat this issue any differently thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is Josh hler Josh Josh Richard Wy Aaron laferty Joe Downer Mr chairman members of the school board Dr Waltz my name is Joe Downer I've been a resident of Prince LOM County for 23 years I'm a product of this school system uh Woodbridge High School uh and a husband of a kindergarten teacher uh earlier this evening you voted to include sexual orientation and general identity in the school's non-discrimination policy and while I can sympathize with some of the the motives that led many of you to vote Yes to this addend I do stand in disagreement nevertheless I'll respect the results

286of this vote we will see what happens Miss Williams two weeks ago in an a presentation made of this board completely unrelated to 060 you stressed the importance of defining one's terms in a conversation and I couldn't agree more and that's a concern I have with this is that I still don't feel that many terms are defined and we even had a little back and forth of that tonight uh and I think that's where a lot of concern stems from um I've been flored by so many of the testimonies made tonight on both sides and and like many of you my heart's just been cracked open for um folks from all sorts of backgrounds here um so many of my notes are kind of irrelevant now um essentially I mean it's really just comes down

287to that definition of terms how do we Define discrimination how do we Define prejudicial treatment uh how do we Define inclusive practices um one concern I had during your your town hall meeting last night Mr soyers is the question was raised about providing uh professional development opportunities for staff and teachers to learn uh gender inclusive practices and uh I just don't know what that means um there's the potential there for that to violate uh religious uh freedom and and and thoughts there and I will say uh you know my wife who's a kindergarten teacher here as I've already said uh she teaches her students to treat each other with dignity and respect because they're people worthy of it um and that goes without saying uh if the example I mentioned earlier if this uh um

288political bent if this um world view is forced uh what would happen to her then if someone that disagrees is she going to be sued fired forced to resign again just a list of questions that I have um you would run the risk in losing in my not so humble opinion the best kindergarten teacher this county is ever had the privilege of calling an employee um so I know there's a lot of anger here and I don't want to add to that and uh I'm not I'm not here to attack any of you or anybody here um I'm here to tell you regardless of where you fall in this debate your hope will not be found and your joy will not be satisfied in winning arguments or changing or opposing policies uh the hurt that

289is in this room on both sides will not be solved uh in winning arguments it rarely ever is but in the person of Jesus J Christ all have sinned everybody in this room myself included and falls short of the glory of God but in spite of this God exhibits true love and the life deaf and resurrection of Jesus Christ Jesus Took the Wrath owed to us that we may be called blameless not by our own doing but by putting our faith in him he took a bullet for us that we may live thank you sir Christ loves you Christ fights for you Christ died for you our next speaker is Steve Bender so much more than this life sir please step aside your time is up your time is up uh Steve [Applause] Bender Bethany

290Kim my name is bethan Kim and I'm special tonight because I'm not talking about policy 60 seriously not a word my son tried to get into TJ last year and as he was going through the process of applying for TJ I found out that faier lden Fairfax all start math acceleration in fourth grade we don't start it until sixth grade Fairfax County has their most advanced cohort in geometry in seventh grade our most advanced cohort is in math and geometry in eighth grade we should at least be doing what our neighboring counties are doing if not more we need to start math advancement sooner ideally for the middle school this would be a long-term thing and not my focus tonight but we should have centers where we can cluster our most advanced students so they

291can be doing geometry and seventh grade like they are in Fairfax County that will be a great lead in for Osborne Park and it would make us look better for those who want to go to TJ uh we don't want them going to TJ but you understand what I'm saying there um so my son really didn't like elementary school he was bored especially fourth and fifth grade he was hating Elementary School when he got to middle school and was in the hyper advanced class he started enjoying math he started enjoying school he was challenged now that he's in high school in Battlefield he's enjoying School even more because he's getting challenged we need to have that challenge available to all of our students right now they're evaluated as they go into sixth grade one onramp

292for that program some children go into Osborne Park and that's the second teeny tiny ramp for a very very small number of students we need to make this available to all our students we need more on-ramps if you have a child and they don't click with their fifth grade teacher they're having a bad year maybe their parents are deployed something happens it's not not a good year that child isn't getting into this program if you allow an on-ramp in fourth grade the third grade teacher is evaluating them the fourth grade teacher evaluating them fifth grade teachers evaluating them when they get to sixth grade and in middle school right now the program is set up so that they have a compaction of three years in one year they're not getting all of the components of

293math there are certain Concepts that are skipped it's a cold hard fact if we change it and they start accelerating in fourth grade you can change the program it's spread over more years they don't have to to skip those facts when they get into Middle School you can change the programs Lightly for them so that they have an option in the summer the ones who are recommended by administrators and teachers they will be able to get in by doing a Summer School class of algebra or geometry the ones that are done in High School allow them to do them with teacher recommendation in the summer get back on that program you will have more children in that program you will have the kids I have no one here there's no one we're not all here

294in blue I'm not here about the kids whose parents advocate for them my kids are in because I can advocate for them the ones who need this are the ones who parents aren't here to advocate for them you will get the minorities you will get the kids who are being missed because they don't get The Advocates thank you ma'am thank you teachers support this when I talk to them by the way and I'm here my kids benefiting from this our next speaker is Deborah Weber Deborah Kimberly Del Ripple Patrick Money Chuck azard Duron Hela AA David Turner Jeremy Cox Brian Shaw Dustin ainson Hillary esina oh I'm sorry I missed somebody I apologize which one did I miss thank you Mr Shaw good evening um thank you for this opportunity to speak with you I'd

295have to say Mr Sawyers it's a shameful thing you've done it's a shameful board that you've led to believe that this is this is proper because we're going to willing to risk our entire our children for the sake of a politic corre politically correct thing I'm not judging I'm just saying having a grown man into your little girl's bathroom or a worker a teacher a young boy a teenager you're willing to risk your your own life's blood for this may God help us you know and I say board members that have supported Ryan soy on this you've done this deliberately you're not you're not uh you're culpable and you've chosen to be this way and Mr Sawyers this was this was your plan and this was what you've done and regretfully you've succeeded this is

296princee County this is where probably the majority of legislators National legislators live because it's better than Maryland in so far as taxes or in terms of uh just the people we are you know and I don't mean I'm so proud but you just the way there's good people here and you have led in a very dangerous policy and a way of life and since since Prince William this will get this will get attention probably what you wanted too may God forgive you you know and and may you come to realize what you've done and you have you have orchestrated and I'm sorry for those of you who have agreed with him because this is this is serious you know this isn't about inclusivity this about protecting our children and you know if I if I

297desire to uh burn houses down because I really do enjoy it you shouldn't include me either in that that that uh plan or policy and I could go for another minute but I won't I just say you've done damage and you've done it willfully and shame on you God bless you have done harm and you've done intentionally thank you thank you our next speaker is Dustin ainson Dustin Hillary asinina all right and then I'm going to read off this next round of names here uh Kai poock Augustine Payne Andrea Miller David shrock Denise Duncan Timothy uh arlay Tara octus Xavier Torres Jennifer woard Lauren Jacobs Wally kubitz Cynthia Snyder Yenni Lopez and Ryan or Kai poock good evening chairman Sawyers board members Dr Waltz my name is Kai poock and my address is on file

298a year ago I was working for the federal government where by the power of the non-discrimination clause they have I could be a human I am a gender queer person my pronouns are they them I learned about being able to ask what was due there I didn't have to conform to them I was the first transgender person to work for their agency to me I was the first one they knew about more recently I was hired at a Prince William County Middle School to teach for the Ed Center based students from the first day my principal admin Administration and fellow staff have treated me as the person I am rather than me pretending to be someone I'm not I recognize this may not have been the case at every school when I was a teacher

299assistant at Le Sylvania Elementary School I found it difficult to speak up for my S especially when I didn't know uh when I didn't think I would be legally protected thanks to my experience at the capital I know I can't go back I can't go back to being someone I'm not Le Sylvania was also hard because there were no non-gendered restrooms imagine trying to ask human resources which schools have non-gendered bathrooms I was a little nervous but lucked out in speaking with someone from HR who had transferred from the building facilities department but my current School while welcoming as it is may not be my forever home my position is dependent on student numbers uh I could be transferred as late into the school year is September 30th how do I know my next school

300will be welcoming as bull run with non-discrimination Clause that you voted on tonight I am now assured that it will be thank you thank you our next speaker Augustine Payne Andrea Miller David shrock Denise Duncan Timothy arlay uh Tara Aus Xavier Torres Jennifer woard Lauren Jacobs uh good evening chairman Sawyers board members and Dr Waltz my name is Lauren Jacobs my pronouns are she her um my address is on file the lessons that otherness makes someone less deserving of kind just treatment is a lesson too easily learned by children teens and adults alike queerness can be invisible for most of us the default was to be in the closet the lesson that queers should hide their otherness at work or school not only teaches us that our queerness is disgusting and offensive but also deprives

301us of kinship modeling and representation it compounds the feelings of otherness last year my partner and I talked to a group of Prince Williams students that were part of the gay streight Alliance at their High School those 12 students told us that there were no queer teachers at their school the teacher mentor of the club who was straight had looked their school had over 250 teachers working there I told them that of course there were queer teachers at their school but they were clearly in the closet at work there were over 250 teachers at their school and out of those who were queer none of them felt safe being out of the closet in their school's Community it's clearly a huge problem when I went to Woodson High School myself I accompanied a friend of

302mine who had been beaten up for being gay uh to the principal's office my friend's clothing had been torn during the attack and he was badly bruised the principal told us that it was my friend's fault for looking the way that he did he did not even take down the names of the attackers um my friend continued being bullied and beaten up throughout High School I was bullied for being queer there too we thought it was normal we thought we had no recourse things have thankfully changed a little in the last 20 years um but when my partner and I talked to the gay straight Alliance at that High School the students told us that they were often insulted threatened and harassed for being queer by their classmates but they thought it was normal and

303they thought that they had no recourse thank you for giving them recourse tonight w kubitz the front page of a September 1997 issue of the Prince William Journal newspaper reported on an 11th grade student at Stonewall Jackson high school right here in Prince William County named Amy smelzer as part of an English class Amy and the other students were required to read a book that she described as being explicitly vulgar and filthy her father objected school officials at Stonewall said she either had to read the book or drop the class Amy's father then took the step of copying parts of that book and stood in the parking lot of Stonewall Jackson high school and distributed those copies to other parents saying this is what your kids are being required to read in this school in

304response the commissars at Stonewall Jackson High School ordered the man off the property and threatened to arrest him if he didn't comply this dirty books issue has come up from time to time since then in Prince William County and elsewhere and in fact was the subject of legislation that was proposed in this past session of the general assembly this dirty books issue raises some of the same questions as tonight's presid transgender issue question number one why the constant luring of our youth toward the gutter and question number two why must the concerns of parents for the moral safety of their own children be constantly trampled and disregarded let's be very clear about this this transgender issue and the homosexual movement behind it comes straight from the pits of Hell few things in scripture are condemned

305as vehemently as homosexuality some persons claim to be persons of faith and in favor of this policy in other words only believe and anything goes scripture tells us thou believest that there is one God thou doest well the Devils also believe and tremble the bottom line we as a nation are going to down as one lady said we are on a race to the bottom and it seems that we are doing everything we can as a nation to turn against the Lord to spite the Lord and to become as perverse as we possibly can we are going down as a nation and as a culture and this board tonight voted to become part of that downward course shame on you thank you Mr cubitz Cynthia Snider yeni Lopez Ryan or I will now go to

306the list of persons who signed up at the door L Barbara lar Moore Barbara lar Moore Emily Reynolds Adam asza chalene I'm sorry Colleen Miller Charles Martin Lori will a different spelling different spelling yes Nicole wilberg Joe Anin Muk echar a o and Priscilla hatville be there nor more speakers this meeting I'm I'm sorrya we could go to theer asking I don't Jim Amaral right I don't see your name on the list Jim Amaral I sent an email yeah Jim am onsite we I've called them all oh you called everyone on there we can do this we can do this pretty simply with no OB objection no no objection yes sir you can you can wrap it up Jim Amaral um neapco district and um my name wasn't file on the email but I'm a

307County employee a temporary County employee I grew up in Prince William County was a County uh went to Prince William County schools and an email I sent to you last fall I recounted the fact that during my time in high school middle school and high school I was um bullied for my sexual orientation or my perceived sexual orientation I was not out at the time um I student taught in Prince Willam County and I uh taught for 36 years in Prince Willam County full-time retired and now I'm working as a temporary employee and substitute teacher in my time in Prince William County school as a professional teacher I um started with the Virginia Education Association the glbt caucus um I also um was in charge of a uh Community Forum uh on glbt issues and

308I also spoke in another Community Forum on uh it was a debate uh on the glbt side that was a hard decision for me because I was teaching teaching even though I was not openly out in the school because I'm afraid of um parent May complain and there might not be some understanding supervisor um when I went to speak publicly and knew that some things were being videotaped and shown on the television I had to question should I do this but I felt that I did need to do it because I needed to clarify the issues I needed to be a speaking voice for the professional and for the students who were in the school who unfortunately didn't get to hear my voice as a u teacher um at that time when I was more

309active before going into the community I was fortunate enough to have a principal who judged me not on my sexual orientation but on my qualities as a teacher and I wanted the principal to be aware that I would be in the community and it is possible that a parent could hear what I had to say and that if they did not like what I had to say that they might complain and I wanted the principal to be prepared for that um later on years several years later the Prince County School Board decided to put posters in the schools that said the Prince William County schools do not discriminate they didn't give the full discrimination statement they just said they didn't discriminate I had to walk by that poster every day it was in Arab school

310it was in a uh stairwell and every time I took my students down the stairwell I saw that poster and every time I saw it I said that poster is a lie because I don't feel safe being out in this school thank you tonight for for taking that lie away thank you sir and with no further business before this board this meeting is adjourned close to you every day and I just want to spend time with you going to say and I don't want to wait till someone takes him up