001Yeah, we're not really allowed to really spike my interest here. speaking to the board. You just said that. >> Yeah, the board's going to make be making the decision. And the thing that that people need to realize is that is that Ken is the leader of the of the school district and and and rightly so. We hire him and pay him and he's got a doctoral degree in education and and I sure will. And so we lean on him for for this whole thing. I can tell you if if I were making the decision by myself, it would have been decided on a whole long time ago. The fact is is that we we have been advised and and I think rightly so to to really give it some some time to to mature out
002so that again so that we aren't stupid in in how we respond to this. It isn't like we are bunch of people who are in favor of transgender freedom and all of that stuff as far as the the permissiveness that people have referred to tonight. But we we've watched places like Fed Falls and Calville make really stupid moves and every time they seem to do it over and over again and when they do they look stupid to their own community. We want to make sure that we do things that are are representative representative of the community and that we're accurate in in what it is that we're saying when we publicly go out and and make a state of just and like I say, I I'm I'm aware of the fact that there's been issues
003in the past in this district long before I got to this area where uh the whole community felt that the board was withholding information and and uh not being forthright in in what they're doing. I can tell you that we if we could come to a point where our where our councils uh really gave us clear advice on how to go forward, we'd be doing it right now. we have it because we still feel it. We're still getting input that's important for us to hear. Sometimes what you what you hear is not what you want to hear. It's just I I've never been involved in in school uh in terms of this kind of a thing. I I went to a private school. I I went to a school that had to fund itself and
004and so this whole thing of millions and millions of dollars to fund schools is a whole new experience for me. I I don't want to jeopardize our our financial position with the state if we can help it and if we can if we can do this whole thing in a way that protects our kids and keeps our funding. That's what we're trying to do. We we want to we want to be able to do what we need to do to to provide decent education. And people like yourself have referred to it tonight. It obviously means a lot to you. Yeah. And so we want to protect it and make sure that we are that we are really doing what we legally can do. And there's still some there's still some things that need to be
005answered. keep all your funding pulled up. >> You can't keep the funding when the kids all get pulled up. >> So, it all goes hand in hand, but this is >> if anybody's got a simple >> simple answer to this, I'd like to know what it is because we're we're we're trying to do the right thing here as part of protecting the girls and >> dad. He has six of my better. So, uh I stand up number one for them before anybody else. And I think I have four granddaughters right now playing sports. You better believe I'm go even further than that even worse. I am off >> I was hesitant to say that I'm not from Riverside very far. My perspective is that when I'm going to work and I ask the Lord help
006me. I want to love him more and I want to love that's my prayer helps me because I want to do what I can and there's a love there. It's wonderful and I hope you love girls or young ladies to make the decision you need. I think you need to make you love them. If you don't love them, then you know you can make any decision. But if you really love young ladies, you got to make the right decision. As far as my perspective, >> I'm sorry. >> We have to talk to you when you leave here. >> I would like to ask him to walked into a shower. You want a man, you know? As of right now, are biological males? >> As of right now, >> yes. >> Yeah. So, so we have
007to we follow the law currently. But I will tell you this and and it's just it's part of this overall complexity that we're kind of thinking through. So in in my experience, we've been able to do some local things that are kind of local control just within the day-to-day operations of the school and the school district. Uh they may not you may not know in policies. Uh for example, we've never had a transgender student where the parents haven't been not a single kid. So the the you talk with parents, we involve the parents. If you're talking like four kids, for example, I think is what we're talking about right now in our school district. Another thing is um every time we've had a situation, we've been able to counsel and work with the families on
008price. So we've had a separate restroom, a separate locker room. Now by law, yes. by law. Yes. Point of clarification. SE bathroom separate locker room for the the transgender student. Okay. And and so we've been able to do that. Now, if there was a case or a situation where a student came forward and their family was very, you know, firm in the law and they said this is going to happen, that's where you lose your your flexibility a little bit from a local control standpoint. Now, I'm not saying I'm right, but one of the practical things I've been about is if you have local control in how you navigate it right now, how can you still maintain that? You know what I mean? Because it's one thing in paper. It's another thing that that is
009practical. You know what I'm saying? >> Well, I know that part I I understand and we're going to take care of that. Okay. That that part I understand. But the the you know, it's the the I don't know. It's just something to consider, right? When you're working with OSBI, they have rule making. You're doing your civil rights reviews. And one downside, and I'm I'm not saying you be scared about it. I'm not saying you don't do the right thing. You don't deal with those consequences, but sometimes you try to do what's right just in your daytoday. And so, you don't work, like I said, I'll repeat myself. You work with that kid. You work with that family counsel. Uh you navigate it, and there has been maybe one case where you had to kind of
010navigate a family that was very knowledgeable about the law and would have gone there if we wouldn't have been able to kind of use our relationships to to figure out the situation. But when we did that, it was, you know, private bathroom staff that bathroom. It was, you know, a private changing area. It was It wasn't because we also respect that if a kid or a family came to us and said, "I want private, you know, as well and I'm not a transgender student. I want it for whatever reason." Uh, so not that I'm not that's not clear, but I'm trying to tell you trying to navigate that at the same time. But that that whole thing came about because of Steve's initiative. to engage us in conversation in small group settings where we where
011we got together and and worked through that whole thing. That this stuff isn't isn't done with disinterested parties making decisions. It's