001that so many um and what are they are scared of no predator pedophile or rapist cares about a sign on a door i do as it it could very i do these things a very well sorry i do this as a these things as it could very well mean life or death um now i have an answer to your concern of kids not feeling safe or comfortable using the locker rooms or restrooms going so far as to hold it until they have reached their restroom at home this is a daily expensive experience for transgender people or even those who dare to present opposite to the sex that they were assigned at birth i'm almost done promise um i've been doing this long before i came out as transgender even when i had long hair and
002still identified as a female i was mistaken as a man i constantly weighed whether i wanted to be beaten up or for being seen as a man in a woman's restroom or being a woman caught in a men's restroom as both are very possible voting no on this policy policy eliminates safe access to the bathroom for all kids opposers of this policy say create special bathrooms or categories i see a quick way for bullies to identify the kid that doesn't fit in i see that kids who don't feel safe at home to be who they are become visible victims of physical mental emotional and even sexual assault because they are outed by their peers all because they need to use the restroom it is a basic right no kid should risk an accident utis embarrassment
003or even harm to answer nature's call i ask for the sake of all kids who are like myself pass this bill to set the president a precedent that we too deserve a safe access to basic necessities such as the restroom thank you for your time jacob skelton hello a few more people and we had the last few meetings but that makes it fun i guess thank you so much for your time i'm jacob skelton as you guys already know but at our last meeting i stressed concern regarding the safety of my my children who are part of the school district reviewing the revised policy i still have some of the same concerns and some questions as well so i wanted to bring those to your attention so on the um the actual policy itself under
004the procedure section does the accommodations stated also apply to those that are confident in their identity or those that don't identify as a transgendered person so there needs to be more focus on that group and it seems like this focuses on just one select group however the policy does not address those who may feel unwelcome or unsafe because of the policy so therefore i was had the question i had was will the school make an accommodation so a biological female would not have to use a restroom for a or a locker room for a violet with a biological male when we originally started that was one of the issues that was brought up as some of the facilities if somebody wanted to use their own restroom we're farther away from the other ones i was
005just curious if that would be presented for those that don't feel comfortable because of the policy being enacted as well obviously no harassment or anything should take place at any restroom so it's not an issue of that as just with the policy you're going to have people that are going to feel uncomfortable another question i had how many individual restrooms and individual locker rooms does each school plan to have my fear is if there's a lot of students that want to use those facilities it could create a bottled neck or issues in regards to so many people wanting to use them and being able to serve them well a question i had under the procedure as well can you put a measurable number to consistently asserted gender so i know that this was previously brought
006up but i couldn't remember if it has to be stated like once a year once a month how often could that that change just for consistency specifically the issue has been brought up about the gender fluid situations that would cause a lot of concern for a policy like this and then with those who consider themselves part of this group also be allowed to um uh use the the bathroom of their choice as far as those part of the gender fluid or would they fall under a different category as well so under the confidentiality section i had a question specifically who are the staff who will be allowed to know the identity of the students that identify different than the way they look i don't have an issue with things being confidential i think that is
007important my concern though is if there's just a few people say like one or two people in the entire school that's very hard to make sure things go according to what what we want to have happen so that's putting a lot of risk and responsibility on the person that has that knowledge in addition to whatever job they originally were hired for before this policy was in place the question i had on regards to overnight stays so i'd just like to clarify if i understand correctly per this policy those voting for the policy are in approval that they are allowing a biological male and a biological female to share a bed at a school function i just want to make sure that that was if i understand that correctly as a parent i have a lot
008of issues with this and can't believe that that's even being discussed as a parent i love my kids i don't want to put them in situations that would be unneeded risk for them and then in those situations i don't know how it works right now if there is an adult in the picture as well in regards to those rooms or if it's just the four students or how that looks that would be a way to kind of help make sure things don't happen that shouldn't happen so prior to this proposed policy we did have a practice that i felt was working very well and not perfect and we've made some adjustments based on some of the analysis that we've done so i appreciate the work that you guys have done but having a policy versus
009a practice does that now increase the liability if something does go the way that we don't want it to go so i think it's wise to look at the loudoun county as a case study nobody wants that you guys don't want that i don't want that nobody wants that but just considering the how that policy played out i know the policy came after the the incident but that type of a policy creates this opportunity for somebody that wants to abuse it and we don't want that so i hope and pray that this is not vermilion's future this policy opens that door and so i ask that you please reject it thank you again for your time and the long hours and for everything thanks brandon steenholt hello my name is brandon steenholt will be my
010second time speaking which is said i have to speak again it will also be my last i'm talking to you all and i strongly ask on behalf of so many parents who won't speak on this for various reasons which which some i don't understand when it involves their kids being manipulated and misled but i will be the majority's voice i'm glad that i can do this to glorify god in him only because in the end he is all that matters not your feelings or emotions feelings and emotions lie so i'd like to start with this there are two genders male and female transgender is a lie to society to deceive it's a myth it's not real the facts are there you can't change your gender and you if you think you can your parents are
011failing to raise you first when i spoke i rambled off the top of my head and realized how i how one-sided this is so where's the confusion well it comes from misleading parents who don't care about anyone but themselves and their feelings and their emotions which come from a woke leftist liberal agenda which is huge in our college which is where most of you work go to school or have a lot to do with as you talk about changing stalls and bathrooms you don't think that our taxpayer dollars have to pay for it which we hardworking parents don't want that at all don't ruin our kids because you're brainwashing yours to state kids should get to choose their gender as garbage at that age and any other there is a reason we have age limits
012for voting drinking and serving in the military it's because at that age they have developed maturity at the ages you're saying kids can change their genders when they're not even close to being mature plus it's impossible you are the gender male or female which i've heard it so much tonight in this room that's why i'm so shocked we're even talking about this that it's can change their genders when they are not even close to being mature plus it's impossible okay and so your brain doesn't tell you one day that you can be a girl it or a boy that's a load of crap and was brought up last week and this week is not a fact it is misleading it's a lie a lie that has continued to get stretched we do everything we can
013to lead our kids on godly standards and people tear that down parents try to take god out of the schools but want to put so-called trans and lgbtq into schools and push a woke agenda on kids innocent kids you want to shove down their throats homosexuality and think that is okay or it is okay to change genders why do i stand here and be prideful and shove down your throat that i'm straight and know my gender so why do you and many other business owners and so call so-called parents say and try to promote trans and homosexuality down our throats it needs to stop promoting sin and misleading children is wrong it's not parenting you're not parents you're failing your children and their peoples and other people's children who might look up to you and
014trust you only god and god alone created all in his image you can't change that you are not god and you're believing the enemy satan's lies and he is blinding you and deceiving you with this hate and separation ask yourself as an adult are you glorifying god i'm sorry but i'm going to be truthful about this yes truth hurts but what you need to hear is this and it needs to make you wake up make you uncomfortable because being comfortable is dangerous and leads to destruction i'm so glad i'm a man with a set and a backbone to call it what it is and it's evil sick garbage and so wrong so last i leave it at this instead of funds for this how about we start funding for teachers who know health and can
015teach correctly if you have a penis and balls you're a man and if you have a vagina and boobs you're a female that's that no changing it and no questioning it so back to you are you going to choose off of lying feelings and be selfish or are you going to stand against evil and do what's best for our kids say no to this save our children and protect them like so many parents are trusting you to do thank you so we have been taking comment for about an hour and 40 minutes now um i am going to call for a seven minute recess at which time we will return for 30 more minutes and that will be the end of public comment so we will stand in recess until 9 pm at which point
016we'll have 30 more minutes you now you [Music] thank you for your attention i will call us back into session and again we will put a hard stop to public comment at 9 30 so that the board has an ample time to discuss and take into this end the next speaker on the list is casey tubbs it is casey isn't it i was trying to okay hi my name is casey tubbs and i'm a junior here at usd i'm here to speak to the board as well as to everyone else in this room i'm from southern california and i came to vermillion hoping at hoping that as an as then closeted member of the lgbtqia plus community i would be accepted for who i am especially since south dakota isn't known for being the most
017accepting state in the nation um i am now out and a proud member of the lgbtqia plus community and i found a second home here in vermillion but i was disgusted when i found out of the hateful reactions to the current proposal and to see that trans students are being openly discriminated against by many members of their vermilion community i went to public school a lot more recently than the majority of the people in this room so i thought it was important to bring light to this policy from a student's perspective school should be a safe place space for children regardless of their identity i cannot believe that there are adults in this room who want to prohibit children from being who they are i ask the board and everyone in this room to remember
018that trans rights are humans rights and something as simple as using the bathroom of the gender you identify as should not even be a question trans kids are often bullied and shamed for their identity and voting against this policy will only reinforce the hatred and exclusion that some of them are shown every single day let's show our support for these kids please stop this hatred and misinformation and start treating trans children and trans young adults as the students and human beings that they are if this policy does not pass then vermilion is not the accepting and loving town that i thought it was i support this policy and i urge you to vote in favor thank you [Applause] morgan lorenzen my name is morgan lorenzen and i'm a junior here at the university of south
019dakota i'm also an elementary and special education major let me tell you i am very passionate about teaching and what i'm going to do actually if you guys didn't know my student teaching application is due on december 1st which i'm super excited for earlier this year my plan was to choose vermilion as the district i would teach in however now i couldn't be more opposed as a future educator i will never allow myself to teach student teach or intern in a school district that does not advocate for inclusivity and diversity i will not create my classroom in a school district that does not allow students to identify as they are that is not inclusive and i'd be absolutely ashamed to be in a school district like this if this school district votes against this policy
020then they are aiding in a school climate that does not appreciate diversity and inclusivity i speak for myself and other future educators on this matter ufc has a huge education program the vermilion school district will become low on student teachers and educators if this policy passes because no one wants to work in a school that throws the minority students to the side for their own benefit if dr dr monica iverson who is one of my sped professors has taught me anything in her classes about life and teaching and everything in general it is that i can't advocate for my students if i can't advocate for myself and i can't advocate for myself if i can't advocate for my students this is me standing right here advocating for my school future school district my future classroom
021and my future students thank you [Applause] gerald jacobs i just want to make a few points based upon talking with people in the community and based on a letter that was sent out widely yesterday protesting this this proposed policy one of the things the letter suggested was that there can be no such thing as transgender people because god created people male and female and i would there's a number of snarky comments i can make about that but i'm not going to but i wonder how those same people who believe that deal them with hermaphrodites who are born with the sexual organs of both genders and that's simple fact they exist so did god make a mistake or did somebody else create them i would suggest that they have to think about that a little bit
022the other thing that i i heard presented quite a bit was fear that people are going to fake being transgender in order to be able to go to different bathrooms and different showers and i i think that represents a total misunderstanding of the life of transgender people i was a clinical psychologist for 38 years and i dealt with a lot of people who are transgender and similar kinds of issues but it is not an easy life and the research clearly indicates that it is a very very difficult life for transgender people in general the latest research that i've seen is from the american academy of pediatrics a pretty respectable medical organization who studied thousands of transgender youths and the more than half of the the males reported that they had attempted suicide that's a lot
023about 30 percent of the females had attempted suicide and that's a staggering number and so the day-to-day life of transgender people tends to be very difficult maybe not for every one of them but for a lot of them and i would suggest to you that i've also seen transgender children who were in very loving and accepting families who also attempted suicide and so it's not just the issue of whether or not the parents are accepting the the other point i would make is indeed this will not suddenly make all the stress go away from kids who are transgender or not and i hope that you will also institute policies that address education of children about these issues and make sure that you're instituting policies preventing bullying because bullying does go on it will go on
024and this is not going to end that magically i just in a comment i heard at the break i thought i would mention too i had to travel a great deal in my work and i i've worked in 46 countries and in many of those countries the restrooms are unisex men and women go to the bathroom the same place the same room using the same facilities and they even have attendants that are male and female that don't stick with the same gender restrooms and that's been going on for a very long time without particular problems so it's uh it's not a new idea and i would urge you to pass this and respect the civil rights of our children kelly stone thank you as a mother of two vhs graduates who now can be their
025authentic selves i encourage you to vote yes for the transgender bathrooms both of my children never felt safe to identify differently in our school district k through 12. as their mother and a dedicated special education teacher in our district this was a difficult role for me to navigate one of my children was suicidal with the amount of stress depression and anxiety that i'd that identifying differently has caused them it is not an easy path in our society especially in a small town in south dakota if we can help make all our students feel safe being our their authentic selves imagine the difference it would make in their lives their education and their future careers when allowing students to use a bathroom that they identify with a powerful message would be sent to them from our
026district one of my goals has always been to make a difference in the lives of my students one of acceptance and understanding regardless of your race color creed religion natural origin gender disability ancestry sexual orientation gender identity our age thank you [Applause] davida russell hello my name is davida my pronouns are she her and i am going to be brief today that's a thing all right so i have a child in our district and the gender equity and access policy has my full support our children have suffered long enough under the current discriminatory practices so it's time to vote yes and give all students of vermilion the basic level of human rights and decency and respect they deserve cindy game hi my name is cindy game i raise four children in this district and i
027have two grandchildren in the district and i'm keeping this simple i've been watching the entirety of the school board meetings online related to this issue at least seven hours worth the basic policy that is being adopted is one that focuses on protection of all students the board has heard the public's opposition with mostly its concern for safety and has listened and acted in a manner that can only be described exemplary i've been pleased as they obviously care about our children with this issue of safety and have made many changes to the original document to address those concerns the current situation does not necessarily respect privacy whether transgender or not and changes will be made with the passing of this policy that has been discussed thoroughly as far as i can tell the other point i'd
028like to make is that transgender students tend to be very sensitive about this life they've entered they are no more deviant than any other individual in society they simply want their privacy as all of us do this policy is giving everyone a better situation if your problem is the existence of trans and transgender individuals then that is a whole other topic and the school board is not here to address that specific issue the board has listened to the people and is adequately addressing the safety concerns that so many have had i stand by the policy with its recent changes thank you [Applause] isabel and i apologize i can't make out the last name uh hello my name is isabelle young pardon shebe i want to say that i am i graduated from vermillion in 2019
029so we love the tanagers and i'm also a current usd student so also go yotes um and as someone who has come from this community i understand the lengths that the school board and the school district has gone to to help support all of our families and i really appreciate all of the work you guys have put in and i want to stand here in support of this bill as another step forward to continuing to help support our families and our students um especially those students that don't feel like they have a space where they can be safe or where they feel like they're belonged or where they feel like they're not their education matters um i also would like to address a few of the claims made by um parents um so some people
030claim that children aren't like they're vulnerable and they can't understand all these information but i've found that children are always the most accepting which we've heard from other people here so i don't need to go super in depth in it and i also want to commend all the people who spoke too um but i think what causes that confusion is when we force children to look at things through such a black and white way but clearly life has shown that it is more dynamic than that um i also want to talk about the fact that um when it comes to overnight stays that's another thing i wanted to talk about um i think we're ignoring the fact that if a trans person is in a room filled with other cisgender people they're going to interact
031with them just as the other cisgender people do you know because they're students too and if if you assume that just because a penis and a vagina or whatever are getting into a bed together that sexual relations are going to happen that's on you that's not on trans people that's not on lgbt people we are simply just existing and want to be a part of things just like everyone else and it's also coming from an incredibly heterosexual standpoint considering the fact that it doesn't even come to you i realize that this is going to sound bad um but it doesn't even come to your mind that if two women or two men are in a bed that's something sexually gonna happen but also consider you're on a school trip there are two other people in
032that room they are not gonna let you have sex in that room i also know um that there have been a lot of concerns about sports um and i don't have all of the facts on me but a lot of students that do participate in sports um do things like puberty blockers and hormones that make it so playing with their assigned gender isn't always fair either um and i'm not here to come up with like solutions for that like love y'all um but at the end of the day what it really comes to is that people are coming here from their own um bias that comes from i'm not trying to make claims about religion either i i appreciate all of your guys's religions and i appreciate the beauty that comes from religions but i
033think we also have to respect um the separation of church and state as well um and that these bills should not be motivated by religious bias and persecution thank you [Applause] becky sanderson hi my name is becky sanderson i um have three kids my oldest is a preschooler um i honestly wasn't even sure that i wanted to come when i got home my husband's like do you want to go to school board meeting tonight um and i i didn't actually know that i did um he's much better at talking than i am and i know that he has spoken before and it's much easier for me to just let him do that um but as i was holding my four month old and looking at her i realized that if if these were my kids
034and my kids needed somebody to stand up there that i would hope that someone would be up here for them too so um i'm here i'm in full support of this policy and i hope that you vote yes [Applause] so we have 11 minutes of public comment if there is anyone who would choose to speak please approach the podium state your name actually if you are willing form a line and we'll get as many of you as we can hi my name is zadia abbott i was raised here i went to elementary school here i went to middle school here and i graduated with the class of 2020 from vermillion high school and i can say that i know what it's like to have the vermilion school district discriminate against you in a way that
035does not benefit your education i know what it's like to stand in a room with students and teachers and have those same teachers hear people take my name which is previously stated is zaydia and have have them hear them say have students say that my name is slavia or that and have the teachers in that room accept that as something that could happen because it does not change their educational policies doesn't change their lessons plans how i feel doesn't change your lesson plan but the fact that i should have the people have to stand up here and ask the community to respect the safety and the well-being of their students so that they can grow and be educated in a way that makes it so they are set up for better futures is ridiculous it
036is your job to make sure that not only the students in those buildings are safe but that they feel like they are listened to they feel like they have every single resource to set themselves up for success they do not need to explain their identity to you and they just need to pee so let them be sorry i have a cold so if you can't hear me you know make sure you state your name i'm anna bottasini i graduated last year from vermillion high school i went from kindergarten all the way up to senior year all through vermilion school district and to be honest i don't think anyone would care if a trans student walked into a bathroom to pee as someone else stated nobody looks around and is like hmm oh i see genitalia
037no you're in a bathroom you're there to pee and get to class there's five minute breaks you don't have time for that also to say that there's only two sexes as someone already previously mentioned denies intersex which is just a biological fact um along with the fact that gender has been proven to also be scientifically involved scientific american wrote an article titled stuff using phony science to justify transphobia which pretty some much sums it up so by the time we're in high school and middle school we also all know what people look like when they're nude pretty much we know that people don't have the same genitals and that's just normal so if we're in the locker room nobody's gonna freak out if all of a sudden they see something also we aren't looking at
038each other in the locker rooms or nor wouldn't we share rooms on class trips i don't know where that idea came from but we're mostly just chilling there i don't know um the loss of innocence is another thing i was kind of talking about with the we already know about human anatomy it's not a shocker or anything a big point i want to make is that a lot of people have come up here and mentioned religious things and you're entitled to your religion but that has no place in any school board as there is separation between church and state unless you're at a private school so there is one that mentioned basically that transgender homosexuals but we are currently not having issues with homosexuals already in there i went to school there for ages i
039was in the theater department there are a lot of homosexuals there um when and we made it to state several times spent hotel rooms with them no problem as for assaults maybe we should teach our children not to assault others more than focus on those who are being assaulted don't punish trans students for what cis students do to take advantage of as a sexual assault survivor i do not fear trans students in the bathroom i fear people who see trans students as rapists because that is not true and it is just denying the facts if you can show me some evidence that says that the majority of them are going and raping people in the bathroom be my guest but i have yet to find anything to prove that also i just want to finish
040off by saying if all human lives have value which most of us believe then denying trans students fair treatment which we know reduces their suicide rates is in fact openly being against valuing human life thank you hi i'm carol app and i want to thank mr johnson we're dealing that with the sports issue i have a daughter that rang on long distance from 3000 meters all the way to a half marathon and the majority time ran with the guys because in the interest of time you ran them together she never would have won and she was a five-time all-american in college so there is a difference whether you have gender blockers or not so when it comes to sports there is a difference that needs to be dealt with and when i came to the
041first very first meeting it was all about being free to pee and why should that matter where you pee and now it's overnight accommodations and it's sports and it's not letting the parents know what the child is deciding in school is that really the route you want to take take the responsibility of the parents away from their children i'm a parent of three of the three cutest grandchildren in the world hands down and i would i would ask you do you want to take that responsibility away from me as a parent you never stop being a parent and for my son and his wife from their children that is their job not yours to keep it from them and their job to help their child deal with that and hormones rage no matter what from
042junior high on i remember junior high it's been a while but i remember it i remember high school and putting mixed sexes in a room whether they're transgender or not it doesn't matter that's opening a pandora's box and then look at i've heard about all that you want to transgender prevent depression and suicide how many people have transgender still commit suicide want a transgender back because that's not the answer to their problem they transgender because they thought it would be the issues they weren't given counseling ahead of time they weren't given all the options they weren't told you're going to have healthy body parts removed you're going to be given chemicals and you're going to be sterile and then when they get transgendered they want to go back has anyone done a study on that
043and looked at the facts of that you want to make sure these young people are given all the facts given all the opportunities everyone is loved everyone is respected and that includes the parents who are ultimately responsible for the education and the welfare of their children not you thank you [Applause] jennifer phelan um i want to thank the board for your work putting this policy together i am in support of the policies passage and i strongly feel that this policy shows students and families that the vermillion school district stands and is ready to do the work in supporting all of our students it stands behind the notice of non-discrimination that's in the policy manual a no vote tells all students that their self-determination and defining their identity is not supported by the district there are
044transgender students in the district there are transgender students in the district that parents administrators and board members don't know yet there are transgender and non-binary students in the district who have not told anyone yet there are transgender and non-binary students who don't even know who they are yet and by passing this policy it's a way to stand with these students it indicates to it indicates that the district they're in not only says it's inclusive that there's substance behind that assertion and if students come out or they need support the school is a safe place to do it the national education association the national association of elementary school principals the national association of secondary school principals the american school counselor association the national national association of school psychologists all support the policy we're talking about actually
045the policy that is written is very similar to the one that is from the nea from what i've read from reading it and looking at our policy just as we turn to resources for best practices on curriculum and other risk aspects of the district this topic should be like no dif no other we go to the resources we go to best practices this policy supports all vermillion school districts present and future in their self-determination and knowing who they are and being safe being themselves while they're in school thank you so much for your efforts on this policy [Applause] hi i'm joe vidal mobri i'm in support of this policy because speaking as someone who came out of the closet in 2007 who was to my classmates who was outed by my high school principal to
046my mother which resulted in me being kicked out of my house moving into uh the house of the person who sexually assaulted me having to spend the last two years of high school into the house by you guys voting now on a policy like this it's telling lgbt youth that you don't care about them that the school system that should be there to support them should be there to make sure that they can grow up in a sheltered life won't have that so i would urge you to vote yes on this because you don't know what your students home lives might be like whereas when i told my high school principal that if she allowed me that what happened what happened and i had to deal with my mom got my lifestyle disgusting so please
047vote yes because your students lives matters and you don't know what's going on at their homes [Applause] so i before you begin i see four people in line can i ask you to be extremely brief so that we can get through those four the board can then enter discussion good evening and thank you for your time my name is aaron vlasman i'm a senior at the university of south dakota a registered voter here in clay county and i'm strongly in favor of the policy at discussion i won't do any of the throat clearing about caring for all students in the district because i believe that that should be inherent to everyone at this meeting i don't need to prove that to you all while i am originally from watertown my family has a deep history
048here my father was raised here my uncle raised three teenagers here and my father and his brother both went to jolly elementary school when we discussed the gender equity policy and the rights of transgender students where it's writ large it's important we discuss how we got these bathroom rules in the first place and what efforts this board is trying to solve first terry cogan a law professor at the university of utah notes that initial gender segregation came from a wave of public policy designed to provide women with a safe space which included things like separate spaces and libraries separate train cars and separate bathrooms building codes that were largely a product of this time adopted this same segregation and bathroom policies are the only societal holdover of this issue this was not founded in a
049societal effort to ensure equality it was quite literally thrown into building codes and we have defaulted on that chance decision ever since it is in no way a radical idea from for us to depart from those ideas but second and most importantly safety in the status quo is compromised every single day we don't move forward on this legislation trans students are not the people committing violence they are the target of violence and research backs this up a study done in 2017 by the williams institute found that 70 of trans people reported experiencing denial of access verbal harassment and even physical assault only in an attempt to use the restroom protecting the legal rights of transgender people in the school district is the first of many steps toward ending this cycle of violence and if you
050care about the children in our community then you need to care about transgender kids concerns around this bill have largely revolved around the safety and innocence of cisgender students in the district irregardless of the fact that these are children we're talking about if there is a real fear that our public schools will be infiltrated with predators then it's time we become tougher on sex education standards and school security if you value the innocence of children then you should vote to preserve the innocence of trans students as well finally i care deeply about this community the love vermillion has shown myself and all of its permanent and semi-permanent residents each each year is nothing short of admirable and inspiring as the school board it is your job to pass that same love on to the students
051in this school district it may not seem like a lot to each of you but approving this policy is an act of love and kindness your vote is an opportunity to tell students that they are loved that they are cared for and that they are visible something each one of you chose to pursue when you ran for the when you ran for election for the school board i ask you to remember that goal and please vote yes in favor of this bill [Applause] i have never speaking at one of you spoken at one of these things before so bear with me to keep it quick my name is ryan halligan i am a student here at usd and there is one specific thing i am here to talk about i in support of this policy
052fully i spent 13 years of my life wrestling boys i was born a girl i identify as a female now i thrived i gained leadership skills i gained respect i gained you know physical you know i got stronger i got faster there was never a point in my life where being born a girl in a male sport was bad for me except for when the parents were bad for me all i ask is that especially when considering these sports things and this policy as a whole you look at your students as individuals and let them participate and behave and identify with what makes them happy and i guarantee you there'll be a lot of positive change [Applause] hey everybody sarah lampert thanks for extending the time so we can close up the comments i'm a
053resident of vermilion uh history and gender studies faculty at usd and committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive educational culture here in vermilion i'm speaking as a private citizen but my perspective is shaped by my professional expertise and my experience i want to thank you for drafting this policy as i have shared in other contexts i believe strongly that vermilion school district needs to follow best practices nationwide and regionally by adopting an affirmative and inclusive policy the safety and inclusion of all of our students particularly our most vulnerable students should be our priority in my 10 years as a professor at usd and elsewhere trans students who have taken my classes and shared their experiences with me testified to the importance of an affirming inclusive educational environment as a historian i am well aware and
054well versed in a long history of gender diversity um and the diversity of societies right what kind of society do we want to be one that embraces and supports transgender folks or one that tries to exclude and marginalize them many of the fears voiced by opponents of such a policy are not based in reality but based on fear and ignorance or isolated cases that do not meet the very parameters of our policy so much opposition to inclusive transgender qualities are based on stigmatized stereotype rather than sound research and the experiences of trans students the actual evidence is clear that inclusive policies make our school safer for trans students and do not endanger non-trans or cis students there is no transgender issue here transgender children are not the problem we have an inclusivity issue and fortunately
055we are in a position to support and pass an inclusive policy and i thank you for doing so [Applause] so thank you for the time my name is megan jarco so as katherine burkland already said i hope that you all and i'm sure that you have done your research and based on evidence and you've made your decision on it i would just like to officially state my position on this so as a parent of two children in the district i hope that my children will always feel safe and like they belong when they're at school please vote yes on this bill [Applause] thank you i will now open the florida board discussion on the policy as its current draft form i think there are a couple of questions that have been raised throughout the throughout
056the comments today and at previous meetings that might be might be worth addressing one is that there is absolutely still the ability for any student that wants additional privacy or does not feel comfortable in the gendered bathroom options to have the individual bathroom and to have access to that there have been concerns about you know the the inconvenience of that to those students that's the same inconvenience that that we're currently asking our trans students to endure but this is one that's not based on identity but based on their choice about where it is that they would feel most comfortable there's also been some questions about how we think about gender fluid and non-binary students which are a distinct difference within within this subset of how we think about transgender students and gender identity in a
057world that is binary it is a reality that our non-binary and our gender fluid students have to out themselves to really exist in the world as their true selves they don't really have the option of passing with the rest of their friends and protecting that privacy because if you say you're non-binary that you know in order to exist as a non-binary student in a very binary world that's a very different thing than having a transgender girl that is known to all of her classmates as a girl or a transgender boy who is known to all of his classmates as a boy this policy is primarily designed with those latter students in mind in those conversations with school officials those non-binary students that they're they're going to most likely be comfortable in either the bathroom that
058aligns with the gender i signed at birth or in one of those separate facilities that's a different conversation than sort of thinking it's we're not creating a opportunity for people to make up their minds every day and go back and forth and switch back and forth the policy clearly states this needs to be a consistently insistently a sort of asserted gender and so i trust our administrators i trust our principals to have those conversations with families and develop options with those families that make the most sense for where that child is and for what's going to be the safest for them in that situation i also have a i have kids in our district i have a daughter in high school who's also an athlete i care very much about her safety i wouldn't be
059in support of a policy that i felt like would threaten her safety there have been lots of people who've asked about what you should tell your children in regards to these changes and i would say that we should tell them the same thing that we've always said when you go to the bathroom you go to the bathroom when you're done you wash your hands and then you get out of the bathroom you don't look over the stall or under the stall because that's an invasion of somebody else's privacy nobody should be looking over the stall or under stall at you because that's an invasion of your privacy and if someone does you should tell somebody and that pretty much covers what we need to cover and i don't know that that that doesn't change because
060of this policy changing i appreciate so much all of the thoughtful comments by both supporters and opponents of this policy i think that your input has made this policy better from the beginning and i think that you know we're going to have facility changes they're going to make a lot of students feel safer but i hope that you will continue to ask questions and that we will continue to do our best to try to answer those questions because i think those questions are legitimate and i hope that over the last several meetings that we've had about this we've done our part to address those as they've come up other comments board members questions the folks have reached out to me and their biggest concerns are one not necessarily restrooms and where people go to the
061bathroom but those that have talked about the parent confidentiality or the parents not knowing and i get it some households won't so i don't have an answer but i want to bring it up maybe discuss that and also a lot of people reach out have a lot of concerns issues with that overnight accommodation and have we really thought it through so see if other board members want to comment i think it's possible if it's possible that maybe scratching and having more discussion on the overnight accommodations potentially when we do talk about the locker rooms give some more feedback on the overnight accommodations as well as com the procedure i still think that there's a way we can add in that communication among i think it was one of our first drafts that we had regarding
062um including the family as being key i think that would be just another word that might help people feel more comfortable perhaps communication among the students school and family is key i think wasn't that one of our first drafts carol we included that it was key we didn't include that it was required right but we took out family before i guess i guess i see i would guess that most situations are going to include the parent i anticipate that most of the conversations that would happen between a counselor or an administrator and a student about one of the situations that we're addressing here is also going to include the parent but there may be a situation like has been described where there is not support for the student and in that case appearance would not
063be required i feel that that is an important part of our policy and it's my understanding that that is the legal advice as well of keeping in our policy the question is that true legally is that what we you know that where we gave the example and i get both sides so these restrooms but is the question that if a student identifies with a different group and we don't tell the parent and they came to you damon or others we said no we would not tell the parent because that's what a lot of concern is on that parent confidentiality or parent right where we make them sign to go on trips but not this yeah thanks for for the question since last meeting we we did a little more checking with this and you know
064we received a lot of feedback of course from our community so it gave us an opportunity to look at some of the requirements with ferpa and what parents are entitled to what's an educational record brent may have has some more to to add to this but opinions differ on this situation depending on who you talk to i spoke to two attorneys uh this week who said absolutely it is allowable to share with parents they are not you're not obligated to share information that is deemed at school but you have the opportunity to you would be in no violation to do so so that is really one of the things that we heard loud and clear at last week's meeting was the concern of confidentiality from parents and i think part of the draft policy may
065have been misunderstood when we talked about confidentiality the confidentiality of the student's status is what is most at stake here we want to make sure the kids that are involved are not outed by staff members or other students in the building communicating those without those students wishes it wasn't an intent to keep anything from parents so parents were never meant to be out of the loop with that discussion so i think that the board would have the latitude to ask us to or make it a practice that if we're asked as part of our policy our practice with this that we would in fact work with parents on this issue now we do that with different issues this day as just everyday business and school if it's a safety risk for a student if it's
066some of the examples we heard in our in our testimony today then we would have to weigh that conversation and decide if we would be willing to talk to a family about an issue that might bring a student at risk but like carol mentioned all of the situations that we've faced in the last four or five years on this topic the families have been highly engaged and always been involved so it would be a very rare situation that a student might come to us in confidence and ask us not to tell a parent at which time we would have to weigh that as as a district and say based on the student's fear for being ousted at home or physical violence or something like that we'd have to consider that but as a practice it
067would be something that we could and should inform parents of i believe damon some something up quite well however you are under no obligation to inform the parents of those conversations unless they are memorialized in an educational record for instance a child requests a name change an infinite campus a parent calls up and says hey i'd like to know about my child you you're absolutely required to disclose that information however as damon outlined there just having a conversation with damon or any other administrators or staff you know i'd like to keep this between us because i'm worried if i go home i might get abused or any other safety concerns so i think it'd be a significant disservice if you have a bright line either way bright line of that we're not going to tell
068parents about the child status or we absolutely are going to inform parents of the child status so as a practice i would recommend just taking it on a case-by-case basis to properly address each situation i'd agree that it's important that it's important that we have the discretion that the administrators have the discretion to be able to deal with the variety of risks that might be entailed there that are hard for us to foresee for every possible student and so i think we have the expectation that the vast majority of cases parents are going to be advocates for their kids and they're going to be a part of that conversation and that's certainly been the instance in all of the cases that we know about but having the the ability in a situation in which that
069child might be put at harm to not share that information i think is is consistent with how we think about the the safety and the resources we offer our students on a whole variety of other fronts when it comes to the things that we might know about them at school that their parents might not know in terms of the overnight stays i feel like we did a good job in our last meeting of talking about how we can accommodate parent preferences for their students to avoid the situation if that's really important to them i think that our policy that allows students to identify who they want to room with these are the same kids that they've had sleepovers with at their houses they're the same kids that they've done other things with that that gives
070the flexibility for students for parents who are really concerned about this issue to um to navigate that in a way that makes sense and it gives the trans students an ability to navigate that in a way that makes them feel safe and comfortable too so i don't see a reason to wait on that i think that the reason we're waiting on the locker rooms and the showers is a very specific revision to facilities and so it's it's not because we haven't had adequate time to consider that it's that we're waiting on construction changes and so i wouldn't want to lump the overnight stays in with that because that's not something that we're waiting on facility changes to change it's something i think we can move forward with at this time so i i'm going to
071comment on both of these um i and i mentioned last time that i had some reluctance about parental rights i certainly understand and know that there are instances where it is in the student's best interest to keep that from the parent however i think that creates a very dangerous circumstance for the student and i do think we could create a policy where i mean we i believe i don't that when the parent is supportive of this identity it will be a the best possible scenario when both the parent and the district are supportive if the parent is not supportive then i i do have some concern that if we are we could be putting that student in more danger because i think it becomes harder and harder to demonstrate that consistent insistent persistent identity if
072they are having to change back and forth i don't know exactly what the solution is and i think if there's a case where we're we suspect or fear abuse then we should be involving other professionals um to make that and so i i guess i would like to see this absolutely go through with parental consent we already know south dakota high school activities association participation procedure form that you have to fill out which south dakota high school activities already allows transgender students to participate in the sport that confirms their identity but it does require a parental signature to do that and so in that instance we would have to to comply with that part we would have to allow it so i guess i would like to see us discuss that and maybe come up
073with some way to find a way to create that exception so that it is truly an exception in that rare instance where the student is in danger the the overnight accommodation my concern there is really with our i think appropriate level of trying to ensure confidentiality and i i have pondered how do we create this environment where we don't run the risk of outing a student who doesn't want to be outed and that's even true if they have a room by themselves it starts to raise those questions so this is one where i ultimately really hope we get there i'm just trying to figure out the procedure to get there so it's really those two issues for me i think the first one is easily solvable the second one i'm going to continue to hear
074discussion despite the comments you know about our minds being made up and i think they're always leaning one way or another but it's when you hear the discussion of how can we do it that it really ultimately pushes me in one way or the other i think i'll just piggy back to what shane had talked about earlier i think she she hit it right on the head we had brought up concerns last meeting about students underneath the broad umbrella of transgender and it could be binary it could be fluid and i'm sure there's a lot of other pieces to that puzzle but i think our potential policy at this point does address that it acts that asks that you have to persistently consistently and insistently identify the the identity or the gender that you identify
075with so in that terms a student who might be in the position of binary or fluid that is is having some of these other concerns would not be eligible for this policy they haven't they haven't met the first tenant of the policy which is that you have to have an affirmed identity at this point in my view the the board would we would we would treat that as uh when we're looking at accepting this uh student's request for the restroom change or this family's request that they they wouldn't have the the first tenant down which is the fact that they aren't consistent if i understand some of those things correctly a binary or a fluid student could be trying to make these decisions uh different ways at different times so i think that we need
076to realize that this particular policy deals specifically with the persistent insistent and consistent identity that the students identify with and probably have the support of the families 99 of the time that's been our our experience and if the policy works as intended nobody else in the district knows that it's even happened and that's not a meant to be under the table or confidential it's just like a lot of other business that happens in schools which if we have a student who has aids or has some other situation in their life the rest of the students and the staff aren't necessarily entitled to know those things for the health and well-being of the student we can make these things happen and make them successful for all students so i'm i am confident that the policy as
077it's written can identifies or or takes care of the issue of the questions raised at last month or last week's meeting with gender fluid students or students that might be binary so i think that we've addressed that in the policy my concern would be continue with what we've talked about with overnight accommodations over the last week we've taken numerous questions on how would that look and i do agree that at this point i prefer we have more time to deal with that i don't know what the end result could be but right now again we don't have any students in that particular situation that we need to make that decision tonight because we don't have any need for those accommodations coming up in the near future that's not to say that we don't need to
078address the issue but we need to work on finding some solutions that would make people comfortable does that include more private rooms does it allow kids to pick their roommates what happens if kids want to pick their roommate but parents don't don't agree with the choices of the child you know those are all things that uh we we need to really grapple with before we pass that part of the policy so that's my thoughts on those two issues i'd like to follow up quickly on your comment doug i would just like to advise that i have serious reservations about the district outing individuals with no legal obligation to do so and so i realize you'd like to create a policy and then create an exception i think it would be better dressed as a practice
079as opposed to an explicit policy can i ask a question of the policy committee my understanding and there have been a lot of parent questions about this too about the expansion of this policy and how it went from originally being about bathrooms to being a more broad policy and the way in which that happened was twofold my understanding is one it's through legal counsel and understanding what would be what would be a policy that would stand up legally given the current decisions and guidance that we have and second was seeing what the policies looked like in other places and so looking at iowa looking at lamar's looking at other school districts that have had a similar policy in place for a long time and account found success with it and this is where the bulk
080of our language has come from and so that's where it expanded to make sure that we were meeting our legal requirements for being non-discriminatory and also adopting best practices that that could be identified is there any do you have any recollection or memory of how how they dealt with the overnight stay since i presume that that's where it came from or is that something that we could reach out to find out more exactly what what the practice looked like to go along with that policy to make sure that it was something that parents felt comfortable with we didn't didn't do an extensive um i have a lot of conversations with with those folks namely because they haven't experience that as well they've had the policy the the schools that we've talked to in iowa particularly
081have had those policies for a number of years uh but they didn't have situations where they had state qualifying teams or uh oral interp or something where that combination came together so i'm sure if we found enough schools we'd eventually find somebody who's had that but the particular schools that we were surveying and talking to across the borders had the inclusive policy but have never had to exercise it um and that's similar through their through all of their policies it's a k-12 policy but they haven't experienced that at the elementary level they've experienced at the high school level so even though they have policies that are k-12 uh they have different experiences than we're having in our district but that i appreciate that shane that's kind of what my point was is there's go going
082to be somebody who can advise us on that and would that be the fact that they added more rooms or the fact that kids got to pick their partners uh what did that look like to make that transition easier i would like to be able to find some solutions to that if we were given that time in those conversations that you had with districts in iowa where they've had these policies for 10 years is am i remembering correctly that you did not have any conversations about problems they had issues they had uh anticipated problems didn't come to fruition am i remembering that correctly yes yes uh the the groups that i had talked to they had many of the same concerns that we're addressing tonight and that they're public addressed with them as well and
083thankfully they haven't experienced the adverse reactions that that they were anticipating so they've had they've had i guess a good experience with that up to this point and the language of the iowa policies as far as the overnight accommodations is the same as the language that we have put into our policy you're correct yes and we don't have we don't have any known instances in the next couple of months of a case where this is going to be tested before we have the chance to work that out so we don't have any current students who are going to a state championship who have identified as transgender that we know are going to test this out before we can seek that guidance correct no known you know participants at this point that we would be concerned
084with thank you so my feeling would be that if if it sounds like it's the the practice that needs to be sort of how does this what does this look like when it's implemented when it comes to overnight stays not the policy itself that needs to be figured out and so given that we have some time to do that and there aren't any current situations i would still feel comfortable passing the policy as written and then knowing we need to figure out exactly what that piece looks like in implementation in a way that um addresses parent concerns that seems reasonable to me as well what is legal counsel saying that would you rather have a practice laid out versus a policy first or any comment because if something came up next week what would we
085do if we still have to hurry up and i'm gonna leave that up to the board we just heard from superintendent alvey that there are no known instances in which uh that's gonna come into play doug is a point of order is there a way to have a separate vote on that piece yeah i actually pondered this i mean only in the i couldn't come up with one to be honest i thought about in terms of the amendment process but the first and second reading doesn't require formal motion and vote on amendment process um so i mean there isn't i mean outside of the the straw poll approach and i i.e respect and so i'm now sharing my opinion i i respect exactly what you said shane i think we're thinking the same thing i'm
086thinking of it from the side of does it need if we're not dealing with it does it need to be included particularly if it's inclusion is going to hold this up that's that's the other thing i mean i think ultimately we have to address it and that was why i know policy committee put it in here because it the idea was to to deal with everything at once rather than piecemealing this out over nine months or something like that i was just thinking damon i think we do have a trip coming to disney don't we for sure choir but that i think is february march yeah spring spring that yeah correct we also have to address what i think is the other issue of how comfortable are we or where are we on the parental
087involvement language because right now it's it's vague at best i'm not sure doug if you need to to clarify that if the expectation is that administrators exercise the same candor they do and every other decision that we deal with on a day-to-day basis that if students come to us with this concern we will be sharing it with parents absent of physical or safety concern for the student just like we would if they a child came to us with an abuse allegation if they came to us with their concerns that they've experimented with drugs or alcohol you can't tell my mom and dad that because i'm going to be in trouble there's some candor that's being expressed there between student and and counselor or principal but for the large part we're working with parents to make
088sure that they're informed of their child their minor children and what's happening with them at school and i think that's important so absent that the board tells us that you cannot do that our administrators are trained to do that because we are constantly working trying to improve transparency to parents make sure they understand what's happening at school absent a physical safety concern for the child of course so that's that that needs to be vetted out in tonight's discussion so you do not think i i i'm asking you to speak a little bit on behalf of other administrators but at least for yourself you feel comfortable engaging that practice with the wording that's here because we do this every day already this is really no different than the the issues that we face in our buildings
089every single day with kids and our administrators are professionals are trained and they've got uh expertise in dealing with sensitive issues and good judgment to call in the professionals if necessary to take it to the next level if there's concerns of abuse or any kind of other safety concern for the kids so in my eyes this is just another hand partnership with the parents so i think it should be there i don't think it needs to be written in draft form we don't do that for any other case in our district the principals just do this day-to-day question on a practice statement if if a child came to you and they're not to the counselor they're under 18 and wanted to in the school district identify with the gender they want how would we handle
090that well the very first one of the very first tenants of your thing is that the student has to have a persistent and consistent insistent uh documented identi identity so if this student is really going to have to be able to demonstrate that they're going to have to provide some documentation as part of this process so it won't go to the restrooms being open to students until we've gotten to that phase once again we've got parent involvement yeah so if i ask for documentation or the principal would ask for documentation they would have that's part of this tenant of getting as part of the request for this this identity to use the restroom for which they have their assertive identity so in my view that they have to have that part of it has to
091be taken care of with family or their physician or whatever documentation that they're using so i don't think that that really comes into play unless a student is trying to not communicate this concern with their parents at which time we'd have to weigh that if that's a safety concern for the student thoughts on that in terms of comfort with practice or comfort with more with stronger language and parental involvement so are we saying that as the policy is written we are accepting the discretion of the administrator or the counselor or whomever the school representative we're accepting their discretion with regard to communication with the parent and we're accepting their discretion with regard to making sure that the accommodations for overnight trips are reasonable if you're asking me i i think that the the overnight accommodations
092is is is not at play if in my view that that's that's not part of this discussion tonight it's it's too far of a reach for us to accomplish tonight unless you plan to be here tomorrow morning at nine when the next meeting is supposed to take place that's that's a big big topic it's a big ask of the people out here to take take and do that tonight my view is that that gets removed from the policy and we we deal with that down the road if you want to pass a policy on restrooms tonight the restroom policy in my view is we will inform parents and we will get parents to be partners in this unless the safety of the child is at stake at which time we would handle it with a
093different um stroke and that um again the the transgender student who is meets the qualifications of your policy would be gained uh given access to the bathroom which they identify sports is all on its own that's that's the state issue we've had five students in this entire state of south dakota since 2013 it is not a a big player in your policy tonight your big player is the restroom and do you feel like the restrooms are adequately uh could facilitate the needs of the students within the district that ask for it if so you've got a couple pieces of policy documentation from the parent and that we will involve parents uh in the discussion and then um making sure that they've gone through the application process or the documentation process and once that's accounted for
094then discretely that child is is getting to use the restroom for which they identify and again if this is handled correctly you guys don't even know about it happening and the folks out here don't know what's happening because we've got students and parents and faculty working together to discreetly handle these students needs behind the scenes and again that's not to hide anything it's to follow the law and to make sure that we are meeting the needs of all the students in in the district i think i think if we i feel like i'm in the situation of like deciding which rights we will discriminate on and versus which ones we want at this meeting right and sort of like what are we willing to cut in order to to get a vote on ensuring that
095they have access to some of the things that they should have rights for based on our non-discrimination policy versus not others so that part makes me feel um uncomfortable i think that as you know until we address the entirety of the original draft which includes locker rooms and showers and overnight stays we are still we are still in a situation where we are not fully biting by our non-discriminatory policy and so i think that it's on us to continue that work to make sure that that gets done we have very specific reasons why we're not doing that on the facilities to make sure that we're able to update those facilities to everybody's comfort level in the meantime if it is the will of the board to wait on the overnight stays to figure out the
096logistics of that i think that i can be okay with that but i still feel like we need to recognize that we are still discriminating on the basis of gender identity by not providing equal access in the meantime and so we have to be working very diligently toward bringing the entirety of the policy up to date does that mean you want to vote on the whole policy that's written or well i mean ultimately it's a second reading so there is that vote what we can do in a second reading is make these changes to remove things and i you know i i understand exactly what you're saying shane i unders i also i don't want to hold up any of this because we're still working out a detail that