A subcommittee of the Kalispell school board met on April 8 to begin discussions about potential changes to the district’s discrimination policies, with the question of whether the district should add language specifically protecting LGBT students.
The committee is a combination of the board’s policy and personnel committees, which includes members of the school board, the central office, and representatives from both high schools, the middle school and the Linderman Education Center. It met for the first time last Thursday in what is expected to be a series of meetings regarding School District 5’s policy on gender discrimination.
The district’s current policy states that no student will be discriminated against based on sex, and all students will have equal access to programs, activities, and services.
The proposed additions to this language include “gender identity, sexual orientation, or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity.”
School Board Trustee Jack Fallon said the board discussed the potential changes during its January meeting, but didn’t take action because it wanted to get more information. Instead, it formed the subcommittee to research the issue.
Much of the focus during the first meeting was about other school districts in California and how they were sued over issues stemming from perceived discrimination of transgender students.
A transgender person is someone who has a gender identity – meaning their own, internal sense of gender – different from the one they were assigned at birth.
The question is not whether Kalispell schools have transgender students – they do – but whether the school district should add specific language protecting those students to its policies.
SD5 Superintendent Mark Flatau told the subcommittee that regardless of new language, all students at Kalispell schools would be protected from discrimination.
“Regardless of what words end up on a piece of paper, we are going to ensure that all – all – students will have an equal educational opportunity,” Flatau said.
Fallon said the committee would look at adding the phrases to the policy, but in his mind, transgender issues are part of the “sex” designation in the existing policy.
The school board received information from the Montana School Board Association about the potential policy changes in December, and the Montana High School Association intended to discuss the issue at its annual meeting in January but took it off the agenda.
The April 8 meeting was largely about getting organized and understanding some of the legal issues other schools have faced. The next meeting, scheduled to take place on April 28 at the Kalispell Middle School Library, will delve into the school district’s demographics, and how teachers and administrators have already handled situations regarding gender identity.
There will also be a catalog of the schools’ facilities, like bathrooms and locker rooms, to help the subcommittee determine if there are any potential problem areas that should be discussed.
The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. The subcommittee intends to meet at least three times before making a decision about recommending specific action or inaction to the entire school board.