Obama
to schools: Gender-bend or lose funding, Outraged parents locked out of board meeting
The largest school district in Virginia is
expanding its non-discrimination policy to include gender identity over the
loud objections of parents, and the Obama administration intends to impose the
change on every public school district in the country.
On Thursday, the Fairfax County School Board
voted overwhelmingly to expand it’s non-discrimination policy to accommodate
transgender teachers and students. The vote came after the second of two
boisterous hearings, at which parents overwhelmingly opposed the change.
The amended policy would apply to students as
young as preschool and allow teachers to stay in the classroom if they declare
themselves to be a different gender and conduct themselves accordingly. Many
parents are concerned about privacy for their kids if transgender adults and
students are granted access to restrooms and locker rooms opposite of their
biological gender.
For weeks, board members touted the change as
minor change and one that would ensure all people are treated fairly. Shortly
after the vote, that story changed.
In a statement released after the meeting,
school board chairwoman Tamara Derenak Koufax released a statement which said
the federal government left the board no choice.
“The U.S. Department of Education has told
school districts that transgender students are protected from discrimination
under Title IX and has recently required some school districts including
Alexandria, Va., to amend their policies to expressly include gender identity,”
said Koufax in the statement.
Elizabeth Schultz was the only board member to
oppose the policy change. But she says Koufax is right about the federal
intrusion.
“They’ve threatened that if we do not they will
pull our federal education funds, free and reduced meal money for impoverished
students,” said Schultz to the Washington Examiner.
As a result, this debate may soon be playing out
in every public school district in America.
“What happened in Fairfax is not just about
Fairfax. It is now a national issue,” said Traditional Values Coalition
President Andrea Lafferty, whose children were enrolled in Fairfax schools for
many years.
“President Obama and his Justice Department and
his Department of Education are going to start telling school districts, ‘If
you do not add gender identity, we are going to take away all your federal
funding,” said Lafferty.
But Lafferty says the school board never brought
up the federal mandate until after the vote and its reasons for considering the
policy until this revelation was all over the place.
“There’s been excuse after excuse. That excuse
didn’t come out until they knew thousands and thousands of parents were sending
them emails and calling them,” said Lafferty. “At the meeting two weeks ago,
one of the board members specifically said, ‘Our policy suffices. We don’t have
a problem. We don’t need to do this. But OK, we’ll do it.’”
She says the shifting explanations didn’t end
there.
“As the days went by and more people expressed
outrage, the story changed again. The sponsor said, ‘Let’s pass it and then the
staff can tell us what’s in it, just like with Obamacare,” said Lafferty.
As maddening as the changing rationale is for
Lafferty, she says the board’s treatment of concerned parents was even more
outrageous. At each of the two meetings devoted to the subject, 10 people were
allowed to speak for three minutes apiece.
“The parents that were in the building and the
parents that were locked out were overwhelmingly opposed to this. Anybody that
watched it live or watched it online, could see the arrogance of the school
board speaking down to these parents. Parents are upset. They want to be
involved in the process and they weren’t,” said Lafferty.
Lafferty approached Fairfax County
Superintendent Dr. Karen Garza to complain about a process that stiff-armed
parents away from the decision-making process. Garza disagreed.
“She vehemently disagreed with me. The superintendent
and all the school board except for one or two people think parents’ voices
have been heard and it’s completely untrue,” said Lafferty, who says the
district studied and evaluated whether to change the start of the school day
for many years but limited this issue to just one hour of public input.
For now, she insists this fight is not over in
Fairfax.
“It’s never final. These people were voted in.
They are not lifetime judges and they can be voted out in November. There is a
possibility of legal action. There’s a lot of things that we’re looking at
right now,” said Lafferty, who says every parent concerned about this issue
needs to get ready for a fight in their town.
“This is coming to your neighborhood, whether
you’re in Keokuk, Iowa, Tupelo, Mississippi, or wherever. You need to make sure
your school board pushes back,” said Lafferty.
Source:http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/obama-to-schools-gender-bend-or-lose-funding/
Comments
Comments
Do I hear a motion to
Impeach ? Hello…is anybody there ? Ruining education is not one of the
enumerated powers given by the states to the federal in the US Constitution (as
written).
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA
Tea Party Leader
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