MLSD examines transgender requirements

MOSES LAKE — The first reading of a policy designed to address possible discrimination against transgender students generated discussion and a request for additional information at the Thursday meeting of the Moses Lake School Board.

Board members Alana DeGooyer and Paul Hill asked district Superintendent Monte Sabin to research the district’s existing non-discrimination policies and see if state requirements could be met by amending what the district already has, or if a separate policy is needed.

Sabin said the policy had been discussed in June and July 2021, but the board had not taken action at that time.

“This was a pretty heated discussion back in June and July,” Hill said. “It was requested at the time by one of the board members of the superintendent and the assistant superintendent to review (the existing discrimination policy) and include what needed to be (included) to meet that bare minimum (requirement) without doing a whole (new) policy. I would assume that was not done.”

Hill said the district’s existing non-discrimination policies include transgender students. Board chair Kevin Fuhr asked if revising the existing non-discrimination policy would satisfy state law.

“We need to meet the minimum requirements of the law; we need to be clear. I haven’t reviewed that to see how they would work together,” Sabin said.

Freeman said that in her opinion existing policies address most of the concerns outlined in a separate policy for transgender students.

“The only thing that’s missing (is) a phrase for accommodation,” Freeman said. “And those accommodations need to meet the needs of all our students when it comes to personal privacy and modesty, in my opinion.”

Freeman said she has the same position now as in earlier discussions, which is that a policy singling out one group is in itself discriminatory, and violates the existing discrimination policy.

“Is it possible to merge the language of the policies?” DeGooyer asked.

Sabin said the Washington School Directors Association recommended that districts adopt a separate policy. The draft presented at Thursday’s meeting follows the WSSDA recommendation.

“Of course, you can always merge policies,” Sabin said. “However, I think whenever you start doing that, I think you run the risk of possibly missing something. I feel like we’d be on stronger ground if we adopted the model policy. I feel a lot more confident that we’d be in a good place as a district if we followed this recommended policy instead of merging two polices together.”

Sabin said WSSDA officials knew districts had non-discrimination policies in place when they made their recommendation on the separate transgender policy.

“I think the intent of this was to have it separated out from the non-discrimination (policy),” Fuhr said.

Freeman said she was concerned the recommended policy was the start of a trend, and the board would be asked to adopt specific policies for other specific groups.

“That was the basis of my concern,” DeGooyer said.

Sabin said whatever happens in the future, the district is required to conform to current law, which the recommended policy does. He said he would review the existing policy and report back to the board.