(Fox 11 Online)
OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Earlier this year, the Biden Administration updated Title IX – the educational amendment that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally-funded programs. Now, local school districts are faced with accepting the new Title IX guidelines or leaving them behind.
One of those districts is the Oshkosh Area School District. In the next few weeks, the board members will likely vote again on whether to adopt the new guidelines.
“What matters to me most and has always mattered to me is that we’re protecting and safeguarding all kids,” said Chris Wright, the vice president of the Oshkosh school board during a meeting last Wednesday. “Title IX has done a lot of really good things, I have daughters who play sports and they likely wouldn’t be able to do that without Title 9, to the degree they’ve been able to.”
“If this ever comes up again I’m going to vote to make sure all kids are being protected in our schools,” he added while admitting there are some vague areas in the regulations.
The final regulations expand in several areas. For example, complaints don’t need to come directly from the complainant and it no longer has to be in writing, they can be oral complaints. The guidelines also further strengthen protections for pregnant students and employees and define obligations by federally funded institutions to accommodate pregnant people.
But one of the biggest changes lies within the final regulations’ expanded definition of sex-based harassment. Along with clarifying that sex-based discrimination includes that based on pregnancy, sex stereotypes, and sex characteristics, it also includes sexual orientation and gender identity.
Oshkosh school board members discussed the regulations with the district’s legal counsel, Mark Kapocious, after the board previously voted in a 3-3 tie not to approve the final regulations for the district, rendering the district out of compliance.
At the request of board member Wright, Kapocious explained where some people are having the biggest issue with the updated Title IX regulations.
“It always kind of boils down to bathrooms at the end of the day,” Kapocious said. “The new rules would say that a student may use a restroom based on their gender identity and a school cannot make a child go through anything more than what is called de minimus harm in order to access those restrooms. In other words, you can’t make a child submit a 20-page document signed by doctors in order to use this restroom.”
Citizens and parents expressed their displeasure with that specific topic.
“What the risk is with the new policy, is it does potentially, in some instances, put the transgender student above the girls,” said Laura Ackmann, the chair for the Moms for Liberty chapter in Winnebago County. “If a transgender person wants to go into the opposite bathroom under this law you must let them, if a girl is uncomfortable with a naked male in their locker room they have no recourse under this law.”
One district parent, Josh V, who said he was a member of the Moms for Liberty Facebook page, resorted to using a slur in front of the board while expressing his frustration.
“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous you guys are even considering letting bathrooms and locker rooms be co-ed. I don’t care how they identify whatever kind of delusion people live in, or what kind of mental disease they have. Boys are boys and girls are girls it’s simple and basic, always has been,” he said in part.
One of the biggest questions from board members was if the district would lose its federal funding if it didn’t adopt the updated law and remained out of compliance.
“To our knowledge, there’s been no recipient of federal assistance that has been cut off by not adopting new regulations,” Kapocious stated, though admitting he was speaking theoretically.
But if funding is pulled, the school’s business office said it could result in a loss of about 8% of the school’s revenue, or $5.5M.
Advocates in attendance said it’s not worth taking any chances.
“We cannot attest that we are in compliance right now if we get a gender-based discrimination complaint on day two of school in one of the 19 schools that are legally obligated to comply based on federal law right now,” said TJ, an Oshkosh community member.
Kora Novy, who heads Oshkosh Pride, shared her thoughts and opinions with the board, too.
“I’m a transgender woman, my pronouns are she/her, I will only accept those pronouns, I will not be addressed any other way and in the workspace, I’m protected by that, our students should be too. Especially if they’re under 18, they don’t have a voice. Just really consider what is this fight really about,” she said.
The board’s entire discussion can be found on the district’s YouTube page here.
If the board does pass the final regulations, three schools in the Oshkosh district would be exempt from the changes.
The regulations have been blocked at any school where children with parents in the Moms for Liberty organization attend after a federal judge in Kansas ruled the regulations lacked the ability to bar discrimination based on gender identity.
Moms for Liberty is one of several plaintiffs in that case, Kansas v. U.S. Department of Education.
However, some pieces of the final regulations will already be implemented, despite if the board chooses not to adopt the updates, due to the Seventh Circuit’s ruling on Whitaker v. Kenosha.
The final Title IX manual can be reviewed in full by clicking here.
The Green Bay Area School District will vote on Monday, Aug. 26 to adopt or decline the updated Title IX regulations.
Comments