CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Emotional comments at a recent Kanawha County Board of Education meeting in connection with an issue other school districts across the nation have faced.
There’s been discussion at nearly every Kanawha BOE meeting in recent months concerning transgender students being allowed to use restrooms of the gender they identify with instead of using restrooms for their biological gender.
The board meeting comments most almost always come during the public portion of the meeting and board members don’t respond.
At the most recent meeting, held last Thursday, BOE Attorney Lindsey McIntosh discussed a memo she had sent to board members after being asked to research the transgender bathroom issue.
McIntosh said federal law requires the school system to allow transgender students to use the restroom of the gender in which they identify.
McIntosh described a U.S. Supreme Court case.
“When you discriminate against somebody based on transgender status it is considered to be sex discrimination covered under Title 7,” McIntosh said.
She said a second case didn’t reach the High Court.
“The Grimm Case out of the 4th Circuit held that a district policy forbidding a transgender student from using the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity violated Title 9 and the Supreme Court refused to take that up for consideration thus solidifying the holding,” McIntosh said.
Board members offered no public comments concerning the memo.
Resident Derek Evans raised his voice during the public comment period and told the school board members they should be fired from their day jobs.
“I don’t know of any employer who would want to hire employees who are knowingly, in my opinion, aiding and abetting the sexual harassment of children.”
Evans did not stop there.
“You ran for a position that’s supposed to protect and uplift children and prepare them for a future career so that they can become productive members of society,” Evans said. “It is not your role to be social justice warriors who push their own perversion by forcing little girls to change in front of little boys.”
Board members chose not to respond to Evans at the meeting.