Tumwater parents, educators continue to lobby in support of trans student rights
Parents and educators in the Tumwater School District are continuing to lobby the school board to support trans student athletes’ rights, and at least one board member has been persuaded.
During the district’s board meeting on April 24, board member Jill Adams recommended the board repeal its decision to support amendments to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) policies that would keep transgender girls from competing on girls sports teams.
Adams abstained from the initial board vote supporting the amendments, stating that the board is caught between a rock and a hard place.
Her original argument at a Feb. 27 meeting was that the board has to follow President Trump’s executive order banning trans girls from participating in girls sports. She said following his executive order is the same as following the Constitution and law.
Adams said on April 24 it’s time for the board to focus on student learning broadly and include everyone lawfully.
Meanwhile, the WIAA amendments on April 21 failed to receive enough support to be adopted by WIAA.
Parents, teachers speak out
Julie Watts, a district parent, told the board if the WIAA resolution were put into place, it would violate the state’s non-discrimination laws.
“As a parent of a non-binary student who goes to school in this district, I felt less safe putting my kid on the school bus the next day (after the board’s vote) because my own school board had indicated that they don’t support our state’s non-discrimination laws, or the gender-inclusive schools policy of OSPI, or our own school district policies, or the words that are in the student handbook,” she said.
She said her student has experienced bullying, isolation and exclusion in Tumwater schools. She said she wanted to partner with the board to address these issues throughout the district, not “sanction it and license it by directing our school board, our school staff to support policies that violate our state’s non-discrimination laws.”
Watts said repealing the board’s support of the resolution would give the community a sense of healing.
Carrie Hoon said the board needs to align its actions with state law and the belief that all children belong.
Hoon said the board’s decision in February seemed to be based on limited experiences and personal prejudices. She said the board has put the district at legal risk because the decision goes against state law.
“In March, the state Attorney General’s Office wrote to the WIAA stating it violates state law to prohibit trans students from participating in girls’ sports, and ultimately, fortunately, the WIAA didn’t actually pass those amendments,” she said.
Hoon said trans students have the legal right to be free from discrimination, whether that’s in sports they play, the bathrooms they use, the gyms they change in or the classrooms they learn in.
She called out the presence of four deputies in the board room following a disruption at the last board meeting.
“There’s four deputies on the other side of the room from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office — you’re calling police on young people,” she said. “Our board should be helping students feel like they belong and are safe. You should rescind your support for these amendments and oppose any action that would put the district in violation of state law.”
Ian MacKenzie, a special education preschool teacher at Black Lake Elementary, spoke about his time growing up in Tumwater. He said when he was at Bush Middle School, he developed his first crush, and it was on a boy. Word got around, and he started to get bullied and harassed.
“I would get pushed up against lockers and called homophobic slurs,” MacKenzie said. “At that point, I decided I am straight and I silenced myself. I’m now older, and I will not be silenced.”
He said though members of the board may disagree with him, he’s a voice of Tumwater.
“I truly believe that these kids today should not feel scared like I felt in middle school, and I also feel like no member of this board should have to feel scared, or intimidated, or harassed, like how I felt, which is why the main purpose of this is to encourage people to protest peacefully,” MacKenzie said.
Susan Fabian said she’s a parent of two girls attending Tumwater schools, and she was a student athlete herself when she was in school.
Fabian said in the debate about whether trans girls should be able to participate in girls’ sports, there’s often a lot of focus on their supposed competitive advantage. She said she believes that engaging in this argument is irrelevant in this context.
“Here, we’re talking about middle and high school sports, not the Olympics or the WNBA,” she said. “According to the NCAA, only 6.5% of girls who participate in high school sports go on to compete at the collegiate level, and of course, even fewer become professional athletes. So if almost all the girls who participate in middle and high school sports do not continue in competitive athletics, what is the point of girls sports?”
She said according to the National Federation of High School Associations, which advocates for high school sports, there are several benefits to sports programs. They include better educational outcomes, enhanced school engagement andsense of belonging, positive youth development and life skills, healthier behaviors, post-high school positive results, and developing better citizens.
Fabian said she didn’t see anything on the list that would be lost by allowing trans girls to participate how they want to.
“On the other hand, if we exclude trans girls from those teams, we deprive them of all of those important benefits, including my favorite one from the list, which is a sense of belonging,” she said.
Fabian thanked board director Melissa Beard for her arguments in favor of allowing trans girls to participate in girls’ sports, and said she was very proud to have voted for her. At the same time, she said she was deeply disappointed that another board member she voted for, who had promised in their campaign to support educational equity, voted against equity for trans girls.
“I voted for this member based on their promises, including their commitment in the guide to advocate for historically marginalized populations, and yet they fell far short on those promises,” Fabian said.
The board responds
Beard said she wanted to share her feelings of gratitude with the people who reached out to support or disagree with her opposition to the resolution passed by the board in February.
“I want to say something that I feel is important for everyone to hear: Being different is OK. Being different is OK,” she said.
Beard said she didn’t fit in when she was in high school, and it was an uncomfortable time. But as she’s gotten older, she’s learned to embrace differences. She said differences are what make a team stronger.
“I’m a different leader than the rest of this team, and when I instituted the presidential rotation, I believed it was a good opportunity for people to learn from a variety of leadership styles,” she said. “As a member of this team, I promised to focus on the positive traits of my fellow board members, accept them for who they are, and do what I can to be a good team member because the students of our district deserve our best work.”
Board member Darby Kaikkonen, who supported the resolution in February, said most of the big issues people have come to talk with the board about have been related to state law and are out of the board’s jurisdiction.
“Whether it’s about sexual health curriculum, emergency school closures, mask mandates, vaccine requirements, gender equity, financial regulations, all are derived from the state law, and decision makers that are beyond the purview of the Tumwater School Board,” she said.
Board members Ty Kuehl and Casey Taylor didn’t comment on the issue during the meeting, nor did Superintendent Kevin Bogatin.
.jpg)