This fall, the Kenai Peninsula School District\u2019s Board of Education will address whether to add the terms \u201cgender identity\u201d and \u201csexual orientation\u201d to its policy on nondiscrimination of students.<\/p>\n
The discussion over how schools treat transgender students has been a hot-button topic this year as a number of states across the U.S. have passed bills prohibiting people from using a restroom that is not the same as the gender listed on their birth certificates.<\/p>\n
The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District\u2019s Policy Review Committee first proposed the language revisions in May. The board then decided to postpone further discussion until its August meeting, according to Pegge Erkeneff, school district spokesperson.<\/p>\n
Policy currently reads: \u201cDistrict programs and activities shall be free from discrimination with respect to gender, race, color, religion, national origin, ethnic group, marital or parental status, and physical or mental disability.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Monday\u2019s regularly scheduled board meeting, Kenai Peninsula resident Scott Coffman said he was concerned the \u201ctransgender policy revision\u201d had already been made. Coffman referred to the policy changes with a name commonly used by members of the public and local officials, though the exact term \u201ctransgender\u201d doesn\u2019t appear in the policy. Transgender is a term for people whose self-identity is opposite of their assigned sex.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat item wouldn\u2019t even be discussed until school starts again,\u201d said Joe Arness, board president. \u201cYou will know when it\u2019s happening, I can very well assure you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dan Castimore, board member and policy committee chair, said site council meetings will be held at schools in each area so that the public will have the chance to comment and participate at the local level.<\/p>\n
Also in the proposed policy changes is the replacement of \u201cgender\u201d with \u201csex\u201d in the clauses concerning separate arrangements made for students during sex education programs and physical education activities involving bodily contact, and that staff and volunteers take care to guard against discrimination and stereotyping in instruction, guidance and supervision.<\/p>\n
The revisions align with and make legal references to Alaska Statute, which use the term \u201csex\u201d instead of \u201cgender\u201d when outlining policy for access to academic courses, guidance and counseling programs, athletic programs, testing procedures, vocational education and other activities, which are also addressed in board policy.<\/p>\n
Arness added the revision process would likely take some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not hiding anything,\u201d he said to the audience Monday. \u201cWe are going to try to be as open and transparent about it as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Kelly Sullivan is a reporter for the Kenai Peninsula Clarion, where this article first appeared. Contact her at kelly.sullivan@peninsulaclarion.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This fall, the Kenai Peninsula School District\u2019s Board of Education will address whether to add the terms \u201cgender identity\u201d and \u201csexual orientation\u201d to its policy on nondiscrimination of students. The discussion over how schools treat transgender students has been a hot-button topic this year as a number of states across the U.S. have passed bills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13292"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}