After days of rightwing rabble rousing, the rabble showed up at a business meeting of the Fairfax Public School board on Thursday held at Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church. FCPS is the largest school district in Virginia and tenth largest in the country.
Here's some discussion from a meeting in April:
The rabble was there to fight the evil that is transgender students and teachers and the Department of Educations determination that transgender people are human beings deserving equal access to public education under Title IX.
Andrea Lafferty, president of the Traditional Values Coalition resides in Fairfax County and brought her supporters to fight an amendment to the district's anti-discrimination policy which would add "gender identity" as a protected class under the policy.
This is a beating into submission of the American people and the taxpayers by the Obama Administration and those willfully going along with it. They are going to say if you don’t comply, we’re going to take away your lunch money – your federal funding.
--Lafferty
The TVC is an SPLC-designated hate group, but that didn't stop FOX News' Elizabeth Hasselback with providing her with an uncontested forum to spew her hate.
The chiron read, Causing Confusion, Parents Outraged Over 'Gender Identity' Plan.
Note how the scare quotes are included to indicate that gender identity is not a real thing.
FCPS receives about $42 million from the federal government...about 1.7% of its budget.
The board voted 10-1, with one abstention, to approve the amendment.
Think Progress' Josh Israel is a Fairfax resident and was one of ten speakers pre-registered to address the board (5 pro and 5 con). Israel reports that about 90% of those in attendance were wearing stickers identifying themselves as opponents of nondiscrimination for transpeople.
Among the speakers who opposed the inclusive ordinance was an individual who claimed it was somehow racist against Black and Latino students because they are predominantly Christian. There was also a parent who claimed that transgender people are “mentally ill,” and thus affirming them would increase the student suicide rate. One slot, which had been reserved by a former school board member who was censured during his tenure for promoting “ex-gay” lessons in schools, was yielded to Casey Maddox, an attorney with the anti-LGBT Alliance Defending Freedom. He argued that there is no legal requirement to protect transgender children — a sentiment not shared by the Department of Education.
It was a crucible. The anger in the room was palpable and first boiled over when Andrea Lafferty, head of the Traditional Values Coalition and one of the leaders against this policy, started screaming that more of the parents present should be allowed to voice their opposition. When this proved fruitless, many in attendance simply chose to speak out of turn. At one point, One opponent yelled out that when a girl gets raped because of this policy, it was going to be on their hands.
Of course, It should go without saying that there has never been a case of such a rape happening.
Board Chair Tamara Derenak Kaufax tried to maintain order as best she could, She was assisted by five police officers who were in attendance.
Eventually, she threatened to clear the entire room if people couldn’t control themselves. Elizabeth Schultz, one of the two board members not backing the measure who unsuccessfully tried to postpone the vote until October, asked attendees to calm down so that they could be there to witness what was about to happen and act on it afterwards, but the initial calm this achieved didn’t last for very long. At least five people were removed from the meeting, and many more were warned that they might be removed as well.
Shultz warned that this policy would "take away their right to discriminate against transgender teachers."
Shultz believes:
parents should be allowed to remove their children from a classroom just because the teacher is transgender
As a retired transgender teacher, I say there should be no such right.
And indeed
Board Vice Chairman Ted Velkoff pointed out that parents don’t have this right even without the inclusive change.
When the vote finally took place, people hurled insults at the board and the policy’s supporters before storming out.
Jarrod Nagurka, a Democratic campaign manager who supported the protections, tweeted that proponents were being called “gangsters.
the anger for many boiled over to the point where they were less ‘engaged citizenry’ and more ‘angry mob,' essentially attempting to accomplish a “hecklers’ veto.
--Israel
School districts around the country have successfully implemented protections for transgender and gender nonconforming students and staff without any of the consequences opponents voiced. Though conservatives are still fighting it, the entire state of California has had “gender identity” protections in its schools for over a year now, though some of its districts’ policies (such as that of the LAUSD, the country's largest school district) date back over a decade.
Ryan McElveen is the Fairfax School Board member who introduced the amendment to Policy 1450.
Our board will be remembered not for postponing, not for delaying civil rights but for protecting all of our employees and all of our children.
--McElveen
The decision by the school board to add 'gender identity' to our nondiscrimination policy is to provide an environment which promotes equality where every student and employee is treated with dignity and respect. This tells our students and staff that school and the FCPS workplace are places where they can be safe from harassment and discrimination.
--Kaufax