Last September, the North East School District scheduled a vote to adopt Title IX changes proposed by the Biden Administration. Those changes would have allowed biological males to use female restrooms and changing facilities. Residents of North East were quick to respond and attended the school board meetings in large numbers voicing their opposition to the proposed rule changes. The district had originally intended to waive the required second and third readings of these policy changes so the vote to adopt could be taken at the first review, however citizen opposition led to a delay so those reviews could take place. In the following meetings, after much debate, the proposal was tabled in a narrow 5 to 4 vote to wait until the US Supreme Court could decide whether the updates were constitutional.
The Department of Education has just announced the withdrawal of the proposed changes, so it turns out the school district’s plan to implement the rule was not necessary after all. The vigilance and concern of North East residents served as a check on the school district and shows how citizen oversight can be an important guide for the school administration and board members.
Title IX Proposed Rule Change Withdrawal
Related:
North East School Board Votes to Table Policy Revisions for Title IX 2024 Updates
All North East Schools Intended to be on List of PA Schools Not Subject to Title IX 2024 Final Rule
NE School Board Delays Vote on Title IX Policy Changes After Public Comment
NE School District Schedules Vote to Adopt Title IX Changes for Gender Identity
jeffery L Buchholz says
IT RAISES, AT LEAST IN MY MIND, IF THE DISTRICT HAD CHOSEN NOT TO TABLE THE TITLE, NINE VOTE AND INSTEAD VOTED TO PASS THE PROPOSED LANQUAGE, VIA A NEW SCHOOL BOARD POLICY, WOULD THE DISTRICT STILL HAVE TO ABID BY THE TITLE NINE LANGUAGE DISPITE PRESIDENT’ TRUMP’S ACTION?
JEFFERY L. BUCHHOLZ
Ryan says
I think the answer is yes – the District would’ve been free to adopt the policy regardless of whether Biden pulled it or not. But then it would’ve entangled the District in endless litigation. The policy essentially made it mandatory for the District to discipline staff and students for even a single “misuse” of a pronoun, and it diluted the definition of harassment to make it extremely easy for trans-fanatics to sue the District for not policing speech aggressively enough. And then staff/students hurt by the policy would’ve sued the District for violating their First Amendment rights (and for very for good reason).
The Board did the right thing in tabling the policy.
Jeffery L Buchholz says
I think Ryan is “spot on” with respect to the chaos to follow had the board passed Title Nine instead of tabling it. This raises a question, in my mind, with respect to how a taxpayer might view a board member’s performance.
Prior to the board vote tabling the Title Nine issue, it was well known that a lawsuit by a significant number of states was in place to defeat the policy. In addition, Presidential candidate Trump made clear he would remove it if it was put in place, much as he did during his first stint in office.
Why four board members would ignore those facts and not vote to table the issue is troubling to me. Even if they were inclined to vote “for” Title Nine, it seems to me they should have put the interest of the district ahead of any personal views. While no board member should be judged based on a single issue, (opinion) especially a new member, I find long time board member Blystone’s performance very disappointing.
Regards to all,
Jeffery Buchholz
Paul Crowe says
There are schools in the U.S. where policies are currently in place more extreme than those proposed by the Biden administration. The proposed federal changes were an attempt to force all schools to become more like those schools, so yes, if North East had not tabled the changes and put them in place, they would have remained in place even when the Biden administration withdrew the proposal because it would have been a local district vote to do so. We would have become like the schools currently promoting those extreme positions
This issue is only one of many causing the incredible degradation of the quality of our public schools all across the country. This by itself, is so big and so complex it’s hard to know where to start when trying to explain its origins and the level of its influence in ALL of our schools. Even when the topics are not explicitly listed in policies or the curriculum, the language used throughout those policies and across the district for many purposes, shows how the goals of those who promote these transgender policies have inserted their words and concepts, making them appear to be the way modern and enlightened schools should interact with their students.
It will take a much more detailed article on this topic to explain how pervasive it is. The curriculum in teachers colleges in the U.S. use materials written by radical individuals unfamiliar to the general public and those in other disciplines and it appears even many teachers, administrators and certainly board members have no idea where these ideas come from. Those that do know, if they support them, should not be in any positions of authority in our schools.
Eyes wide Open says
Paul your spot on! There are more than one item the board should be looking at here. One such issue is the steady deline in enrollment