Good evening. My name is John Peters, and my wife and I have two daughters enrolled in BPS, one at Olson Elementary and one at Olson Middle.
The proposed policies 440 and 540, “Staff Gender Inclusion” and “Student Gender Inclusion,” may be well meaning, but they are deeply flawed and need to be significantly revised.
Allowing gender-confused individuals, whether they be staff or students, to use the bathrooms or locker rooms of their choice is a both a safety and legal liability issue. The same can be said for sports participation.
For example, in 2021, a male student at Stone Bridge High School in Louden County, Virginia was allowed to use the girls’ bathroom because he “identified’ as female. Subsequently, he sexually assaulted a female classmate in the girls’ bathroom.
In 2023, a female athlete was injured by a male who “identified” as a female during a field hockey game in Massachusetts, when the female was struck in the face with the ball and had her teeth knocked out.
These are but two examples of the obvious safety and legal concerns of allowing boys who “identify” as girls to invade girls’ spaces.
As such, I would propose the following policies:
Both students and staff will use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their biological sex.
Students will participate in sex-separate sports that correspond with their biological sex.
If a student is gender-confused and not comfortable using the bathroom facilities that correspond with his or her biological sex, a gender-neutral bathroom, such as a single-person facility typically used by staff, is a reasonable accommodation.
Since BPS is in a budget shortfall, no financial resources will be used to build new bathroom or locker room facilities to make these accommodations.
In summary, female spaces should be reserved for females, and male spaces should be reserved for males. As I previously mentioned, I have two daughters in BPS. If their privacy and safety are not prioritized in this new policy, I and many other parents will have to consider pulling our kids from the district. Thank you.
---Recently, the Biden administration made changes to Title IX to include “gender identity” as a protected class that cannot be discriminated against. Since Title IX was passed by Congress in 1972, the constitutionality of these changes made to that legislation by the executive branch are in question, due to separation of powers. In any case, this has opened a can of worms that all school districts are dealing with, including BPS.
