Good evening. My name is John Peters, and my wife and I have two daughters enrolled in BPS, one at Olson Middle and one at Jefferson High School.
On May 28th of this year, the board adopted policies 440 and 540, “Staff Gender Inclusion” and “Student Gender Inclusion,” despite glaring concerns about several aspects of both policies.
These include, but are not limited to:
*Potential injury to female students and athletes by allowing males to participate or compete against them in sex-separate sports and PE classes
· Allowing males who identify as females to compete in female sports creates an unfair competitive environment for the girls participating in that sport
· Assault and privacy concerns when males identifying as females are allowed to use female restrooms and locker rooms
· Compelled speech by forcing students and staff to address an individual by pronouns that are not accurate
· Financial costs of modifying existing restrooms and locker rooms or building new facilities to accommodate gender-confused individuals
In addition, there are legal considerations to the policies. A lawsuit involving Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation, and Female Athletes United is included in the recent Title IX injunction upheld by the Supreme Court. The injunction applies to any school in which a student's parent is a member in any one of these organizations, and this includes several Bloomington schools. Additionally, there is no time limit for parents to join these organizations and register new schools to be included in the injunction. This legal action could make both of the policies null and void.
While the legal matters could take some time to play out, at the very least, the district needs to be clear and transparent about the new policies. In previous conversations with district staff, we have requested an open meeting that parents and community members can attend to ask questions about policies 440 and 540. We have also asked that a specific email be sent to parents that details these policies. The district communicates with parents on a regular basis about many topics via email such as attendance, behavior at sporting events, student health, and other policy matters. It is very reasonable to expect that an email be sent out to parents that is specific to these policies.As most Bloomington parents do not follow the School Board closely, they are not aware of policies 440 and 540. Both policies are very consequential for student safety, student privacy, and free speech.
If the board and district staff are truly proud of these new policies, there should be no issue with communicating these policies to parents in a more direct and timely manner. Thank you.
