Covington schools have officially approved policies from controversial Senate Bill 150 despite initial disapproval.
The Covington Independent Public Schools Board of Education voted in a split decision Monday night to approve two new policies from the Kentucky School Boards Association related to sex education, gender identity and student privacy at a special meeting.
The board members voted on each policy separately, but the vote counts were the same for both measures: three yeas, one nay and one abstention. In both cases, board member Kareem Simpson voted no, and board member Hannah Edelen abstained from voting, with the remaining members voting yes.
In spite of his vote, board president Tom Haggard made a statement after the votes to reaffirm his commitment to the LGBTQ students in the district.
“The number one thing we are looking out for here are our kids,” Haggard said. “I will guarantee you that we will continue to do everything within our power to make sure that every single kid who walks through our doors, no matter how they identify, no matter what race they are, no matter what economic background they come from, every single kid that walks through our doors — I think you’ll all join me in saying we’ll do everything we can to support them [and] make sure they get a world class education.”
The two policies the board voted on came as the result of the controversial Kentucky Senate Bill 150, a law passed in March that banned gender-affirming care for Kentuckians under the age of 18 and established new mandates related to sex education as well as education related to human sexuality and gender identity.
Haggard added that he was “dismayed” at the legal bind the board found itself in.
“It’s unfortunate that we have to adopt these policies,” Haggard said.
With the vote, Covington Independent Public Schools joined a large number of school districts in Kenton County and elsewhere that have adopted the new legal policy mandates.
Haggard’s position also resembles that of many education leaders in the region that, despite any personal qualms they may have with the new laws, they’re still going to do their best to take care of the district students in a compassionate way.
The first of the state policies the board voted on Monday relates to human sexuality and sex education. The policy says that if a board or principal chooses to adopt a curriculum related to human sexuality, “instruction shall include but not be limited to” the following points:
- Abstinence from sex is the ideal goal for students and the only way to ensure total avoidance of sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancy and other sex-related health problems.
- Permanent, faithful monogamous relationships are the best way to curb sex-related health problems.
- No student in grades five and below will receive instruction on human sexuality or sexually transmitted infections.
- No student of any grade level will “receive any instruction or presentation that has a goal or purpose of students studying or exploring gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation.”
- Schools must notify and obtain parents’ written consent before a student in grade six or above receives any kind of sex education.
Another policy, titled “student privacy rights,” deals with bathroom access based on a student’s professed gender identity.
The language in the policy states:
“A student who asserts to school officials that his or her gender is different from his or her biological sex and whose parent or legal guardian provides written consent to school officials shall be provided with the best available accommodation, but that accommodation shall not include the use of school restrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms designated for use by students of the opposite biological sex while students of the opposite biological sex are present or could be present.”
The policy lists acceptable accommodations as “access to single-stall restrooms or controlled use of faculty bathrooms, locker rooms, or shower rooms.”
The board voted to excise these policies from their initial vote on the Kentucky School Boards Association’s mandates at their meeting on June 22 so that the board’s attorney could investigate if the district had any recourse besides voting yes or no. They also asked the district’s superintendent, Alvin Garrison, to explore how to substantiate the policies in an equitable way.
At Monday’s meeting, board attorney Mary Ann Stewart explained the origin of the policies but did not make any recommendations to board members as to whether or not they should vote to enact them.
Board member Glenda Huff asked Garrison if the district staff understood the law well and if they had access to training or other resources to help enact the policies.
Garrison said that the district had refrained from doing any training until the board cast its vote, but he said he had been in contact with the schools to ensure district staff knew “what kind of supports they’ll need from us to see the law through.”
Several members of the public came out to encourage the board to adopt the new policies. Three of the speakers were pastors at local Covington churches. No one came out to encourage the board members to vote no, unlike previous meetings.
A couple, Steve and Danielle Axtell, spoke out in favor of the bill, saying that their relationship with one of their children had fallen apart when they revealed their transgender identity to them.
“Teaching LGBT ideology is not our school’s responsibility,” Steve Axtell, a pastor at Every Tribe Church in Covington, said after stating that he has two children who graduated from Holmes High School. He did not share the students’ names.
Rather than appeal to his faith to make his argument, Steve Axtell said he wanted to argue his case on “the basis of ethics.”
“My oldest child at the age of 23 informed my wife and I that he was identifying as transgender, and that we must fully accept this and call him only by his new name, and failure to do so meant that we were no longer welcome in his life,” Steve Axtell said.
“My son made this decision through the encouragement of countless faceless people that I will never know and I will never meet,” Steve Axtell said. “People who don’t love my son like his mother and I, but people who encouraged his confusion and dysphoria nonetheless.
“The thought of my son receiving the same kind of endorsement of his confusion as a middle or high schooler by teachers that we trusted and loved ourselves and the thought that this would have been intentionally kept private from us, that thought is reprehensible in my mind.”
Danielle Axtell, who works in Every Tribe’s nonprofit branch called Tribe Community Services, affirmed much of Steve Axtell’s points when it came time for her to speak.
“I promise you that in the best, most open parent-child relationships there are things that your children will not tell you,” Danielle Axtell said. “You could find yourself in the situation where someone who may have the best of intentions — or may not — that they would be sure they’re helping your child in encouraging them to explore transitioning.”
She said that, as parents, even if someone may believe they’re OK with gender transition, “You don’t know how you will respond.”
“No parent should be robbed of the opportunity… to help their child navigate gender dysphoria,” Danielle Axtella said.
Although Haggard spoke about the policies themselves after casting a vote, neither he nor the other board members discussed the comments made by members of the public.
“We will always do our duty,” Haggard said at the end of the meeting. “We will always follow the law. We will always at the end of the day support our students here in Covington, and that includes every single LGBTQ kid who goes to school here. I guarantee you we got your back. We’ll always have your back.”
The next meeting of the Covington Independent Public School district’s board of education is scheduled for Aug. 10 at 5:30 p.m. at the district’s central office on 7th Street.