Nondiscrimination terms more in line with state’s...

Nondiscrimination terms more in line with state’s

An issue that swept through the Westminster School District like a

wildfire in recent months barely flickered in Surf City on Tuesday.

The Huntington Beach Union High School District board approved a

nondiscrimination policy that included the state Department of

Education’s definition of gender with almost no debate despite the

objections of one board member.

The board voted 4-1 to update the district’s anti-discrimination

policies to prohibit discrimination based on both sex and gender. The

word “gender” was added to the district’s regulations, Assistant

Supt. of Educational Services Carol Osbrink said.

Opponents of the policy said it is contrary to traditional gender

roles. Differentiating between a person’s sex and one’s sense of

gender makes the gender more a matter of choice than of birth, they

said.

“It’s very much the core issue: Is sex something that’s determined

objectively or is it something that’s self-determined?” board member

Matthew Harper asked.

Harper was the only board member to vote against the policy. He

proposed an amendment to have the district define gender along

biological lines. No board members seconded his motion.

In Westminster, a highly publicized confrontation between the

school district and the state Department of Education ended in April

when state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell accepted the

district’s adoption of a nondiscrimination policy that defined gender

as a biological condition and banned discrimination based on the

offender’s perception of a person’s gender. The Department of

Education’s interpretation of the law defines gender as the victim’s

perceived sex.

Board members voting to adopt the state-approved policy said

school districts should follow the state’s lead in complying with the

education code.

“If that needs to be changed, it needs to be changed at the state

level,” school board President Michael Simons said.

Westminster school board member Judy Ahrens came to the meeting to

urge Surf City educators to follow her district’s lead. After the

meeting she said she did not support the state’s definition of gender

because she believes allowing a student or staff member to define

their own sex could allow for cross-dressing or other acts of

nonconformity with traditional gender roles.

“It has people protected under a policy so any employee can have

strange behavior, or any kid,” she said.

Disagreement on the issue stems from not only the meaning of

gender but also the relationship between the state legislature and

local school districts. Harper said the state should allow districts

to form their own rules, but Supt. Van Riley agreed with Simons that

the district’s better path is to heed the advice of officials in

Sacramento.

“As far as what we do with the rest of the education code, we try

to stick with the education code and the state Department of

Education’s interpretation of that,” Riley said.