Letter to the Editor: Chest pounding on the trans student issue

Many are rightfully outraged at the recent Executive Branch rule allowing trans access to public school bathrooms and locker rooms, but let’s not worsen the situation through our reaction.

Much of the argument to this point has been framed as deviants trying to gain access to bathrooms reserved for the opposite sex and some violent rhetoric has accompanied this narrative.

The extreme rhetoric needs to go away regarding the public schools. There are actual trans kids, neither they or any other children need to be placed in threatening situations because of beliefs that adults hold on this issue. Direct the argument towards politicians, this dilemma came about through politics and it has to be answered the same way.

Be aware though that your local School Board and School Superintendent have little authority to say what they will or won’t do regarding mandates from higher government authorities. I have heard many say they won’t do something that is mandated but I have yet to see any actually refuse a mandate.

In my experience, elected officials usually laugh when you use the term “nullification.” While citizens certainly have the right to address this issue to School District leadership you really aren’t going to get anywhere. A better method is to contact the Governor’s Office and state representatives. Your state Representative and State Senator have local offices, they need to be kicked into action because the state government is much better equipped to deal with a federal mandate than are local officials.

It is an election year and our local officials were elected largely through the social conservative vote, so I believe if our school district is backed into a corner and must comply with this executive mandate then it will be done with the highest political theater and chest pounding. In that situation what I predict is that the superintendent will call each of the school board members individually before the public meeting to tell them how they should vote.

It takes three members to pass a policy, and those three will receive immense blowback from the public. Two will get to look like heroes for voting no to compliance. At the actual public meeting the superintendent will issue a strongly worded recommendation against compliance, the board will then vote it in on a 3-2 vote, and with much grumbling the superintendent will then go and do what he told the board to tell him to do.

Hopefully it will not come to this point. I believe the state has options to deal with this and that reasonable accommodations for the safety and well-being of trans students can be met without infringing upon the reasonable privacy and safety expectations of other students. But along the way let us use proper civil actions to express our positions on this issue.

Travis Christensen

Lake Asbury