The Examiner U-46 News Feed
U-46 transgender policy triggers war of words
By Seth Hancock
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society,” John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, told newspaper publishers in 1961.
School District U-46 CEO Tony Sanders apparently doesn’t believe in a “free and open society” as he decided to change the district’s practice on transgender bathroom and locker room access behind closed doors while refusing to answer questions from the press once the change was made public. Instead, Sanders has decided to make highly political statements as he’s called parents with concerns fear mongers.
Board of Education member Jeanette Ward felt the public should know about the change and made a Facebook post on Monday, Sept. 5 to let the public know the change would take affect the following day when students returned to classes after the Labor Day weekend.
“Students who identify as the opposite gender (regardless of biological sex) will be able to use the locker room that corresponds with the gender with which they identify, at the same time as other students. U-46 has opted not to inform parents or the community at large of this change. I am informing you,” Ward’s post stated.
In response to questions, Sanders referred The Examiner to posts he made on his Facebook page and then subsequently blocked The Examiner’s access to his page.
However, The Examiner was able to get his posts and also find that he prefers only accolades as politically-charged statements apparently show he will not listen to members of the public who have concerns with the decision.
In his posts, Sanders claims the decision follows state and federal laws, which he does not cite, and he said the reason for not informing the public is for the privacy of a middle school student who the change has been made for.
“Did we notify families? No, we did not. Why? Because it would be a violation of state and federal laws that protect students from the release of personal information,” Sanders wrote citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Illinois Student Records Act (ISRA) as reason for not making this public. FERPA and ISRA have to deal with “education records” which means they do not give justification for keeping this change secret.
The Examiner noted to Sanders that the district could allow the public to know about the change without revealing any personal information and asked for further justification. He has also been given multiple chances to cite which state and federal laws are being followed regarding the change and has refused to answer.
The only specific citation in support of the change is U-46 Board Policy 7.010 concerning “equal educational and extracurricular opportunities,” not bathroom and locker room access.
The timing of this change also appears to be dubious, and information appears to not have been freely given to board members either as The Examiner spoke to Ward about the issue who said she was informed about the change late in the week prior to Sept. 5.
“He answered some questions,” Ward said. “He didn’t answer my questions to the full extent that I would have liked.”
Ward added: “From the details I had, I was very concerned about the practice. And I expressed that I was not happy about it and asked some follow-up questions which were not answered fully.”
Asked why she decided to make her Sept. 5 post, Ward said “because my concern was this was being done without informing parents or the community at large. It was being done quietly and behind the scenes without parents of the district being aware that this change was taking place. And before a change of this magnitude takes place, I thought we should have had a conversation with the board and with the community.”
“So my concern with the timing here is I didn’t think this was an acceptable thing to do without informing the community, and then it’s going to happen on Tuesday and the whole time I’m trying to express concern. In my mind I’m thinking ‘I’m backed up against the wall.’ This is happening tomorrow and the community doesn’t know, and the community has a right to know. And that’s why I posted what I posted on Monday,” Ward added.
Sanders wrote in one of his posts that the district had been working with the family of the middle school student “for the past few weeks,” meaning he could have informed the board well before the three-day weekend.
On the privacy concern of the student, Ward said: “I don’t think that’s a valid concern because I have no interests in talking about this specific student. We ought to have a conversation on our practice and what is going to be our practice. This is the first time that students of the opposite anatomical gender have shared the same private space at the same time, to my knowledge, in this district, and I think parents should have been alerted to that.”
Sanders has known his unilateral action would be an issue as Ward raised concerns after President Barrack Obama sent a letter to school districts in May, stating district’s would lose federal funding if they did not allow students access to the bathrooms and locker rooms of the sex they identify with.
Ward told Sanders at the time that letter was “unconstitutional” and “it did not need to be complied with,” and she said “his response at the time was to reassure me that we wouldn’t have a problem with that edict.”
Currently over 20 states are suing the federal government over the letter and a federal judge, Reed O’Connor of Texas, has put a nationwide injunction on that order.
Neighboring District 211 has been mired in legal battles from both sides of the debate since last year, and The Examiner obtained newsletters and emails from that district showing that at least the public had been made aware from the start and that the school board was involved in the decision-making process. Any law regarding this issue is not settled as lawsuits are still ongoing.
Some have claimed that Ward has revealed the identity of the student in question because she has stated that it’s a middle school student, a “completely ridiculous” assertion since there are eight middle schools in the district. She would not reveal what middle school when asked by The Examiner.
Ward said “I’m a bit unhappy with how this is being handled” which along with the secrecy, that may also be because of the clearly politically-charged comments Sanders has made. The research given to the board justifying the change is from the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Gender Spectrum.
The same week this change was made in U-46, a Minnesota high school received a lawsuit as a boy claiming to identify as a girl was given access to the girl’s locker room and is alleged to have exhibited sexually suggestive behavior, but if you question Sanders on anything like that happening in U-46, he won’t listen as he called out one commenter by name on his page to “please refrain from continuing the fear mongering.”
At least one comment has been removed from Sanders’ page that expressed concerns, but he has apparently had no problem allowing it to become a forum to discuss how to impeach Ward and allowing comments to stay such as “Ward needs to get her head out of her ass” and that she’s “a disease.”
Students who don’t wish to change in the same locker room as someone of the opposite sex, whether it be for religious or comfort reasons, according to Sanders it’s apparently fine to discriminate against their access as he wrote “students in those cases would be provided an alternate setting.”
The Examiner learned that in Sanders’ weekly message, publicly posted on Monday, Sept. 12, that the laws used to justify the change include the Obama letter and the Illinois Human Rights Act.
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