Newly Elected School Board Member Caught Off Guard by Trans Policy Announcement

Jessica Franz, a newly seated school board member in Ohio, reached out to Advocates Protecting Children when the chair of the school board on which she now sits announced a new policy around transgender-identified students' bathroom use, with neither discussion nor vote. She told us this:

On Monday afternoon, January 10th, it was brought to my attention that the superintendent had sent out an email notifying the teachers of the district that the male student would be permitted to begin using the girls' bathrooms effective immediately and that it was "the law". Later that evening, I was sworn into the school board. I had received a copy of the agenda and I was prepared to address the items on the agenda.

During the new agenda items, the newly sworn in president read a statement from the superintendent and attorney that the school would be allowing the male student to use the girls' bathrooms. I was not provided with notice beforehand that this would be brought up under “new agenda” items. When several parents protested this decision during the public speaking portion, the board president answered that it was board policy, and we (the board) were following the law.

Now there are hundreds of parents in an uproar who would like to push back against this.

In fact, local parents and community members are outraged, including Angil Corey, whose grandchild has been pulled from school indefinitely:

This decision was made by this [transgender-identified] child and their family. The rest of us have made decisions for ours. ... The reason [the school district] submitted to this immediately was out of fear of the financial cost of fighting it. ... I hope more and more parents will stand up...

Given events in Loudoun County, Virginia, where a transgender-identified boy has just been