The Fairfax County school board in Virginia has voted 10-1 to add gender identity to its non-discrimination policy to stave off threats of funding cuts from the Obama Administration. The controversial action was taken during a contentious board meeting over the objections of the majority of parents and others in attendance.
The policy now says, “No student, employee, or applicant for employment in the Fairfax County Public Schools shall, on the basis of age, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, marital status, or disability, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity, as required by law. It is the express intent of the School Board that every policy, practice, and procedure shall conform to all applicable requirements of federal and state law.”
Elizabeth Schultz, the one member who voted against the change, said the Board was warned by a local school official that federal funding could be pulled if the change was not adopted. She called it a case of federal overreach that must be opposed. “If they can dictate this, what can’t they dictate?” she asked.
That warning was strategically issued by Steven A. Lockard, the deputy superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools, in a memo just prior to the vote. “The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education is requiring that school divisions 1) revise their non-discrimination policies to include gender identity, and 2) hire a consultant to advise on revisions to regulations and, more generally, how school divisions should handle individual cases of transgender students. If the School Board amends Policy 1450, we will be able to tell them that we have already done the two things that OCR is requiring.”
“If FCPS refuses to amend its policy, OCR has the right to recommend the termination of federal funding to FCPS,” Lockard emphasized.
“There is a significant battle for the hearts and minds of young people in the United States of America, and the federal government is using $640 Billion in federal education funds to weaponize an agenda upon every local school district in the United States, and it’s time for a national conversation about this,” Schultz concluded.
The implications affect restroom and locker room access and whether schools will be required to hire transgender teachers.
School Board Chairwoman Tamara Derenak Koufax released a statement after the board meeting and said the government left the board no choice. “The U.S. Department of Education has told school districts that transgender students are protected from discrimination under Title IX and has recently required some school districts including Alexandria, Va., to amend their policies to expressly include gender identity,” she said.
The reason the school board is directly opposing the parents is the federal government and the potential loss of taxpayer money. Never before, in the history of the United States, has such a deliberate attempt been made to force society to accommodate perverse lifestyles.
“Likewise also, as it was in the days of Lot… Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. Luke 17:28, 30
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