SUN-GAZETTE FILE PHOTO

The Williamsport Area School Board approved the first reading of 22 board policies at their meeting this week, prompting two board members to question the process of updating policies. Updates are recommended by the Pennsylvania School Board Association (PSBA) and are in response to changes in laws.

“‘We have attorneys that look at these regulations and … write policy in our best interest to say, look, if you want to follow these regulations, then this is our recommendation to follow these recommendations,'” said Dr. Timothy S. Bowers, superintendent.

For example, one of the approved policies deals with discrimination and harassment affecting students.

The policy currently online states: “The board declares it to be the policy of this district to provide an equal opportunity for all students to achieve their maximum potential through the programs and activities offered in the schools without discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, ancestry, national origin, marital status, pregnancy or handicap/disability.

“The board also declares it to be the policy of this district to comply with federal law and regulations under Title IX prohibiting sexual harassment, which is a form of unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex. Such discrimination shall be referred to throughout this policy as Title IX sexual harassment. Inquiries regarding the application of Title IX to the district may be referred to the Title IX Coordinator, to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, or both.”

New to the board this year, Tom Adams took issue, not with this specific policy, but with the fact that compliance is mandatory for the policies because of Title IX.

“We have our solicitor review and our team reviews and that’s really where we’re at today,” Bowers said.

The administration team has had formal training in relation to the Title IX regulations, Bowers said.

“There is a lot of political noise around these policies this particular year. There’s always noise around election years. I’ll be honest, some of this is political noise, whether you want to believe it or not, that’s just my opinion,” he said.

Because Title IX is federal legislation, failure to not comply with the regulations can result in a loss of federal funding for districts and possible litigation.

The hypothetical Adams’ offered was a situation where a transgender youth, maybe from a visiting team, wanted to use a locker room for the gender they identify as.

“They insist on using the opposite locker room or restroom, that would be a real problem, and we insist that they have to have the proper body parts to use that. That’s not being discriminating…it’s for safety because it causes a lot of issues for the people who use that properly,” Adams contended.

District Solicitor Fred Holland interjected at that point that he’d have to research that more carefully but that, under Title IX regulations, the district would not be able to require a physical examination in order for someone to use the bathroom or locker room facilities.

Holland noted that litigation that has been argued as far as to the Supreme Court was upheld that it was not appropriate to require a physical examination.

“In the regulations for Title IX there is also a requirement that you make restrooms available to people that are at least reasonably accessible, regardless of which side of that equation,” Holland said.

“In other words, if there is someone who feels that I am harmed by using the restroom with people that I don’t think should be there, they have to be accommodated by having a restroom,” he added.

Holland did note that the changes in policies that were voted on were more procedural and were actually an improvement on the former policies.

“This is probably the easiest thing, really, you should be able to deal with,” Adams said.

“But, in my view, it kind of gets so convoluted. We’ve got to run around like a three-ring circus trying to figure out the best way to handle some really difficult situations because of where society’s been pushed — influenced,” he said.

Dr. Richard Poole, assistant superintendent, told Adams that the district has single-use bathrooms for students who don’t want to use facilities with other students.

Adams apologized for sounding like he looks at the “worst case scenario and try to think of different situations that can arise from this, which I don’t think are far off.”

“But hopefully there’s some things that we can do as a board anyway because we have rights and our other students have rights. Everyone has rights that can’t be trampled. The constitution isn’t supposed to be there for special rights and special groups. We’re all the same. We’re all Americans,” Adams said.

The question of what would happen if the district would not comply with Title IX regulations was posed by board member Adam Welteroth.

Wanda Erb, district business administrator, said that the district could possibly lose not only millions in federal funding, but also funding for free lunch programs and special education.