Fremont School District RE-1
1st Read of New proposed Gender Policy,
Citizens’ Group Reacts with a Call to Action
by Charlotte Burrous
Fremont Crusader
After the RE-1 School Board approved a seven-page Transgender Policy at its July 25 meeting, a group of citizens formed a group to stop this in its tracks during its meeting on July 29th. They met at the Grandview Christian Church.
“This is an informational meeting and call to action, regarding Fremont RE-1 School District proposed transgender policy,” said Mandy Reed, former Cañon City Councilwoman. “The goal is to get transparency to as many people as possible .As a whole, we feel there has not been good transparency from our school board so we, as community members, are trying to figure out what we can do.”
As a parent of grown children, Susan Jones learned of the school board meeting and decided to find out what was happening; it was not to her liking.
“I got involved with this (July 24th),” she said. “One of the very first things we were told about ‘this policy is this is a result of changes in state and federal law.’”
When she researched it, she could not find many changes.
“A little over a year and a half ago in 2021, we did change state law,” Jones said. “We added two protective classes to include gender expression and gender identity. In that law, it said very specifically, ‘school boards must act within anti-discrimination laws in addition to other agencies.’ The school board did that. In June of this year, we added an anti-discrimination policy. It’s on the website. Anybody can see it. We complied with that state law by adding the four words to the policy.”
The other thing the audience was told is that the board had to add this policy because of the changes in Title 9.
“To change Title 9 is a very long and cumbersome rulemaking process,” Jones added. “They are in the middle of a rulemaking process or they were for a 60-day comment (period). It’s my understanding that has been solved with a federal injunction, but the bottom line is, the federal law did not change. It did not require this particular seven-page policy we have in front of us.”
The third thing the audience was told was that the policy was based on ‘best practices.’ What that means is someone calls around and finds out who is doing good things, then call it ‘best practices,’ she continued.
“That’s what we’re really talking about — what’s working in other places,” Jones continued. “We were told it was based on state law and ‘best practices….The policy you have in front of you tonight, it’s because we want to change it, not because we have to change it.”
Jones said she was concerned over three areas of the policy.
1. Consists of parental consent and parent notification. “It is through-out this policy in at least three places, it says parental consent is not needed, notification is not needed or we’re going to use ‘best practices’ again to decide whether or not we should call the parent,” Jones said. “This is the biggest problem I have with this policy.”
2. The sports program. “This idea of sports programs no longer being separated by sex, the reason we have separate programs for girls for high school and college is because of Title 9,” Jones continued. “Title 9 was passed in 1972 and it is the main reason we have girls’ sports. Here we are, however, many years later, this is actually in jeopardy.”
This essentially erases women’s sports, she said.
3. Shared space. “This policy actually allows any child to use any bathroom, locker room or changing area,” she said. “It actually allows access to those areas, not based on sex but on gender. You can have a child in a restroom of a person of another sex, based on the other person’s gender identity. I think it’s dangerous and I think it’s something that needs to be addressed.”
The policy adds that if a child is uncomfortable with any of this, the district has to provide a private bathroom, private changing area and when it comes to overnight trips, the district has to provide them with a private room.
Every trip her daughters took, they stayed in a room with three other girls, which was a burden to the district and the parents.
“Now we’re saying every child can get a private room,” Jones said. “What child or what parent is not going to demand a private room for an overnight trip? Even though people will say that will never happen, how are we going to pay for that? If one person gets a private room, shouldn’t all kids get a private room?”
After she spoke, several individuals asked questions about such things as what is the percentage of transgender is in the area, what does the policy cover and other issues. At the end of the meeting, the group also broke up into subcommittees to make a plan of action to stop the policy proposal from being passed on second reading.
Those who do not have a copy of the transgender policy proposal, can find it at the Fremont County Republicans headquarters at 603 Main St. in Cañon City or by emailing GraceAnn Pittner at gpittner@mac.com. This is a chance for concerned citizens to stop this in its tracks, but it takes everyone to get it done.
UPDATE: After the community’s reactions, the
Fremont School District RE-1 Board, a statement was issued by Superintendent of Schools Adam Hartman and Board of
Education President Robin Reeser, saying that “we are tabling our policy adoption efforts at this time in order to participate in additional community engagement about the needs of our transgender students and federal legal require-
ments and the district must adhere to.”
(Editor/GG: Meanwhile, there are rumors of a recall effort for school board members, some of them just newly elected last fall! Time to drain the swamp. Save our children from these enablers.)
