O'FALLON, Mo. — On Thursday night, the Francis Howell School District Board of Education considered new policies and regulations for the upcoming school year. The proposed policies even sparked a protest ahead of the meeting.
Francis Howell student Harper Schneider said one thing she doesn’t agree with is a new library policy.
“The proposed new policies are basically going to allow someone that is not that student's parent to regulate what kind of books they're reading,” Schneider said.
One woman spoke in support of changes to electioneering policies, which would no longer allow campaigning during board meetings. It’s something that happened during the last election cycle.
“Not only is this a gross misuse of a board position but allowing actions like this to occur only creates more division within our community,” the woman said.
But the policy change with the most opposition was one called the "Human Sexuality" policy. It would change how gender identity is discussed at school. It says district employees are not allowed to make, "values judgements on human sexuality and shall recommend those students direct those questions to their parents or legal guardians."
“If a student is unable to talk about who they are, and live authentically, it really creates a hostile educational environmentr,” Robert Fischer with Promo Missouri said. "One of the big things is also to consider is that if a LGBTQ+ student experiences bullying or harassment under this rule, they wouldn't be able to tell a teacher."
A parent of a non-binary student who recently graduated said the policy could be really harmful.
“It's heartbreaking because it's basically saying, 'If you're transgender, we're not allowed to acknowledge that and that's damaging to kids.' It's saying that you're not, you don't have as much value because you're of your gender identity,” parent Amy Easterling said.
The school board briefly discussed it during the first reading of the policy.
Board member Carolie Ownes said she thinks they need to have more experts examine the sexuality policy.
“Like counselors, people that are familiar with all of this, people that really know because you don’t want to do anything that damages anybody,” Owens said.
No decisions were made Thursday. The second reading and vote are scheduled for July 18.
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