Local law professor talks legal implication of Bellbrook-Sugarcreek school policy change
News Center 7 spoke with a legal expert about what some are calling a controversial decision made by a school district.
>>PHOTOS: Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools vote to remove verbiage that protects LGBTQ+ students, staff
The Bellbrook-Sugarcreek School voted Thursday night to take sexual orientation and gender identity out of its anti-harassment policies after a nearly five-hour meeting that was packed.
The board voted, 5-0, to remove the language that explicitly protected LGBTQ+ students and staff from harassment and discrimination.
News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis spoke with a local law professor from Cedarville University about the legal implications of this decision.
“All of our students, each unique in their own way, are and will be protected by policy, law and as a matter of common human decency to the very best of our ability,” said Kevin Price, Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Board of Education member.
Lewis says that statement was made Thursday night before the board took a vote on changing its student anti-harassment policy.
The policy stated, “The board will enforce its prohibition against discriminatory harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), disability, age, religion, ancestry, or genetic information that are protected by federal Civil Rights laws.”
Lewis reports the new policy takes out, “sexual orientation and gender identity.”
On Friday, he spoke with Marc Clauson, Cedarville University History and Law Professor, about what the school board did.
“What the school board is doing here is they’re saying we’re going to handle bullying, we’re going to handle harassment, but we’re not going to handle it under particular categories,” said Clauson. “We’re just going to lump all these into one and say, you can’t harass, you can’t bully, and we’ll treat everybody the same way who was bullied or harassed and not break them into categories of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Lewis reports according to the school board, this is a policy driven by federal law changes, state statutes, and court decisions so it wanted to fall in line with that.
“There’s no state or federal anti-discrimination statute that expressly covers these two categories,” said Audra Dorn, Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Board of Education Vice President.
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Lewis asked Clauson if that was true and he said yes.
“That’s under the Title IX statute and regulation,” said Clauson. “And since the courts haven’t ruled on that, then you’re free to say, well, we’re not going to have that wording in there, we’re just going to keep the standard wording sex without defining it. They don’t have to define it specifically. They could if they wanted to.”
Lewis says Title IX prevents sex discrimination in education settings.
“The Supreme Court has never ruled on that particular regulation,” Clauson told Lewis, “Title IX, it’s never said anything about the word sex, what it means, except that it means the normal, what we would think when it was when the law was passed back in the 1960s.”
Because of that, Professor Clauson said the board legally had the right to make its decision Thursday night.
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But some like Michael Knote, executive director of Have a Gay Day, said the board’s move does not sit right with him.
“It’s like someone taking your name off of a will, taking your name off of an invitation list, taking your name off of something that included you because it doesn’t matter who you’re removing a name off of when it comes to a general conversation,” he said. “If I remove someone, you do feel a certain kind of a way.”
Lewis said the school board vowed Thursday night to change another policy that would make sure all students feel valued and protected.
They said they are willing to meet with students, clubs, and groups to figure that out.
