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Residents, students and advocates assail District 49 policy JBAA and its adoption process
Summary
Dozens of public commenters on Oct. 9 criticized District 49’s recently adopted policy JBAA—commonly described by speakers as a trans bathroom ban—and alleged the board moved the policy forward without adequate public notice. Speakers called the policy harmful to students and urged legal challenges and political response.
At the Oct. 9 regular meeting of the El Paso County Colorado School District 49 Board of Education, multiple public commenters criticized policy JBAA and the board leadership’s handling of the policy’s adoption.
Speakers said policy JBAA, which board members voted to adopt on Sept. 24, restricts access to restrooms and other facilities for transgender students and was advanced without adequate public input. Ollie Glessner, advocacy director for Inside Out Youth Services, told the board that “President Thompson, vice president DeVola, and director Schmidt voted to pass policy JBAA,” and that the community was not given an opportunity to comment before the vote. “It looks like a purposeful move to silence objection to what you knew would be a controversial policy,” Glessner said.
Transgender community members and their allies criticized both the content of the policy and the process that produced it. Devin Chatrone, who identified themself as a transgender woman, said three board members were “cowards” for moving the policy forward before more public input and described the policy as “hateful and uneducated.” Eleanor Skelton, a secondary English teacher, told the board she has seen bullying of transgender students and called JBAA “harmful to students, teachers, and visitors.” Sam Mayfield, a former District 49 student, cited research finding no evidence that allowing transgender people to use facilities aligned with their gender identity increases safety risks.
Board members heard a range of public appeals. Some speakers urged the board to prioritize what they described as student safety or the values of particular families; others urged the board to rescind the policy and said it endangered students’ mental health. At the end of the meeting, Board President Gail Thompson spoke during the miscellenous section and said she opposed policy JBAA as adopted, calling it “nothing but a repetition of that unfounded bigotry” and urging legal challenges and community action.
The board did not take a new vote on policy JBAA at this meeting. Several speakers asked the board to reconsider or to allow public comment opportunities; several threatened legal challenges and encouraged community organizers to pursue complaints. The administration did not provide new legal analysis in response during the public-comment period.
The discussion followed an earlier, separate sequence of formal board business during which the board approved consent items and a series of instructional and administrative items (see “Votes at a glance” in a companion article for formal motions and recorded votes).
