Hundreds of residents urge Delaware Valley board to keep OCR protections as some press for rollbacks

Public comment at a Delaware Valley School District meeting on Oct. 12 centered on whether the board should keep its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) agreement and current policies that explicitly protect LGBTQ+ students.

Multiple residents and students urged the board to retain the OCR protections and related nondiscrimination policies as essential safety and mental-health safeguards for transgender and gender‑nonconforming students. Taylor James, a Milford Borough resident and executive director of Traverse City Pride Center, told the board that "without the protections outlined in DB's OCR agreement, achieving our mission to support every student becomes much harder and less unified." James said students he spoke with felt accepted under existing policies and asked the board to keep the protections in place and to form an advisory committee that includes students and community groups.

The meeting drew repeated references to legal and financial risks. Joe Kimberly, a Milford Township resident, warned that withdrawing from the OCR could prompt more students to enroll in cyber schools and cause a…