Columbus school board weighs defying state law, but tables transgender bathroom policy update

Yahoo

05-02-2025

The Columbus City Schools Board of Education is weighing whether to defy state law and keep its transgender bathroom policy before a new state law requiring compliance takes effect this month.
But the board tabled action following a second reading at its meeting Tuesday after hearing from district General Counsel James Barnes about the legal risks involved with disregarding state law.
Board President Michael Cole said the board wanted to honor the wishes of the community.
"They're asking of us to maintain an environment, spaces for them in school buildings and elsewhere that give them full acknowledgement — that includes bathroom use," Cole said.
When asked by The Dispatch about what he thought the ramifications of defying the state government could be as negotiations over school funding in the state budget begins, Cole said tabling the discussion allowed them "to leverage the opportunity to take an educated approach to this."
"We want to have the opportunity to further deliberate around what those punitive actions could possibly be," Cole said.
At the board's last meeting, members weighed whether to update the existing board policy on transgender issues to comply with state law or to simply delete the policy. The district's legal counsel said they would also be compliant if they simply deleted their current policy.
The new Ohio law, Senate Bill 104, requires K-12 and college students at public and private schools to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their sex assigned at birth. It also bans multi-occupancy, gender-neutral restrooms and prevents transgender students from sharing overnight accommodations with peers of the same gender. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the law in November and it takes effect Feb. 25.
More: Columbus City school board weighs dropping transgender policy, other changes under new law
A separate law signed in January also requires schools to disclose a student's health records to parents.
During public comment on Tuesday, a number of people spoke and urged the board to defend transgender students' ability to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify.
Kari Kendzerski, a parent of two students in the district, said that the state legislature was making it clear that "schools are no longer a place for safety, learning and growth" for transgender students.
"This is cruel and this is dangerous," Kendzerski said. "This (proposed district) policy put students lives at risk, these students that sit in your classrooms, play with your children on the playground, eat with them in the cafeteria and ride the bus with them to the field trips."
Before the vote, Cole suggested that the district flout the state law and vote to reaffirm the existing policy in support of transgender students.
However, attorney Barnes warned board members that by keeping the current policy the board would be in violation of the law and ethics, and would be risking legal exposure to the board and individual members. He also expressed caution that staff and building administrators also could be found liable operating under the current policy.
'There is legal exposure to the board for violating the law. Our ethics dictate that you don't violate the law,' Barnes said.
During the meeting, board Vice President Jennifer Adair reflected on a passage from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," where "he asks us to consider whether a law is just or unjust."
"My soul is questioning whether or not we have to figure out in this moment if we will fight in a way that allows us, as you are suggesting, President Cole, to follow what Dr. Martin Luther King says, and not follow an unjust law," Adair said. "I can't help but think about where we are at a moment in time, in history … We know what's coming, and we have to figure out how and when we are going to fight or what we're going to do."
Board Member Sarah Ingles agreed that Ohio's "Bathroom Bill" was unjust, but also said the district needs to choose its fights. Legal exposure and the potential cost for ignoring state law could be damaging to the district, she said.
"One lawsuit can be millions and millions and millions of dollars in a district where millions of dollars are whether or not you can feed children and keep the heat on and do the education programs that we need," Ingles said.
Ingles suggested that the practice of supporting transgender students could remain even if the policy is rescinded.
"Our practices do not have to change because the policy did," Ingles said.
The board also heard from Amanda Erickson, senior associate director of programs and operations at Kaleidoscope Youth Center, which supports LGBT youth.
Erickson said that the board should vote either to rescind the entire policy or keep it. By doing either of those, Erickson said, the district "will highlight the leadership of Ohio's largest school district while affirming its commitment to support and protect all students."
The proposed updates to the CCS district policy comply with state law, including removing language that allowed transgender students to use the bathroom and locker rooms corresponding with their gender identity and share overnight spaces with other students of their gender identity.
The new policy says transgender students can be accommodated with a single-user bathroom or changing area.
The proposed updates also say that faculty and staff "may" refer to students by their preferred pronouns, where it used to say faculty and staff "shall" do that.
The existing policy states that when staff or an administrator is required by law to provide a student's legal birth name or sex assigned at birth, they should "adopt policies avoiding the inadvertent disclosure of such confidential information." Existing policy also says the portion of student records relating to transgender students' preferred name and pronouns should be considered confidential and restricted.
Both sections have been struck from the proposed policy updates that had a second reading at Tuesday's meeting.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus school board debates defying state transgender bathroom law