Terrebonne school board supports state's anti LGBTQ lawsuit

The Terrebonne Parish School Board announced its support of Louisiana's lawsuit against the Department of Education's ruling that schools cannot discriminate against sexual orientation or gender identity. Schools could be violating new anti-discrimination rules, jeopardizing millions in federal dollars.

The board unanimously voted May 7 to pass a proclamation supporting Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill's civil lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education expanding the scope of sexual discrimination to include pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity. Chairwoman Maybelle Trahan was absent.

The department of education's change was announced April 19 and takes effect Aug 1. If the schools are found to be discriminating against trans, pregnant or gay students, the officials fear, the Department of Education could pull government funding from the schools.

Currently, schools are banned from discriminating against students based on race, sex, religion and national origin.

"I think I want to state the obvious here, that this is certainly an overreach of our federal government," school board member Matthew Ford said.

School officials in Terrebonne and Lafourche are stumped by the changes in the 1,567-page document, and many are looking to the Louisiana Attorney General for guidance. A summary of the rule by Murrill says that elementary, middle and high schools will be prohibited from having single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms.

The document cites court decisions that have stated, "Students experience sex-based harm that violates Title IX when a recipient bars them from accessing sex-separate facilities or activities consistent with their gender identity."

While this lawsuit plays out, Lafourche is staying its course. It has not joined or announced its support of the lawsuit.

"I don't want to speculate and create a lot of hysteria when I truly don't believe this is going to change our policies and our practices," Lafourche Parish Superintendent Jarod Martin said. "Until the conflict is resolved, we are going to follow the state."

Martin said while the talks about transgender accommodations are new , they aren't the only reason single-person bathrooms or locker room accommodations have been made in the past. He said the U.S. Department of Education's change leaves a lingering uncertainty over the school districts. Lafourche and Terrebonne each receive about $20 million in federal dollars - Terrebonne receives more than Lafourche. If they are deemed to be discriminating under the changes, they could lose that money.

Both schools have unisex bathrooms that they offer to trans students. Both are firm that boys and girls will not be allowed to change in one-another's bathrooms. The child's sex is determined by their birth certificates. Martin said he was open to accommodating students, within reason. Orgeron was hesitant to offer accommodations for students, but when given hypotheticals involving parents he relented.

"I'm sure there are, but we don't typically offer or recommend that," Orgeron said. "I guess it depends on the situation. I'd have to know why, or you know what's the issue? Without a valid reason other than just that no. But if there's something beyond that, like a bullying situation, we'd consider it."

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Terrebonne Parish School Board Members expressed concern that these changes to Title IX would erode away, what they said was, the original purpose for Title IX - to create equality in sports by separating male and female sports. Terrebonne Parish School Board Member Dean Crowdus gave a lengthy explanation of the history of Title IX and court rulings on the matter, and said :

"Title IX was originally written for women's sports so that within the college setting, within the university setting, within the high school setting, there were equal footings between boys and girls sports," Crowdus said. He said he was not in favor of the reshaping and redefining of Title IX.

The Department of Education put out a proposal for changing the rules of athletics on April 13 , and in response received a large amount of questions. Due to that response, the document that triggered this lawsuit, the Department intends to clarify its position on sports at a later date.

"In light of the volume and substance of comments, and to ensure full consideration of the range of views expressed in those comments, the Department intends to publish a notice of final regulations related to sex-related eligibility criteria for male and female athletic teams separate from these final regulations," the final rule document states.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Terrebonne school board supports state's anti LGBTQ lawsuit