Ludington Area School Board Meeting, August 19, 2024: Mistaken Identity

[XLFD]

The agenda packet for the August 19, 2024 meeting of the Ludington Area School District (LASD) Board was light on action items, all three involving purchases (approving bond project payments of $1.2 million, a $64,000 outlay for copy machines, and $63,000 for steel siding installation for the bus barn) from established contractors or low bidders.  The underlying issue was in the discussion of future policy, especially the Biden Administration's tweaking of Title IX to include new protected classes under sex discrimination.

The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) threw a wrench into those plans on August 16th, by siding with those who wanted to enjoin the plan from kicking in as established national school policy starting August 1st (we noted this at the LT here).  This contested issue will go back to federal courts and will likely still be enjoined from starting before the November election.  It's likely a Trump Administration would not pursue such changes in Title IX, should that result.

The topic is not new to the LASD Board, as the state's education department has quietly added gender identity and other LGBTQ+ categories into the realm of protected classes for discrimination, this came up back in an October 2022 LASD Board meeting, where the guidance from the Thrun Law Firm and the state pointed towards being permissive on issues involving gender identity in the school, not much unlike the new Title IX language.  I have seen recent training videos for Michigan schools that vaguely caution against gender identity discrimination, without going into detail of what that actually is, which is a key reason why the injunction was put in place on Friday.  

This meeting, held at Ludington Elementary School, therefore will be mostly forgettable when actions are considered, but it did have some meaningful discussions on this topic, the superintendent's state of the district presentation, and a few words from Sheriff Kim Cole.  Board members Scott Foster and Leona Ashley were absent and the agenda was modified so as to give an updated quote from Miller's Construction for the siding which was $8800 higher than before due to using better siding.  They also removed approving meal price approvals, since there was no change from last year and the action was unneeded.  I started the discussion.

    Photo from article "Vermont high school bans girls from their own locker room because they don’t want to change clothes in front of boy"

XLFD:  "I missed the board meeting last month, but I did catch the MCC School Board meeting, and I said some favorable things about this district and its administration in terms of transparency and competitive bidding processes.  So, please don't take it personally when I offer criticism on issues that I believe you've failed at, for I will also recognize your successes, but rarely mention them for your ears.  It's my style of coaching.  

I fully understand the pressure that the school district is getting from Washington DC and Lansing to adopt policies for schools that most parents in our district may find objectionable.  One of these is the recent redefining language added to Title IX.  Title IX was originally created to prevent sexual discrimination in academia, and it quickly managed to help women's athletic programs come into existence and prosper.  It offered incentives for young women to take up sports and earn the same accolades as their male counterparts.  

For some reason, certain intellectual elites want to change that by introducing the concept of gender identity into Title IX and have males wiping out longstanding records made by females in their sport simply because they have gender dysphoria.  As a young man, I would've liked to have been a fly on the wall in the girl's shower room (as a dirty old man, that still doesn't sound like a bad idea), but if this passes, no polymorphing to an insect would be required, all it would take is for a biological male to identify as a female and they have a free pass to the locker room, the showers, and likely a starting spot on the women's team.  If anybody takes offense, they run the risk of being charged with discrimination.  Having men invade your sports and your private places was not a historical objective of Title IX, in fact, this proposed change goes against many of the positive advancements in our schools and colleges since Title IX was passed.  

So please be aware of this last Friday's Supreme Court ruling which effectively enjoins this change of Title IX in many states and many school districts for at least a couple of months.  Our school district shall be part of that injunction, since we do have a member in our district of one of the plaintiff organizations who filed a lawsuit and received an injunction and that mother has a child who goes to school here.

In closing, please keep our student athletes off the artificial turf when the heat index on the field is in the red, postpone any decision on Title IX amendments until after the November election, when it may become a moot issue, and give me some reasons to say nice things about you to the MCC Board."  [END comment]

Superintendent Corlett was proactively helpful in sending me some additional material as regards the district's standing policies on Title IX related issues just before the meeting, and Trustee Mike Nagle verified later in the meeting that the SCOTUS decision would affect the school's existing policy, while they await further guidance.  While the first reading of the policy change would be made tonight, it would likely come to discussion in a future board meeting and the new changes would likely not come until and unless the court's lift applicable injunctions.

As noted, we do have Moms for Liberty members among parents of LASD students, another one contacted me after the meeting, ready to activate to keep this strange ideology out of our learning institutions.  To be sure, I don't care if you think you're a girl when you're a boy, or you think you're a kitten when you're a girl, but don't force me or others to buy into your delusion and give up our established rights (and grounding in reality) in doing so.

The state of the district presentation went on a familiar nautical theme but based more on a novel about the Berlin Olympics that Dr. Corlett read on the rowing team:  "It's not about you or me, it's about the boat."  The boat was doing mostly well on reports, with academic progress being seen at most levels, rebounding from the virtual learning of the COVID years.  Fund balance was holding steady and at better levels for LASD over the last two decades, but not as high as he'd like. 

When Sheriff Kim Cole speaks at LASD meetings it's always difficult for me since I normally take notes using the initials of the person who acts/speaks and he has the same initials as Kyle Corlett.  Using 'SKC' for either doesn't help because one's a sheriff and the other is a superintendent.  Nevertheless, one perseveres such challenges.

Sheriff Cole's presentation was given as a pretext to let the board and public know his office (the MCSO) and the Ludington Police Department (LPD) were still willing and able to provide School Resource Officer (SRO) services even with the spectre of major cuts (over 90%) happening in the funding mechanism from the state looming.  The program will still be solvent into 2026 but will need some help at that point.  Cole cleverly worked in his own life experiences as regards major shootings in Sandy Hook and Uvalde to make the case that SRO programs are well worth it, highlighting how his four deputies in the field have went above and beyond to provide such services.

For a service that may cost a school district upwards of $140,000 per school year, I didn't hear a lot of benefits to the district or the student body for the cost.  Other than the on-site security aspect of what they offer and any mentoring or assistance that they might provide to a student here or there, I didn't hear a lot of justification other than the references to a couple school shootings (one where an SRO was present and failed miserably) and the sheriff's dismissal of the concept of arming willing teachers.  

Cole mentioned someone bringing this up at another meeting and shut the idea down by effectively saying that teachers need to stay in their lane and allow his office to supply the manpower to protect the children.  Back when the Ludington Torch researched the LPD's Reserve Officers ten years ago, we found that four of the reservists were teachers in the LASD, spread throughout the district's schools. 

As reservists, they could carry guns in school zones, are trained in their use, and have limited police powers; this would be more school security than we currently have with SROs without any additional costs-- but it would mean about $600,000 less going to the sheriff's office, and security that knows more about the school and its students than some hired mercenary.  

 

The school security debate needs to happen since the guaranteed money is going away soon.  The debate over what exactly is gender identity discrimination needs also to be discussed in detail at open forums.

[Willy]

This attempt to alter Title 9 borders on insanity. How can there be gender equity if there are more than 2 genders as the Left wants us to accept? Clouding gender by declaring that multiple genders exist will only produce confused children. Parents must keep on top of this or the entire educational system will collapse. The Left is trying to blur the lines of reality with this nonsense. The video below is regarding the Olympic boxers who were men fighting women. By the way I think that women boxing is just plain stupid.

[XLFD]

What they're doing with gender identity should be obvious when you consider who wants to do this and what the end result will be.  Emasculating and defeminizing the next generation will destroy the strong family unit, one of the big obstacles against the USA going full socialist, which has the secondary benefits of decreasing the population and creating a class of dysphoric individuals who only get worse when they realize what irreversible actions have been enacted when they were young and naive, and take out their aggressions against society; perfect useful idiots for those who want to destroy the republic we have.