Update for locals: tonight, Alpine School District will be having a meeting; that’s May 17 at 6 p.m., to discuss the transgender bathroom issue and how it will affect your child. If you have anything to say or if you just want to know what’s happening locally due to Obama’s crazy new policy to let boys into girl’s locker rooms, bathrooms and showers, you might want to show up:
ASD District Office 575 N 100 E, American Fork, Utah 84003
Brian Halladay, Wendy Hart and Paula Hill, three members on the board of Utah’s largest school district, Alpine District, have written an open letter to the Utah legislature, governor, and state school board. It is posted here in full.
May 15, 2016
This letter is to urge you, as the Governor, Legislature, and State School Board to reject the guidance dictating actions regarding transgender students dated May 13, 2016.
The guidance in this letter states:
- “School staff and contractors will use pronouns and names consistent with a transgender student’s gender identity.”
- “When a school provides sex-segregated activities and facilities, transgender students must be allowed to participate in such activities and access such facilities consistent with their gender identity.”
a. “A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so.”
b. “School must allow transgender students to access housing consistent with their gender identity and may not require transgender students to stay in single-occupancy accommodations or to disclose personal information when not required of other students.”
This guidance would allow a boy that identifies as a girl to be allowed to use facilities such as bathrooms, locker rooms and showers with girls. This is not just a complete violation of privacy, but is morally reprehensible. The consequences of this social experiment would be disastrous, not only as an invasion of the rights of a majority, but also with the potential legal liability this could incur upon school districts and the state, if we were to adopt this egregious guidance.
Article X of the US Constitution states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The federal government has no power to tell people what to do except in areas specifically authorized in the Constitution.
That means it has no right to invade our privacy, or to dictate that transgender students have access to facilities that would invade the privacy of other children.
The Department of Education has threatened that it may pull education funding from our State if we don’t comply. This is likely a baseless threat meant to force states into compliance. However, with only 8% of State funds coming from the federal government, this would be an ideal opportunity to declare Utah’s sovereignty, and to allow our children to be free from the tyrannical mandates of our federal government.
This level of federal overreach is as unprecedented as it is unconstitutional. As locally-elected board members, we will be voting for a budget next month that includes no federal funding at all. While we realize we will have to tighten our belts and reallocate funds to accomodate those necesssary programs, the safety and privacy of the students we were elected to serve outweighs the 6% that our district receives in federal funds. We would appreciate your support in this endeavor.
I urge you, as Utah’s representatives, to also push back against this guidance, protect the privacy of our children and move forward in making Utah the shining city on a hill.
Sincerely,
Brian Halladay, Alpine School District Board Member
Wendy Hart, Alpine School District Board Member
Paula Hill, Alpine School District Board Member
COMMON CORE 
Hurrah!!!
I’m just as much of a church-going LDS living guy as anyone and I wholeheartedly believe It’s immoral to force someone to conform to your own beliefs, especially in a public situation.
Concern for the safety of children is legitimate but I would like to remind you that if you don’t have faith that the school system can separate real transgender students from those who would abuse the system then you should step down as board members so someone stronger can take your place. I have faith in the school system because I understand that teachers and administrators are intelligent humans — not just numbers.
You speak of the tyranny of the federal government but fail to see that PREVENTING the freedom of a group of people would be the true act of tyranny in this situation.
Furthermore I would like to remind you that the 6% of the budget you dismiss so offhandedly is the 6% of the budget that keeps you barely afloat as a public school district.
As board members of a school your number one priority should be the students. Both the students you raised, and the ones who suffer mental anguish every day so that you can snuggle up comfortably in your shiny house on a hill. While you enjoy your “moral high ground” these students are the contemplating whether or not your self-fulfilling enforcements are going to tip them over the edge toward suicide.
I implore you to reconsider your destructive stance and to realize that all students are deserving of support and love, even if you are afraid of them.
“kfike” Under this legislation, the simple act of any adult trying to “separate real transgender students” would be shot down as discrimination, profiling, labeling, … you name it. The problem is not with the “real transgender students” but rather with those who will abuse it because no one is allowed to question whether they are or are not transgender.
Members of the Board: I congratulate you for standing up against this. As parents we are extremely upset that the federal government would mandate such actions in our schools.
Gender Dysphoria is an actual diagnosable mental disorder. There’s no reason why a doctors note couldn’t be provided as proof that someone is truly transgender.
The memo specifically says no medical proof can be required, because that is discrimination. Read the memo from the justice dept.
It doesn’t say proof is discrimination, it says that because some states prevent transgender people from being identified/diagnosed as such it would be unreasonable to require such info. This is just another unfortunate side effect of discrimination except this time it’s having a negative impact on those who would discriminate as well. Go figure.
It also says that students and parents where appropriate (obviously the school determines when it’s appropriate) must inform the administration the student is going to assert a certain gender identity. Which means no one can “just change” at the drop of a hat.
kfike, you seem to have forgotten the innocence of the many hundreds of children, of whom this would affect and or the enormous damage it may do to each of their personal innocence. If a child/person has mental and or emotional issues, there are many other ways of which are best suited for their personal situations. It is unjust to put so many other children’s emotional and or physical beings at risk; it is morally wrong to damage any child’s/person’s health in order to enable an others. I speak with the knowledge of a parent of whose child has had their own difficulties in life.
Transgender students have been “doing their business” right next to all of us up to this point and no one has been made to feel uncomfortable about it up until this point. I can’t see how allowing that to continue could damage a person unless they have been raised in such a way that they feel the act of being transgender is an assault on them personally, which is wrong.
It is illogical to assume that sexual harassment will rise under these conditions as a sex crime is a crime whether or not a person is transgender.
Students need to be taught that enabling the rights of other people different than them is not an attack on their “personal innocence” and that they have been using the bathroom next to transgender people this entire time.
It is morally wrong to assume enabling a group of people — who have been, up to this point, enabled anyways — will damage the mental health of other students.
It has been consistently proven that the best way to “cure” gender dysphoria is by having a person undergo a bodily change. That is a verifiable scientific fact.
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=122684417
Wow, to put it bluntly that might be one of the worst sources I’ve ever been presented with. Here’s an example of a real source:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001527.htm
You need to read the memo. The administration is not allowed to question the authenticity of a gender-based claim. The student doesn’t have to be dressed as a girl. Any attempt to question the claim is considered discrimination.
I think the concern, at least for me, isn’t with a boy dressed as a girl trying to use the girls’ restroom. The DOJ memo is much broader and opens the door for problems from other sources. Based on that memo, a teenage boy can tell the principal he is now “gender fluid”, for example, and insist he have access to the girls’ locker room showers. The administration cannot question if he is being honest. They have to allow him in with your teenage girls when they are in their underwear or naked in the showers. If you don’t know more than one straight teenage boy who would say that just to have access to the girls’ showers, you don’t know enough boys.
Sorry, Mike. But I guess you haven’t seen the latest General Conference or studied the scriptures much. There was a wonderful talk by Elder Rasband about Standing with the Leaders of the Church. Check it out.,we are also told consistently to be In the World and not of the World, love the sinner hate the sin, etc. Tolerating, encouraging and condoning sin are not things we are to do. I just read this morning, D&C 103:27-28. We may all get our own impressions from the scriptures we read, but for this, I understood it to mean that we are to stick up for the Lord no matter the consequences. If we are to trying to find a grey area or try and appease the wrong-doers, we are afraid of them more than the Lord. No grey areas. Allowing the government to push this evil on the people so that they no longer know right and wrong is horrible. Want to help these people who are confused and suffering? Allowing them to dictate this doesn’t help them. Seek psychiatric help. Seek the Bishops help. Seek the Lords help. Those are effective means. Not putting our children’s physical and spiritual safety on the line. Please go back to the hymnal and slowly read over the lyrics for, Who’s On The Lord’s Side.
Jesus also said to love our neighbor. I will not condemn a group of people because they are sinners by my personal standards. Morality is relative to a person’s situation and upbringing. Forcing my beliefs to apply to other people was Satan’s plan and it was wrong.
Loving your neighbors into hell is not loving your neighbors! Christianity and the Holy Bible are not morally relative. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life no man comes to the father but by me!
Oops. My comment was in response to kfike, not Mike. Sorry.
Haha, it’s okay. Now you know about the reply button.
I am glad for this response of these three board members. Thank you Brian, Wendy and Paula. My big question is “where are the other members of the board?” The entire board should be supporting this.
I agree.
The innocence a child carries, should not be damaged by any adult of whom feels it is their responsibility to educate; when it is clearly not their place to do so. I have both boys and girls in this district, I am completely taken back by the audacity of this shameful use of the English language. Not only am I concerned for my girls, but also the effect it would have on my boys. No child should ever be put into a situation such as this. In all honesty I have told my children, if their school administrators chose abide by this mandate- I gave them permission to call me and I would bring them home to use the bathroom! I appreciate the board for coming to this stance on this illogical situation. As it is well past time for those of whom have kept quiet to stand up for what is right! Let the Lord judge as he may, this life is a test! “Stand up for what is Right, even if you are standing alone.”
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That would be the Tenth Amendment, not “Article X”.
Excellent letter, Thank you!
Update for locals: tonight, Alpine School District will be having a meeting; that’s May 17 at 6 p.m., to discuss the transgender bathroom issue and how it will affect your child. If you have anything to say or if you just want to know what’s happening locally due to Obama’s policy to let boys into girl’s locker rooms, bathrooms and showers, you might want to show up:
ASD District Office 575 N 100 E, American Fork, Utah 84003
The issue is not the issue. Chaos is the issue.
Why are you fighting to be able to discriminate? All this letter of guidance is enforcing is equal treatment of human beings. All anyone’s asking for is basic respect. If you’re so concerned about “the children”, why are you so ready to contribute to and enforce a system that has statistically more than half of transgender students seriously considering suicide? I think everyone involved in this ludicrous letter needs to take a long, hard look at who’s REALLY being “morally reprehensible” here.
Many folks here seem to be operating under a fundamental misunderstanding of transgender people. What you call a “boy that identifies as a girl” is a transgender girl who was assigned male at birth because of external genitalia. Her mind and perception of her body do not match this assigned identity. Forcing her to change in the boys room would be a violation of her privacy. Furthermore, you are conflating identity with criminal behaviour like assault. This is a categorical error and a cruel fallacy. This stigmatises trans people and they are already part of a vulnerable community. Trans children are more likely to commit suicide and statistically more likely to be assaulted.
I work with trans folks and share bathrooms with them. I assure you all they have ever done in the bathroom is pee and unite with me in giving the lady who doesn’t wash her hands the stink-eye. (PLEASE WASH YOUR HANDS!)
I am ALSO a former student of this school district 1985-1995 and have nieces and nephews being raised in this school district. I do NOT want them invested with the transphobic attitudes that such policies would perpetuate. (And should any of them turn out to be trans, I would want them supported as much as humanly possible.)
I never reply on these debates, but I feel kfike may appreciate some backup. Can someone tell me how “this is going to shatter our children’s innocence?” Oh the drama! I’m a single mom and have been sharing a bathroom with my two boys *gasp* for 16 years. And get this. We’ve even accidentally walked in on each other a couple of times during that 16 years *double gasp* I really don’t think my guys’ innocence has been destroyed.
On a more serious note, sexual abuse has ALWAYS been against the law and will continue to be. Bullying now has strict consequences in our schools. This agenda has nothing to do with either. If a kid feels uncomfortable, he/she is urged to tell an adult, and it is taken seriously. Just like it is now (believe me…you hurt my kids and my mama bear claws come out!). It’s up to US as parents to teach our kids to communicate with us, as always, and we deal with stuff as it comes up. Feeling like we need to “nip this in the bud,” is showing our kids how closed minded we are. That’s not the kind of mom I want to be.
I don’t think you are backing up kfike. You cannot compare sharing a bathroom with your own children to sharing a bathroom with a stranger or a classmate. It is not drama to be worried about keeping our children’s innocence intact. I am also a single mother and I love my children dearly. I refuse to accept what the US government is trying to impose on the schools. You are right, parents should talk to their children about transgender and other delicatr subjects, but if I teach my son that we are born men and women and we should live according to our gender and then he goes to school and sees a whole different idea, he might get a bit confused and my job as a parent will me a thousand times more difficult. Being morally correct and strict does not mean to be close minded.
I feel backed up and I actually really appreciate it, so excuse me if I take that part of your argument with a grain of salt.
Anyways: I don’t think you understand what close-mindedness is seeing as you seem to think it’s wrong that your child will learn different ideas in an establishment of education. The world is a big place and there are lots of different ideas out there that your innocent babe will have to grow accustomed to.
You also seem to be under the impression that being transgender is universally accepted as something that is wrong like rape or murder. This is not the case. I, as a Christian person, might think that if I were to change my body it would be a sin. But an atheist transgender girl might think that her change was something that felt natural and changed her life for the better.
Either way, the debate over which one of us is correct is a non-issue in this case because the constitution guarantees both desperation of church and state and the equal rights of all people. Those rights happen to include using the public bathroom and having the same public schooling opportunities. Allowing a transgender person into a bathroom does not have an effect on your or my ability to pee.
Kfike I’m sorry that you don’t see me as much as a support. Guess I’m on my own in that I tend to think of the good of my own kids instead of the big government picture, and probably always will. I admit I don’t understand all that this is doing, and I’m ok with that. What happens is going to happen, And my job is to keep my kids safe regardless. And I’m going to (and do) teach them to be open-minded and to be very sensitive and respectful to everyone. I know, I know…this may not be the best forum for me.
I don’t think you read my reply right, It was directed at Tiff and I do appreciate the support.
Jeni I hope you are not showering with those boys you share a bathroom with or peeing together. If you are, something isn’t right unless he is 2. Sharing a home bathroom can not be compared to sharing a locker room.
Amy hahaha! No sharing showers here. My point is kids have their own gut feelings. A girl could just as easily stare at another girl showering, and that’d be just as creepy. Are we gonna screen for gay kids next? Make sure THEY don’t steal our kids’ innocence? That’s actually worse in your scenario because gay girls are attracted to your little girls. Transgendered girls aren’t. P.S. I like debates like this…As long as it’s civil, it makes me think.
You absolutely rock. I support your position 100%. Thank you for standing up for children throughout our state and nation and the right to privacy and safety in the face of tyranny and what basically is rape of our rights and using federal funds as a weapon against all Americans.
Some thoughts from the American College of Pediatricians on these topics:
http://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/gender-ideology-harms-children
http://www.acpeds.org/sex-segregated-bathroom-and-locker-room-access-is-best-for-children
Bravo! Stand strong. The vast majority supports you!
This is NO different than making your little girl use a boys bathroom!!! Go educate yourself! Pop that bubble you live in called Utah where everything is black and white! There are grey areas that do exist! And no I don’t think you would have to travel outside of Utah to find transgender people but I do know you would have to travel outside of Utah to find those that are happy with themselves and who they are. And don’t feel like just because they were born with the wrong parts that they must be ashamed or that there is something wrong with them or that some poor girl has to be forced to go into a bathroom full of men with there penises hanging out because it makes YOU uncomfortable. Or a boy into a woman’s bathroom where woman are adjusting themselves I mean how uncomfortable would that be!!!
My name is Mason. I am 16, I am an honor roll student, I participate in clubs and in my school in all aspects, my parents both work for the salt lake county jail in high positions and I live a normal healthy life. And I am also transgender. I am fully supported by my parents and the school I currently go to, summit academy, and my life could not be going better. But not too long ago, I went to Lehi High and struggled mentally and emotionally and socially my entire experience there because the school refused to support my identity. I was in a horrible place and felt unsafe constantly. I was not allowed to use the boys bathroom, so I did not use one at all. I got two UTI’s while attending Lehi because I could not use the bathroom all day. If I did I had to skip parts of class to run across the street to the grocery store. I know that when you say these things about “social experiments” and boys in girls bathrooms, your not considering kids like me, I know you say these things out of ignorance because you just aren’t educated about things like this, I know that part of it may have to do with religion, part may have to do with believe everything people tell you with out searching for some truth, and part is just because you cant find the kind part of your hearts that can love all humans, but regardless of what it is.. You ruin peoples lives with these rules. You lack the support that is vital to the well being of kids like me. You are the cause of kids like me who commit suicide because you just couldnt let them live authentically. You lack empathy in a serious and disastrous way. And this is not going to turn out pretty for you. Just like the people who bigoted black people and segregated them, they didnt win. And you will not win either. I currently use a mens bathroom every day, with your sons, I play sports on your sons sports teams, I change in your sons locker rooms, and I hang out with them. Because I am a boy and those are the things boys do. And your kids? They are fine. And hopefully they grow up with more acceptance then you.
Mason, dude, you’re awesome! Thanks for being willing to respond. Never let them bring you down!
If its a question of law as do biological males have the right to share the shame facilities (bathrooms/showers/lockerrooms) as biological females then no they dont. Both male and female sexes have the right to bathrooms which are segregated by anatomy (hence why most male bathrooms have urinals) and female bathrooms dont. Seems more like a move towards a privelege and for the federal gov to hold funds as a means of blackmail is not only tyranical but authoritarion as well which last time i checked were not hallmarks of a dmocratic republic.
Here is the lawsuit link: a quite-long list of states and other entities are suing the feds over this tyrannical “directive” over school bathrooms. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/files/epress/files/2016/complaint_FM.pdf?utm_source=email+marketing+Mailigen&utm_campaign=News+5.31.16&utm_medium=email
Please keep me informed. Transgender I issues and bathroom policy’s