The Cordova School District Board of Education is poised today to vote on updating its official nondiscrimination policy language to include sexual orientation and gender identity – a move that has stirred some controversy among parents, residents, and local elected officials.
According to Board Chair Barb Jewell, the body generally votes on action items twice – a first read and a second read – usually at two consecutive meetings. The Board discussed the new language for the nondiscrimination policy during its regular meeting on Dec. 11 – but after some community members responded in opposition and raised questions about the implications of the language change, the board didn’t include it on the Jan. 15 meeting agenda.
Jewell – who has been chair of the Board for a decade and isn’t running for re-election next month – said some community members thought the group took the action item off the Jan. 15 public agenda to try and pass it under the radar. But in reality, she said, the Board saved the vote for the February meeting so members could have time to adequately answer residents’ questions and seek legal counsel about possible implications of the language change.
The Board is voting to update the language to read: “District programs and activities shall be free from discrimination with respect to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, ethnic group, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or parental status, and physical or mental disability.”
The only change between the new proposed verbiage and the current policy language is the addition of the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Jewell confirmed with The Cordova Times that the Cordova School Board is basing this language on the Association of Alaska School Boards’ wording.
Jewell said a lot of the backlash, which originated and spread on Facebook, was “heated,” “ugly,” “scary,” and “really hurtful,” particularly about transgender people – those who don’t identify with the sex they were assigned at birth.
“The discussion ignited this storm,” she said.
At the last School Board meeting on Jan. 15, one parent testified about some of the challenges her child, who is nonbinary, faced while at school. Another LGBTQ+ woman spoke in support of the language change, sharing that when she and her wife moved to Cordova they weren’t sure if they would be fully accepted.
Morgan Saiget – the Cordova High School Student Council president and School Board representative – wrote a Feb. 5 letter of support for the language update.
“Protective policies like this one are important and a priority for my peers and the students of this community,” Saiget wrote. “Discrimination has wide reaches, and as we take steps against racial and disability discrimination, we should do the same in other classes. We see this specific policy as an action to further the security of equality, rather than a drastic change in the makeup of our school’s principles or education.”
Multiple others, however, have written about their disapproval over the language change – some saying it would enable boys to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, and others arguing that the policy verbiage already adequately protects people from discrimination without adding gender identity and sexual orientation.
Cordova City Council Member Ken Jones – who specified he was writing as a citizen and father – penned a letter “vehemently” opposing the language change.
“If passed, my family might seek alternative educational routes for my children,” he wrote. “I am even prepared to commit my time and resources to establish and fund a private and/or faith-based educational program in our community if this policy change goes through.”
Mayor David Allison, in an email directly to Cordova School District Superintendent Alex Russin, voiced his opposition as well – saying transgender people are “mentally challenged” and in need of “counseling … not catering.”
“We have men’s and women’s activities for a reason and it needs to remain that way … not by identity but by birth, sex-based science,” Allison said.
Jewell told The Cordova Times that the legal guidance she received outlined that adding sexual orientation and gender identity into the nondiscrimination language wouldn’t automatically allow for gender neutral bathroom or sports policies.
The School Board vote also comes at a time when sex and gender are hotly contested topics in national politics.
President Donald Trump, in only his first month, has already signed various executive orders over the matter – aiming to limit the definition of sex to mean only the biological sex somebody is born with. These orders have enraged many LGBTQ+ organizations and activists, who say the policies directly discriminate against transgender and nonbinary Americans. According to a Pew Research study in 2022, only 1.6% of U.S. adults identify as transgender and nonbinary.
Jewell, however, reiterated that today’s vote isn’t to enact a policy, but rather simply to update the District’s language.
“This isn’t something I think should be a problem,” she said.
The Board meeting starts at 7 p.m. tonight, Feb. 12, at the Cordova Jr./Sr. High School Media Center.
