Education is secondary in school.
Approximately 100 people crowded into the school board room on Monday night to both praise and criticize Great Falls Public Schools for changing its non-discrimination policy back in January to include transgender and students who struggle with gender identity as a protected population of students.
Though there were a number of people in the crowd sporting “rescind 3210” buttons (the board policy number for the equal education, non-discrimination and sex equity policy), far more people spoke in favor of the school district’s decision to include such language than those who spoke against.
“No children will be safe until all children — including transgender children — feel safe,” said Tammy Bull.
To be clear, Board Chairman Jan Cahill told the crowd the school board was not taking any action on the policy on Monday night and encouraged the crowd to remain civil on such an emotional topic.
Superintendent Tammy Lacey reviewed the policy, what the exact language included and what it didn’t, as well as described the public process used to approve the policy change.
“In my conversations with many (people), many had not read that policy,” Lacey said. “There’s no mention of bathrooms or locker rooms or curriculum in this policy.”