Linn-Mar school board rescinds policy aimed at protecting transgender students from discrimination

MARION — The Linn-Mar school board rescinded a policy Monday that protected transgender students from discrimination, saying it references Iowa laws that “no longer exist.”

But school board member Melissa Walker said the protections for transgender students “are not going away.” Students still are protected under the district’s Anti-Bullying/Harassment Policy 103.1, she said during a school board meeting last month.

Walker, however, voted not to rescind policy 504.13 Transgender and Students Nonconforming to Gender Role Stereotypes during its second reading. The vote was 6-1 Monday and the policy has now been rescinded.

“This policy does not remove any protections for transgender students,” Walker said, asking that the district give a statement demonstrating ongoing support toward protecting transgender students.

The rescinded policy references a portion of the Iowa Civil Rights Act which was repealed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in February.

Reynolds signed into law earlier this year Senate File 418, which removes gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, strikes the definition of gender identity in state law, and creates new legal definitions of male and female based on reproductive organs at birth.

“A policy that refers to laws that no longer exist doesn’t make sense,” Walker said in March.

School board member Brittania Morey said the district’s Anti-Bullying/Harassment Policy “still protects all students.”

“Linn-Mar students, as in all public schools in the U.S., are protected under federal and state laws that ensure equal treatment regardless of gender,” spokeswoman Renee Nelson said in a statement to The Gazette. “This change does not impact the district’s student anti-bullying/anti-harassment policy, which protects all students from harassment and discrimination on the basis of any actual or perceived trait or characteristic of the student, including sex and gender identity.”

Crystal Callahan, parent to a student in the Linn-Mar Community School District, asked the school board to reconsider rescinding the policy during a public comment period at the board meeting in March.

Callahan said her son, who is transgender, feels safe, protected and respected at school.

“What the governor did isn’t right, but the school doesn’t have to follow suit,” Callahan said. “I’m asking you to please not make it easier for him to be hurt in a place that he feels so safe and cared for.”

School board member Laura Thomas pointed out that the first reading of the policy on March 31 occurred on International Transgender Day of Visibility, a day to raise awareness about transgender people.

“Something that’s really hurt my heart was that the first reading to rescind this policy happened on International Transgender Day of Visibility,” Thomas said Monday. “It wasn’t planned that way, and I thought it was right to acknowledge that really awful, awful timing.”

The policy Transgender and Students Nonconforming to Gender Role Stereotypes was adopted by the school board in April 2022 after being hotly debated.

A second policy — 503.13-R — also adopted in April 2022 that aimed to protect transgender and nonbinary students was rescinded less than a year later in March 2023.

The policies were intended to allow all students to advocate for themselves, feel comfortable at school, receive support from staff and work with staff and families to create a plan to help students succeed.

In February 2024, the Linn-Mar school board approved an agreement to resolve a lawsuit challenging 503.13-R. In settling, the district’s insurance company paid the plaintiffs — a group named Parents Defending Education — $20,000. No district funds are being paid toward the settlement.

Parents Defending Education is an organization that includes “parents, students and other concerned citizens” with a mission to prevent the “politicization of K-12 education,” according to the lawsuit.

The group contended the Linn-Mar policy allowed children to make fundamentally important decisions about gender identity without parental involvement and to hide those decisions in school from their parents.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com