A Pennsylvania school district committee has recommended the retirement of the district's "Sex-Based Distinctions in Athletics" policy prohibiting student from competing on opposite-sex sports teams.
As reported by the Bucks County Courier Times, Central Bucks School District policy committee's recommendation now moves to the full board of directors for a final decision. The next school board meeting is Oct. 8.
At its first meeting in December 2023, the current school board suspended the policy, which had been approved just weeks earlier by the outgoing board. The board's majority had changed from Republican to Democratic.
According to Jess Rohan of the Courier Times, several current school board members ran on overturning policies they viewed as discriminatory toward queer students. The board's president, Karen Smith, received a National Education Association award in July as an advocate for LGBTQ+ youths.
The sports participation decision, as well as other decisions made during the December meeting, are now the subject of a lawsuit alleging that the board violated the Sunshine Act by adding agenda items after the legal deadline.
At last Wednesday's meeting, superintendent Steven Yanni voiced concern that it could be legally problematic to keep the policy suspended without formally retiring it, according to Rohan, adding some board members questioned if the policy is legal at all.
Policy 123.3 prohibited students from competing on opposite-sex teams. The policy defined sex as "the biological distinction between male and female based on reproductive biology and genetic make-up." The policy cites a section of Title IX, 34 C.F.R. 106.41, as its basis, which allows schools to exclude students by sex in contact sports. But the district's policy applied to all non-co-ed sports.
Yanni said that he is hesitant in general about writing "home-grown policies," rather than those drafted by an organization, like the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. The district could face legal liabilities if a policy is found to have no basis in the school code, he said, as reported by Rohan.
The policy also left the school-recognized gender of students up to their parents. Parents had the option to notify the district if a student's gender identity differed from their assigned sex. If an athletic director or superintendent questioned a child's sex or gender, the policy directed them to refer to information the parent provided at registration, per Rohan's reporting.
"The recommendation to retire the proposal comes after several district schools, including all three high schools, were added in August to an injunction in a federal lawsuit against Title IX revisions the Biden administration introduced in April to cover gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy under the anti-discrimination law," Rohan wrote. "The injunction prevents the federal government from enforcing the new Title IX rules in schools on the list. However, the injunction doesn't prevent schools from removing policies that may violate Title IX themselves."
