ST. CHARLES COUNTY — The Wentzville School District argued in court on Monday that a judge should toss out Missouri Attorney General Andrew µþ²¹¾±±ô±ð²â’s lawsuit against it, saying the law allows board members to discuss transgender issues privately.
The case isn’t about transgender politics, said Melanie Renken, an attorney representing the school district. It’s about whether a school board can solicit legal advice from its attorney during closed session.
“I can’t imagine anyone in this courtroom doesn’t believe in government transparency when it comes to educating our children,†Renken said at the hearing. “But this is not a case of government transparency. It is not a case about transgender rights or parent rights.â€
µþ²¹¾±±ô±ð²â’s suit, filed in September, claims the school board violated the state’s open meetings law when members met in closed session over the summer to discuss a process that could allow transgender students to use a single-stall bathroom or locker room.
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Bailey, who is running for office next year, has moved to create broad restrictions on hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgeries in Missouri. His office has sued the Southampton Community Health Center, in South ºüÀêÊÓƵ, over gender care. And it’s investigating patient care at Washington University’s transgender clinic.
The issue in Wentzville arose publicly this fall after the school board met privately twice, on June 14 and July 25, regarding bathroom and locker room access for transgender students.
In the June 14 meeting, Renken said the school board discussed a legal memo related to transgender students using locker rooms and bathrooms and requested that general counsel Patrick Brazill present a draft of a potential transgender student policy for locker room and bathroom usage.
In both meetings, board members talked among themselves for 10 or 15 minutes, according to lawyers for the district and for the attorney general.
Bailey has said his office was first notified of possible open meeting violations by school board members Jennifer Olson and Renee Henke, elected in April, who filed affidavits describing the meetings. Board member David Lewis said he had also filed an affidavit, but his was not included in the lawsuit.
In court on Monday, Brazill, Superintendent Danielle Tormala and board member Julie Scott sat just two rows from Olson and Henke. The two parties did not speak to each other.
At the hearing, Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Monroe said the board’s conversations this summer should have been held in open session.
Missouri’s open meetings law has protections allowing for closed meetings involving district attorneys, pending litigation and ongoing legal issues.
But the school board’s conversations in June and July didn’t need to be protected, Monroe said. Just because discussions are controversial doesn’t mean they should be had in private.
“We feel those conversations went beyond the scope of the Sunshine Law,†she said.
Monroe also dismissed concerns that allowing the lawsuit to go forward would have a chilling effect on school board members’ ability to discuss legal issues in closed session with their attorneys.
“The law does not require that (Brazill’s presentations) be made in closed session. They could have been discussed in open session,†Monroe said.
But St. Charles County Judge Deborah Alessi said it was “unfair and unrealistic†to expect board members not to talk amongst themselves following a legal presentation.
“People are human beings,†said Alessi. “They are going to talk to one another.â€
Alessi questioned how the dispute ended up in court at all.
“I’m sorry, but how can this situation even get to this point without being fixed?†she asked. “All you have to do is to go into the next open meeting and talk about it.â€
Monroe disagreed.
“We encourage those conversations to happen,†she said. “But doing it after the fact does not change the fact that there was a violation of the Sunshine Law.â€
Alessi did not rule on the case. She said Monday she would read the court filings and issue a ruling soon. She set a hearing date for Feb. 5.