WENTZVILLE — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is suing the Wentzville school board over claims the district excluded parents from discussions about bathroom and locker room access for transgender students.
In a suit filed Tuesday, Bailey claims the school board violated the state’s open meetings law when members met in closed session over the summer to discuss a policy for transgender students to request arrangements such as using a single-stall bathroom or locker room.
“Parents have the right to know who is in the bathroom with their children,†Bailey said in a statement. “Members of the Wentzville School board knowingly and purposefully denied parents that right when they shrouded the transgender student bathroom usage policy in secrecy, directly violating the Open Meetings Law.â€
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It’s unclear if the district adopted the policy, and it’s unclear how many students identify as transgender in the Wentzville School District, one of the largest in the state with more than 17,000 students.
Bailey’s lawsuit marks the latest instance of St. Charles County as the epicenter for culture wars in the region. The county in recent months has seen fights over claims that sexually explicit books are available in public libraries, calls for gender-neutral outfits for library workers, and the rollback of diversity and equity efforts in some schools.
Bailey said his office was first notified of possible open meeting violations by school board members Jennifer Olson and Renee Henke, both of whom were elected in April as avowed conservatives. Their concerns were echoed by more than 40 community members, Bailey said.
During the closed meeting over the summer, Superintendent Danielle Tormala said there would be a transgender student in one of the district’s high schools using the girls’ bathroom, and the girl is already seen by fellow students as “just one of the girls,†according to the suit.
Lawyers for the district also shared a proposed draft for the new bathroom and locker room policy during the meeting, according to affidavits in Bailey’s suit. The policy outlined the process by which a transgender student could notify the district about their orientation and request special accommodations.
Board members then questioned the circumstances in which the student’s parents would be notified about such a request.
According to court documents, the policy directs school officials to notify the parents except in rare cases determined by school faculty and staff.
Both Olson and Henke said they tried to push the district’s administration to discuss the policy in open session, but administrators were hesitant to do so because of fears the policy would become a “lightning rod for lawsuits,†according to court documents.
In his suit, Bailey alleges that the board had these discussions “under the guise of legal actions or attorney-client communication.â€
“The board’s discussions of its policy went beyond the scope of permissible exceptions. The board should have opened discussions about the policy to the public in open-session public meeting,†Bailey said in the court filing.
The issue of bathroom and locker room usage was also one of the main topics of discussion at a contentious, five-hour school board meeting last week.
School board president Jason Goodson was frequently shouted down by attendees who said the district was not heeding a call to action by Missouri Sen. Nick Schroer, who, in a letter co-signed by other St. Charles County lawmakers, urged local school districts to implement policies that would require transgender students to use restrooms and locker room showers that match the gender they were assigned at birth.
In his letter, Schroer said that students have the “expectation of privacy that must absolutely be protected.†He also suggested that school districts should have these policy discussions in public session and that they should implement policies that would allow transgender students to, alternatively, use single-stall bathrooms.
Goodson and fellow school board members David Lewis, Katie Lyczak and Shannon Stolle, criticized state lawmakers for the letter.
“They threw us under the proverbial school bus,†Lyczak said.
Goodson questioned why the lawmakers didn’t pass legislation in Jefferson City to make these changes, rather than “force the issue onto school boards.â€
Goodson also said the district is trying to walk a fine line in an effort to avoid litigation after a school district outside Kansas City was sued last month by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued the district had implemented policies that discriminated against a transgender student.
“At best, the legal landscape on this is gray,†Goodson said. “This is a delicate issue for a variety of reasons.â€
Olson — one of the lawmakers who filed the initial complaint with Missouri’s attorney general — introduced a proposed policy at the meeting last week that would allow students to use existing, single-person facilities if the student chooses, regardless of why they prefer them.
The policy is expected to have a first reading at the school board’s October meeting.