Idaho School Board Proposed Being Nice To Gay Kids. YOU'LL NEVER GUESS ... Oh, You Will.

Suffer the little children. No, suffer them.

The monthly meeting of the school board in Caldwell, Idaho, about 30 miles west of Boise, ended in fracas and affray Monday night as a brand-new member of the state Legislature berated the board and threatened the the members with lawsuits if it passed a proposed policy to protect LGBTQ kids.

The proposed Policy 3281 was the focus of the usual anger and moral panic by the far Right, because it would allow transgender students to use school restrooms and changing rooms appropriate to the gender identity kids express at school, as long as a parent requests it. It would also require teachers to use a trans kid's preferred name and pronouns, and would let same-sex couples dance together at school dances, which would surely bring God's wrath on Idaho. (I mean, just the dancing, never mind the gay part.)

Oh, and to freak out all the rightwing Fox News watchers, the policy would provide confidentiality to students who prefer their parents not be notified they're out at school, meaning parents would be denied their sacred right to thrash the demon-possessed stranger they no longer recognize as the child they once had, in the spirit of Christian love.

The board had already taken some steps to keep the meeting minimally civil, limiting public comment to an hour, giving preference to actual residents of Caldwell, and limiting speakers to three minutes each. Even so, there were several moments when the audience grew so loud and aggressive that the board nearly adjourned, including when three Caldwell High School students gave a joint statement in favor of the rule change, because why the hell would you let THEM speak all together, it's madness!

Yep, they grumbled about the children, because the children weren't afraid of imaginary scary LGBTQ monsters. The hell with the children if they don't appreciate being protected.

Also, a middle school girl said she would feel very uncomfortable changing in the same locker room as a boy and everyone would be uncomfortable sharing a bathroom with a boy too, so she got applause.

 KTVB-TV, perhaps stifling a snicker or two, describes the objectors as having

made statements invoking God and condemning transgender people. Further, many people said the policy would violate God, the constitution and hasten the destruction of the United States.

Apart from the faulty parallelism there, that's some fine reporting. If you'd like to ruin your day, you can watch the entire meeting on the YouTube; I've cued the video link to the start of the public comments, which also include a self-proclaimed "civil rights attorney" who promised to sue the board for forcing "a government-sponsored religion" on his children if it respected trans kids.

The board ultimately adjourned well before the hour was up, after state Sen. Chris Trakel (R) stepped up to the mic and complained that the board's rules for public comments violated the People's First Amendment rights how dare they, and he was just getting started.

This five-minute video includes Trakel's meltdown and the raucous end of the meeting, complete with cops stepping in to protect members of the school board from We The People.

 www.youtube.com 

Trakel announced that he was not at the meeting in his role as a parent, but "on my official position" as a state senator. He was elected in November, and the Lege opened its 2023 session that day, so he was fully ready to go mad with power we guess.

Trakel admonished the school board that

You, under Idaho law, are required to maintain the morals and health of all the students. How can you do that when like that little girl came up here and said, and you allow a male student to use a female bathroom. You are going to put all of their moral health and safety at risk, and like I told you before you will face litigation. You call that a threat, I’m telling you that is what will happen. It has already happened in several states and there’s already been rulings on it.

So before you waste taxpayer money, before you put a kid in harm’s way, you better throw this policy out and not even consider it.

Trakel was apparently referring to a line in state law on school boards that says boards have a duty "To protect the morals and health of the pupils," although it's not any more specific than that. Not that the mental health or well-being of LGBTQ+ kids even matters, because they're the ones being immoral and unhealthy, right?

We won't know what other great insights Trakel planned to offer, because at that moment, board Chair Marisela Pesina whispered something to another board member and Trakel lost his mind, telling Pesina that he had the floor and she had to listen to him, then ranting, "You claim you want people to follow the rules, but you break the rules left and right! Last month you allowed two people ..."

At that point, Pesina called a recess and the audience went batshit, shouting that they'd recall the board and causing the Zoom recording to cut out automatically from the sudden noise. As the shouts and outrage continued ( "The PEOPLE are SPEAKING!!" ), a board member motioned for the meeting to adjourn, someone else seconded, and Trakel started shouting the text of the Idaho Code (probably something on public meetings) into the mic before it was cut off. Caldwell Police came in to protect the board members until the room was cleared, and happily no one was assaulted (yeah, only the CONSTITUTION AND GOD).

As Idaho Ed News notes, the draft policy is still in the early stages of being adopted; if the board decides to continue on with it, it will need a first and second reading in future board meetings before the board votes. Sounds like fun! I'll have to find some cardboard and a marker and make a sign saying "TRANSPHOBES ARE WEAK SAD POOP."

[ KTVB-TV / LGBTQ Nation / Idaho Ed News / Draft Policy 3281 ]

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