MANSFIELD — State Representative Mark Romanchuk encouraged school principals and superintendents to “vote their conscience, so to speak” when it comes to complying with the federal government’s transgender bathroom mandate.
A group of 102 area pastors wrote a letter to state government officials urging them to recognize a call to civil disobedience against the nation’s recent gender identity rules for schools.
Although an act of civil disobedience is not, in Romanchuk’s opinion, the best method of fighting the mandate, he understands the concern.
“It’s a shame that the federal government has to threaten states to comply by taking away funding — that’s a problem,” Romanchuk said, adding he thinks the transgender bathroom policy is “bad.”
“Schools should stand on principal and not yield to a threat,” he said.
The best way to combat the transgender rule, he said, is to find the presidential candidate that aligns with the voter’s conscience come November.
The U.S. Department of Education mandated in May 2015 all school districts and universities must comply with the federal government’s restroom mandate that allows individuals to choose which gender specific bathrooms they wish to use.
The letter states that school districts may be subject to lawsuits and withdrawal of federal funding if the school does not comply with the federal mandate.
It cited a recent case between the U.S. Justice Department and the state of North Carolina. The lawsuit was filed in May because the Justice Department contended the state’s law, HB2, violated the rights of transgender people by requiring them to use the bathroom corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate.
“The federal government has demonstrated an open hostility to its citizens and more specifically our women and children by forcing its radical form of orthodoxy which undoubtedly will destabilize the school environment from learning. We cannot sacrifice the safety and privacy of women and children on the altar of political correctness,” reads the letter.
The letter was sent Thursday, July 27.
Mid-Ohio Educational Services Center Superintendent Linda Keller believes the decision to comply with the federal government’s mandate on transgender bathroom rules rests with individual school administrators.
“Certainly everyone has an opinion,” Keller said.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said schools should not view it as a threat to their federal funding in a Daily Mail article published in May.
Keller did not offer advice to schools; however, she said, “right now there is not a definitive authority of financial consequences.”
Romanchuk was not as confident, but his suspicions are similar to Keller’s inclination.
“I don’t know. I’m at the state level so I don’t know what the authority is, but it’s safe to say there are three avenues of funding for schools: local, federal and state. And the federal is what is in question. They (the federal government) might not have as much leverage as they think,” he said.
Mansfield City Schools Treasurer Robert Kuehnle said the district receives $7 million in federal funding each fiscal year.
Mansfield City Schools Superintendent Brian Garverick said the school’s policy will stay the same.
“We always have and will make accommodations for kids,” he said. “This year, like every year, we’ll meet with parents and accommodate on a case-by-case basis.”
“Including if someone has a certain condition maybe they have to use a different restroom. We make accommodations. Public education is not in the business of excluding kids,” Garverick said.
Currently, he said, Mansfield schools do not have transgender bathrooms or locker rooms. He neither confirmed nor denied whether the school has plans to include additional bathrooms.
“It’s not been an issue to date,” Garverick said.
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, along with several other state officials, was a recipient of the pastors’ letter.
