North Carolina School Board Promises To Change Vote After Possible Legal Action And Pressure From LGBT Community
This week, along with the controversial enforcement of the bathroom bill in local governments, a North Carolina school board voted to allow students to carry pepper spray or mace with them in order to defend themselves in case a student is assaulted in a bathroom.
The Inquisitr wrote about the issue where pepper spray and/or mace was put on a list of items that are currently prohibited for students to take to school.
As mentioned in the video, the state is currently at the beginning of a lawsuit with the federal government over HB2, a law put forward by the Republican-led government that says people using bathrooms in government buildings and institutions should use the restroom according to their biological sex. As a result, this puts restrictions on the transgender community if they physically identify with a different sex separate from their birth certificate.
CNN is reporting that schools received a joint letter from both the Department of Education and Department of Justice “with guidelines to ensure that “transgender students enjoy a supportive and non-discriminatory school environment.”
According to Buzzfeed, the North Carolina Rowan-Salisbury school board came under pressure from the community after voting on the measure this Monday. According to the Salisbury Post, board member Chuck Hughes said that he will now vote to put the sprays back on the prohibited items list.
The report by Salisbury Post states that the board “agreed to remove prohibitive language [against those items] and amend its policy.”
So, apparently Rowan-Salisbury School Board Member Chuck Hughes talked to Buzzfeed? He won't return our calls tho. https://t.co/hw6AcrRhSY
— Rowan Politics (@RowanPolitics) May 11, 2016
While the amendments were not directly related to the HB2 law, the article by the post also mentioned that Chuck Hughes would intentionally connect the issue with the controversial North Carolina law.
“Depending on how the courts rule on the bathroom issues, it may be a pretty valuable tool to have on the female students if they go to the bathroom, not knowing who may come in.”
The article by Buzzfeed goes further into the details as to why Chuck Hughes decided to vote against his initial decision.
“I was not thinking about the LGBT issue. Perverts and pedophiles taking advantage of this law in bathrooms was my major concern.”
And while this might very well be the case, it’s been the same reason given by all Republican lawmakers across the nation in most Southern states, who are also getting the same pressure from the LGBT community. Leading the charge for the bathroom bill is North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory.
Progressive site Liberal America says that another school board member, Josh Waggoner, reconsidered what they had done on Monday.
Hughes isn’t the only one who is having second thoughts. On Wednesday, someone called [Josh] Waggoner and told him that the new policy would put the board and the system in significant legal danger, statute or no statute. Waggoner said that had these concerns been raised on Monday, most of the board would have had second thoughts about putting themselves in a ‘vulnerable position.'”
The school board’s decision to reconsider could have been caused by fear of potential lawsuits, given the public pressure.
All educational institutions, however, might have less to fear when it comes down to federal funding, as the Obama administration’s press secretary Josh Earnest made clear on Thursday during a press conference that the president would not pull state funding, according to the Associated Press via the Chicago Tribune.
“The administration will not take action to withhold funding while this enforcement process is playing out in the courts.”
While the school board is currently reconsidering their decision, if their vote stays, their bathroom amendment will be enforced at the beginning of the school year and into 2017.
[Image via Alexis Horatius | Wikimedia | CC BY-SA 3.0]
