Many of you are eager to hear the outcome of the October 24 board meeting where the agenda of a state-wide organization to erase the distinction between the sexes was being pushed into Ozark’s policies. A growing trend to “degender” our society, especially in our schools (described partly here and also at the beginning of this series), where the effort to erase the differences between the sexes abounds, was headed toward Ozark. Fortunately for Ozark students and families, though, both the community and the board showed their mettle in sorting through the MSBA’s recommended policy changes and instead spoke strongly in favor of keeping pronouns that distinctly name the two different sexes. That’s a win for Ozark!
This battle to uphold telling the truth to our students, of keeping bathrooms and locker rooms and sports competitions fair and safe for women, though, is far from over, as evidenced by the fact that not one board member was willing to second a motion to discuss the addition of a written definition to our policies stating that the determination of gender is based on a person’s physical, chromosomal sex.
Why not? Clearly the other board members also support the notion that the two sexes are distinct, as shown by the rousing discussion surrounding rejecting the changes to eliminate the male and female pronouns. You can ask them about that by coming to the meeting or writing them. Our contact information is at https://www.ozarktigers.org/school-board From what I can tell in discussions with some of them, there is fear of Ozark becoming a target, a fear that someone, somewhere, might be offended and try to sue us. (I’m not sure what they would sue about, as adding a definition to our policy distinguishing between the two sexes by only the chromosomal, physical distinction would actually cause us to fall in line with state law, passed in 2023. https://www.kfvs12.com/2023/06/07/gov-parson-signs-safe-act-female-sports-bills/ )
Schools routinely adopt recently passed laws as policies. We even pay a statewide organization to keep us abreast of those updates in law so our school can stay current with the latest statutes. Why isn’t Ozark keeping up with this law by likewise defining sex biologically?
The next board meeting is scheduled for Nov. 21, where the changes in the policies from the October meeting will be not just discussed but formally adopted or rejected by a vote. [In my motion to use chromosomal sex to distinguish between sex and gender, pictured below, I had inadvertently stated the wrong date for the November meeting, I’ve edited the picture to reflect the correct date.]
Maybe by then, some minds will have been changed so we can update +all+ our policies to not only match current law, but protect our students, too. Won’t you join us to see?
For more in this series of how Ozark is responding to the differences between biological sex and psychological gender, start this past summer, when the alarm first sounded. For more on how easily and clearly we could define those differences, skip to this one.
*As always, I speak only for myself and do not intend to represent the Board to you in any way in what I say or write. I do, however, fully and firmly intend to represent YOU to the Board!