West Shore continues working on anti-LGBTQ+ sports policy

Posted by author February 21, 2025 Sports

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More revisions were called for after a West Shore committee’s first review of a policy draft restricting which teams LGBTQ+ student athletes can join.

Last month, the West Shore administration was directed to draft and share it with the West Shore Policy Committee and the district’s solicitor. During the January meeting, Ryan Argot, the board secretary and director of federal programs, said he was asked by policy committee chair Heidi Thomas to put the sports policy on the agenda.

Thomas, who offered a copy of Northern York County’s policy as an example, said she would like this done sooner. She explained she wants policies with the “definition of the male and the female to have distinction.”

She said she heard from the community and wants to be proactive like other York County school districts have been.

The draft attached to the agenda would not allow students to join certain teams after they have gone through a certain stage of puberty or if they started puberty blockers before that stage. Another factor is if the student’s size and strength pose a risk to the teammates. The draft also required the information to be kept confidential and separate from the other education records.

On Thursday, Argot said the legal council Tucker & Arensberg wrote the draft. Argot later explained the administration received the draft last week and he added formatting. Otherwise, the policy has been untouched.

During the meeting, policy committee chair Heidi Thomas listed some pieces she wanted to change about the policy, such as referencing state and federal regulations instead of the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education’s regulations. She also wanted to strike “biological” out of the definitions and replace it with “sex means an individual’s biological classification.” She also wanted to remove “assigned at birth.”

“Because nothing’s assigned at birth,” Thomas explained. “You’re either a male or a female.

Board members Abigail Tierney and Christopher Kambic expressed concerns about making changes without knowing why the draft was written the way it was. Tierney also pointed out the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act defines sex with gender identity and to go against that state law could open the district up for challenges.

Board member Brenda Cox questioned if the other districts that adopted similar policies were breaking the law. Tierney responded saying she didn’t look at other school districts’ policies, but if a court looks at their draft, it could be an issue. She added she’s not saying this topic can’t be addressed, but she wanted to protect the school from more litigation.

Cox asked her how the draft could be written to protect the school and meet the goal. Tierney said she couldn’t do that right then and it’s not her job as a school board director. However, she’d be happy to work with the legal counsel.

Tierney said she also wanted to give the administration time to look it over, as the administration normally does.

When asked if the administration was over to review it, Argot said he didn’t want to “squeeze in a rushed review.”

Superintendent Todd Stoltz said the team hasn’t had the opportunity to look at it yet.

“This got my attention today because I didn’t want to get caught not doing the homework assignment,” he said.

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He explained that the timeline was an issue in this case. This policy was drafted in three weeks and then shared among the administration and the board.

“As best, we had a week to turn around,” he said, explaining a week wasn’t enough time for the administration to review it, including also confirming that the district won’t attract legal trouble.

He suggested at a minimum the administration needed two weeks to review it.

Argot explained, from his perspective, it can take six months to make a policy. That can vary because one policy absenteeism took two years to work on.

Solicitor Kevin Hall was not present at the beginning of the meeting. When he did arrive, he answered some of the questions, including that firm shareholder Christopher Voltz drafted the policy.

Hall advised the committee to send all their questions and comments about the draft to him by next week.

Stoltz also told Thomas he believes the administration will be able to review the draft and get it back on the agenda for the March 20 policy committee meeting.

The next West Shore policy committee meeting is 4:30 p.m. March 20 and the board meeting is 6:30 p.m. March 13 at 507 Fishing Creek Road, Lewisberry. The meetings can be attended in person or livestreamed on the district’s website.

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