SARASOTA, Fla — On Tuesday night, the Sarasota County School Board became the first school district in the state to formally reject recent revisions to Title IX.
Those federal changes aim to add discrimination protections for LGBTQ students.
Hours before the Sarasota County School Board even started discussing Title IX and its future in the district, members of the public had plenty of their own opinions about the measure, both for and against it.
The 50-year federal civil rights law was originally created to prohibit sex-based discrimination in education programs. The law was recently expanded by the U.S. Department of Education to also include protections over gender identity and sexual orientation.
Embattled conservative school board member Bridget Ziegler urged fellow board members to pass a resolution making Sarasota the first public school district in the state to formally reject these federal revisions.
Her resolution also calls for clarifying that gender in the district is defined as either female or male, limiting who can use male or female bathrooms and locker rooms.
Recently, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vowed not to comply with the federal revisions.
In the end, this board, which flipped to a conservative majority in the last election, agreed. Tom Edwards, a member of the LGBTQ community, voted against the resolution.
What this really means for the district and its students remains unclear, but it once again puts Sarasota County back in the spotlight for blurring the lines between politics and education.
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