State Orders La Center School District to Reverse Anti-Trans Policy

After a thorough, two-year investigation, Washington State’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has made a decision in the complaint against 3211, the policy La Center School District has been using as permission to forcibly out queer students and to resist efforts normalizing preferred pronoun use among gender-expansive students. OSPI has determined the La Center school board and superintendent have violated the rights of queer or questioning students, as well as state law, with its Policy 3211 and Procedure 3211P.

The conservative school board and superintendent (who all hold non-partisan job descriptions) detracted from established WSSDA policy by forcing teachers to forcibly “out” any student who they believe may be transgender or questioning their gender identity, regardless of the child’s consent or concerns for safety.

This policy, OSPI determined, has created a hostile and dangerous situation for gender-expansive students, and has been the center of contention for more than two years, since an email and subsequent communications sent to staff from district Superintendent Peter Rosenkranz forbidding staff from asking students their preferred pronouns.

In its 32-page decision, OSPI detailed the ways in which LCSD created a discriminatory policy and gave Superintendent Pete Rosenkranz 45 days to change the policy back to the WSSDA model.

“In reaching its conclusion that the District violated RCW 28A.642.020 by discriminating on the basis of gender expression and gender identity, OSPI’s investigation established (A) the scope of the Pronoun Directive, as an issue of fact, and then determined that based on the overbroad scope; (B) the Pronoun Directive was based on a discriminatory purpose; and (C) the Pronoun Directive is discriminatory in effect in that it negatively impacts gender-expansive students’ ability to participate in or benefit from the District’s educational programs or activities.”

"Each of these reasons reflect that the directive was rooted in negative, or even hostile, perceptions of gender-expansive identities and the purpose was discriminatory."

The question now is whether Superintendent Rosenkranz and the conservative school board will continue to spend taxpayer resources to fight for their Anti-Trans policy.