Knox schools backtrack on harassment policy after LGBT backlash

The Knox County school board appears poised to reverse course after LGBT activists pushed back on a proposal to remove language explicitly protecting gay, lesbian and transgender employees from its harassment policy.

Board Chair Patti Bounds insisted Monday afternoon that all employees would still be protected under the change and that the language was only being altered to bring it in line with state laws.

"We looked at state law, aligning it more closely with state law," Bounds said. "It wasn’t taking away any protections, the new policy just didn’t list specific groups."

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Bounds, who said she'd received hundreds of emails from concerned citizens, said after Monday's work session that she expects to send the matter back to the policy review committee.

The board will make a decision at its regular meeting Wednesday.

"The message that was conveyed on social media by certain people was very fear-based and an attempt to create a firestorm, in my opinion, but that was never the intention of the board," she said.

Superintendent: No malicious intent

Superintendent Bob Thomas, who is part of the policy review committee and who recommended the change to the board, said he'd be open to revisiting the policy after hearing from advocates at Monday's meeting.

"There was no attempt to limit the policy in anyway," Thomas said after the meeting. "It was about bringing it in line with state and federal law, so it was not any malicious intent to reduce the effectiveness of the policy."

That hasn't calmed the concerns of LGBT activists. 

"To date, they have not shared publicly any rationale for this move, and it is obviously creating intense worry among the LGBT community (regarding the) implications for LGBT school employees, and students," said Leticia Flores, the East Tennessee committee chair for the Tennessee Equality Project, an advocacy and outreach organization for the LGBT community. 

The proposed change would remove the words "actual or perceived gender' and "sexual orientation" from the list of protected groups in the district's policy and replace it with "sex." 

'I was completely horrified'

Patrick Grzanka, a member of the Tennessee Equality Project and a professor in the University of Tennessee's women, gender and sexuality program, said this is both a practical and a symbolic change that concerns him.

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"I was completely horrified when I saw this yesterday," Grzanka said Monday afternoon. "We have a list of things that are protected. How would Christians feel if we took out 'religion' and just said 'beliefs?'

"There is something really meaningful there in exchange for biological sex. There aren’t too many logical leaps to get to point where we see why 'sex' would be preferable to 'sexual orientation' and 'perceived gender.'"

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Grzanka said he hopes that if the change was proposed in good faith, the board will reverse course after hearing feedback from the community. 

The proposed new policy would read as follows: "Knox County Schools does not discriminate in its programs or employment practices nor does it tolerate harassment for any reason including, but not limited to, harassment on the basis of age, sex, national origin, disability, religion, race, color, genetics, veteran status or any other federally identified protected area."

DOJ taking aim at sexual orientation protections

Knox County Schools spokeswoman Carly Harrington said the district is under the impression that "sex" would cover both gender identity and sexual orientation.

"The proposed revision does not change the intent of the employee harassment policy but rather aligns the policy in accordance with language used by state and federal agencies, including the Tennessee Human Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission," she said in a statement.

Though the federal EEOC website still includes language that defines "sex" to include sexual orientation and gender identity, the Trump administration in July filed a contradicting brief in federal court in a New York case. 

The Justice Department asserted that federal civil rights laws do not extend to workplace protections for discrimination based on sexual orientation, going against another brief filed by the EEOC. 

Beth Cooper, a parent who spoke at the meeting Monday, pointed this out to board members.

"While the EEOC may have something on their website today, I would not trust that is going to be on there for very long and to have our policy rest on that is very dangerous," she said. "I hope and I urge you to send it back to committee on Wednesday and consider all these points that came up."