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Minutes for HB2427 - Committee on Education
Short Title
Requiring school districts to provide separate accommodations for students of each biological sex on overnight school sponsored trips.
Minutes Content for Wed, Mar 22, 2023
Chairman Thomas opened the hearing on HB2427. Due to tight time constraints, conferees were each given two minutes to speak. More complete testimony can be found under the attachments which link to written testimony from each person or organization.
Jason Long, Revisor, gave a summary of the bill. (Attachment 12)
Proponents (Oral)
Melissa Campbell, parent, told the story of a student in the Eudora district who was on a trip in Costa Rica and was assigned an overnight accommodation which required her to stay in the same bed with a transgender girl. The student was not comfortable with this so she asked to be moved and was told she needed to deal with it and was not allowed to change rooms. Ms. Campbell stated that when the student came back home the Superintendent did not deal with the situation in a helpful way. (Attachment 13)
Maria Holiday, former teacher, shared her story of being unprotected as a young girl and subsequently abused. Ms. Holiday stated that there needs to be a better policy and a situation that keeps children safe. (Attachment 14)
Charlotte O'Hara, parent, stated she wants children to be safe. This morning she woke up and thought, "Why do I have to go to the Capitol and talk about this? It is common sense. On an overnight trip, girls sleep with girls, boys sleep with boys." She feels gender choice is insane. She believes the legislature must stand against this insanity. (Attachment 15)
Tiffany Ellison, private citizen, stated that this bill is not about transgender children, but it is about the sanctity for all children. She has a daughter and three boys; she speaks as an educator and a previous high school coach. On trips students need to have clearly defined boundaries. She believes those opposed to this bill will say Title 9 is going to change. She responds to that defense against this bill by saying that it hasn't happened yet, and it is not the federal government's job to protect our children. She believes it is the job of the parent. The other argument is local control. If organizations are against bills like this, she would ask them to investigate how to protect our children. This isn't an issue of parents against school, or conservative parents against trans-kids. She stated that clear guidelines are needed. (Attachment 16)
Heather Whalen, private citizen, noted that the student who is the focus of this bill is a close friend of her daughter. She described that student as kind and gentle, but on the night the group returned from Costa Rica, when Ms. Whalen picked the girls up from the airport, the student who experienced this situation, was very broken. Ms. Whalen has spent a year fighting against this issue. No one is hateful against the transgender student, but this girl was told she had no choice and she was not protected. Ms. Whalen stated to mix genders breaks the kids who are in that situation. (Attachment 17)
Proponents (Written Only) (Attachment 18)
Brett Anderson, Republican Precinct Committeeman, Sedgwick
Tabitha Clark, Private Citizen, House District #77
Debbie Evert, Private Citizen, House District #3
Sarah Fagan, Private Citizen, House District #117
Brittany Jones, Kansas Family Voice
Aaron and Jennifer Ferguson, Private Citizens, House District #14
Laura Herrman, Private Citizen, House District #14
April Jacobs, Private Citizen
Lucrecia Nold, Kansas Catholic Conference
Kathy Martin, Private Citizen, House District #64
Tracy McCurley, Private Citizen
Jill O’Connor, Private Citizen, House District #28
Dr. Douglass Shane, Former School Board Member, Louisburg
Thad Snider, Private Citizen, Johnson County
Senator Mark Steffen, Representing District #34
Kari Sue Vosburgh, Sedgwick County Precinct Woman
Tori Walker, Mom and Music Teacher, House District #47
Leanna Wylie, Quinter
Discussion ensued.
Opponents (Oral)
Jerry Henn, United School Administrators of Kansas, agreed the testimony from the previous conferees is very disturbing. We need to help school districts deal with this. One law will probably not fit everyone. We need to look at this issue of transgender. The other side of this is we need to be thinking about how to protect all children. (Attachment 19)
Timothy Graham, Kansas National Education Association, feels frustrated, as he never heard about this situation in Eudora. He agreed a student was treated very poorly. Teachers in KNEA were not at the table in trying to fix this situation. There are tough decision that need to be made. Clearly mistakes were made in this particular instance but the solution can be found by local school administrators and the school board. KNEA takes the position that they do not need to change statute but do need to change these types of situations. (Attachment 20)
Leah Fliter, Kansas Association of School Boards, opposes this bill. KASB believes districts are working on these types of issues on a case by case basis. They believe a local decision is better than a state mandate. They are concerned about state law being changed based on a few situations that could be dealt with in other ways. (Attachment 21)
Opponents (Written Only)
D.C. Hiegert, ACLU Kansas (Attachment 22)
Taryn Jones, Equality Kansas (Attachment 23)
Discussion ensued.
Chairman Thomas closed the hearing on HB2427.
