Headlines: School Districts Buck State Gender Policy, Salmon Swim Klamath for First Time in Century, Wesco Football Media Day
Headlines: School Districts Buck State Gender Policy, Salmon Swim Klamath for First Time in Century, Wesco Football Media Day
The culture wars continue as a WA district declares that sports will be separated by sex at birth. OSPI says it's discriminatory unless any man who says he's a woman is free to compete against girls.
Headlines for Wednesday, August 28, 2024
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OSPI Warns District Against Revising Model Gender Policy (Daily Columbian)
WALLA WALLA — The bubbling culture war centered on whether biologically male athletes have a right to compete in female sports has hit Washington State. A month ago, a Walla Walla-area district revised the state’s model gender policy locally, adopting edits that declared sex-specific teams. Boys will compete against boys; girls against girls. Not so fast says the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, who threatened to sue College Place SD should they prohibit men and boys who say they are females from competing against girls. One month after the College Place School Board passed a resolution to separate sports teams by sex rather than gender identity, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction says it conflicts with state law.
“Action from us is likely,” said OSPI Chief Communications Officer Katy Payne. “All students in Washington state and across the U.S. deserve access to a high-quality education that is free from discrimination.”
“Districts must allow students to participate on teams that align with their gender identity,” Payne said. The district’s board, meanwhile, indicated they may force OSPI to confront them rather than give in.
Continue reading at the Columbian.
KLAMATH RIVER — The largest dam removal program in U.S. history continued with the destruction of the Upper Klamath Dam today, freeing the Klamath River for salmon navigation for the first time in over a century. Dam removal continues along many of the west’s great rivers. See story at LA Times.
OLYMPIA —The officer who fatally shot Timothy Green near a Washington state coffee shop wore gloves with a Blue Lives Matter emblem while attempting to treat his wounds. The on-scene commander had adorned his department-issued laptop with a badge showing a coiled rattlesnake and a mantra often understood by extremism researchers to represent right-wing, anti-government ideology. Now, according to a settlement finalized last week between the city of Olympia, Wash., and the family of Green, a Black man who was having a psychotic episode when he was killed in 2022, Olympia police must stop personalizing city equipment. The city must also pay Green’s family $600,000. The Washington Post picks up this local WA story. Read the story at WaPo.
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