ELCO policy limits student sports participation to biological sex

The Eastern Lebanon County School District board passed a policy designating student participation in athletics to be based on biological sex at its Aug. 5 meeting.

The guidelines of the policy state that sports teams designated for females will not be open to male students, and teams designated for males will not be open to female students.

Board member Rachel Moyer, who spearheaded the policy, said it was designed to protect student safety and fairness in competition, particularly for female students. The policy was modeled from a similar policy in Hempfield School District, passed in 2022.

"I had looked at theirs and wanted to create one similar, because, like I said, we need to have safety and fairness in competition," said Moyer. "Especially for our female students."

Moyer added that she did not know of anything within ELCO school district that prompted the policy, but rather looked at other school districts and felt the need to bring this policy to the forefront.

When enrolling a student into the district or registering for sports, a parent or guardian will designate the student's sex for the school records and it will remain in the records unless the district superintendent or athletic director has reasonable cause to believe that a students sex is other than designated, the policy states.

"If requested by the Superintendent or Athletic Director, the student shall provide their original birth certificate certifying the student's sex to the Superintendent or Athletic Director," the policy says.

Assistant Superintendent Barbara Davis said in an email that the board designed the policy to further clarify how students may participate on athletic teams, and that the policy was developed with fairness in competition and student safety at the forefront.

"The District is committed to serving all students. As stated in the policy, there are many considerations and each student is treated as an individual based on the type of sport and age of the student," said Davis in an email. "On the basis of Title IX, no person shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, be treated differently from another person or otherwise be discriminated against in any interscholastic, club, or intramural athletics offered by the District."

Moyer added that the policy does not exclude any student from participating in sports, as all students are still able to participate in sports based on their biological sex, and the policy allows for accommodations to be made on a case by case basis.

Those accommodations, according to the policy, are that the district is to allow females to try out for male athletic teams when there is no female team for that sport during the school year. Male students who have not begun male puberty will be allowed to play for teams designated for females, but are required to provide a doctor's note to the district's athletic director, certifying that the student has not begun male puberty.

"That's where the fairness in competition comes in," said Moyer. "You know, biological males are different than females. Once puberty kicks in, the strength factor comes in. We want to make sure the safety of our female students is of utmost importance."

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on X @djlarlham.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: ELCO policy limits student sports participation to biological sex