Milton School District approves new Title IX policy

MILTON — The Milton School Board approved a series of policy updates, including a Title IX update, on Monday night.

School board member Tracy Hannah attempted to approve the updates with an amendment that the Title IX update, also known as Policy 2264 in the district, is delayed if the Department of Education decided to delay implementation.

It was based on new Title IX regulations passed by the Biden Administration, and recently had a final rule on by the U.S. Department Education.

The federal regulations, broad in scope, also protect those who are pregnant or who have been pregnant and require discipline and reprimands for those who sexually harass others, or commit sexual assault and violence.

“This is a complicated legal issue that is made more complicated with changes to Title IX definititions invoke strong emotions and cause division personal views and experiences. This school board and administration are not immune to this,” Hannah said. “As a board of seven, we try to speak with the community, staff and especially our students. The noise we hear from divisive voices on both sides of this issue do not help us to layout facts for us to consider when we are trying to make the best decisions possible for our district.”

Dahman cautioned the school board at the first reading of the policy on July 10 that if not approved by Aug. 1, it could leave the district vulnerable to a lawsuit. The district could also lose federal funding and insurance carriers, he said.

Hannah, however, said she was concerned that pending appeals and if it would be implemented at all.

Hannah was the only board member to vote for the amendment, and then the only one to vote against the policies.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not lift a block on the federal update to the Title IX rule last Wednesday, thus it can’t be implemented in six states — Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

A man, who did not identify himself publicly, said “point of order, Mr. President” toward Martin after the approval and said “there were two presenters that were not recognized and I would like to put that on the record” despite not being an elected member of the board. He offered no clarification as to who those two “presenters” were.