By Amy Kappelman
Pittsboro, NC – My name is Amy Kappelman and I am the founder and chair of Moms for Liberty in Chatham County. I intended to speak at the August 12 meeting, however, due to traffic delays caused by an accident, I arrived 3 minutes after the 5:30pm cut off for the Public Comment signup. Only one other person signed up and the meeting was not scheduled to begin for another 30 minutes yet, I was told, due to their “policy”, I was “too late” to sign up. Sadly, this “policy over people” mindset is fairly routine for this particular government body. Therefore, for your reference, if you wish to make a public comment at Chatham County Schools Board of Education meetings, you must arrive between 5pm and 5:30pm. You will wait roughly one hour before being invited in front of the board to deliver your comments and the format does not allow for any question/answer or feedback from the board — which is standard policy for most public school boards.
Regardless…. the reason I wanted to speak was to educate the moms and dads who are not aware of the adverse impact that the revisions to Title IX will have on their kids. These revisions came into effect in schools around the country on August 1st.
All four of my children attend or have graduated from district schools. I am a product of public schools. I have volunteered countless hours in public schools. I, and Moms for Liberty, are pro public schools. We wouldn’t attend school board meetings if we didn’t care about our schools. Yes – I have heard all of the disparaging comments and lies said about Moms for Liberty. I have received emails that would make a sailor blush. Frankly speaking, I find the hate-fueled vitriol directed at our efforts confounding. The TRUTH is all Moms for Liberty has ever fought for is parental rights — for ALL parents in our county — to be respected and for a focus on academics, not social and political trends.
At the meeting on July 29, this board approved the Biden Administration’s Title IX re-write. I was impressed with the board’s attorney, Mr. Mitchell, understanding of a very complicated and easy to misunderstand injunction. I appreciate both Mr. Mitchell’s and Dr. Moran’s due diligence in addressing both the re-write and the injunction in such a timely manner. As explained in that meeting, members of Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United must adhere to the original Title IX policy, which states:
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
North Carolina is the only state in the south where Biden’s executive order — changing the interpretation of Title IX — took effect on August 1st. It has been blocked in 26 states.
According to the North Carolina School Report Cards, 43% of students in Chatham County Schools aren’t proficient in English and Reading and 45% aren’t proficient in biology. It is my hope that our district will not adhere to the reckless abandonment of proper English, factually-oriented science and biology curricula and follow our constitutional rights to equality, free speech, and due process — all of which were removed by the changes to Title IX.
I speak for the parents, including teachers, of Chatham County who prefer not to add unnecessary stress and confusion to children’s lives by forcing political issues into their daily experiences. Our schools are not the place to push political agendas. Proper pronoun use and ever changing arbitrary definitions of sex and gender are not relevant to academic learning. Boys and girls sharing bathrooms, locker rooms, and hotel rooms is not an appropriate policy where young children are concerned. We should not be asked to put students and teachers in dangerous situations where they can be falsely accused of sexual or “gender” harassment. Chatham County dads, especially, will not be happy when they learn that boys are playing on their daughter’s volleyball or any other sports team. The original Title IX ruling was set up to protect women in sports, let’s keep it that way and prevent unnecessary injuries to our daughters.
Title IX was a huge triumph in the fight for equal rights and protections for women. Our district should maintain those rights and protections by focusing on enforcing current rules, common sense and the fundamental principles of education.