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VANDALISM? CORRUPTION? HAVE NO WHERE ELSE TO TURN? NO STORY TOO BIG OR SMALL THE OSN WILL INVESTIGATE! Please email news tips to Hildelysiak@gmail.com
12/8/2016
By Hilde Kate Lysiak
The Selinsgrove School District released this statement on the Transgender student bathroom policy.
“We would like to clarify the Selinsgrove Area School Board’s position on Title IX, specifically as it relates to transgender students being allowed to use the bathroom/locker room of their preferred gender. Also, In order to correct some information stated at the December 5th school board meeting, the Selinsgrove Area School District School Board has not taken any votes regarding transgender students. Therefore, none appear in board minutes. The Board met with the solicitor in an executive session on June 29th to understand the current interpretation of Title IX. Based on their understanding, the Board affirmed their desire to continue to comply with Title IX and, therefore, no official Board action was needed.
Earlier this week the district fired the Solicitor for the Selinsgrove School District.
Solicitor Beard claimed he was fired for doing his job when he advised the board to accommodate Transgender students.
“They didn’t like what I told them. I told them they needed to accommodate transgender students. They didn’t like it,’’ Carl Beard told the Orange Street News in an exclusive interview.
Beard told the OSN that accommodating Transgender students was something that both the PA Board and National Board both urged school boards to do. By advising the school of this, he was only doing his job as Solicitor, says Beard.
But Selinsgrove Board Members say they fired Beard for giving inaccurate information: that the school could lose Title 9 funding, according to a report in a local paper.
However, Beard says it is the Selinsgrove School Board is the one being inaccurate. Beard says he never told the board they were in danger of losing Title 9 funding.
“I never said that. It didn’t happen,’’ Beard told the OSN when asked about the comments.
Still, Beard says that he isn’t happy about getting fired.
“I’m disappointed,” said Beard. “There were NO issues in school only in the community and beyond. My advise was correct just unpopular.”
The issue of transgender people using bathrooms became a big issue in Selinsgrove earlier this year after a letter was sent home to parents telling them there was a change in policy that would allow transgender students to use either bathroom.
Selinsgrove Superintendent Chad Cohrs told the Orange Street News that Beard was fired because “the board was unhappy with some of the recommendations they received.”
Orange Street News 
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