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Utah Parents Concerned about Bathroom Directive

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Parents gathered at the state capitol to voice their concern over the Obama Administration’s directive on school bathrooms.

The directive released late last week from the Department of Education and the Justice Department instructs schools to allow transgender students to use the restroom that corresponds with the gender they identify with. While the letter doesn’t have weight as a law, it does imply that schools that don’t comply could lose federal funding under Title IX.

Conservative blogger Cherilyn Eagar says she’s fine with that. Federal funding accounts for about eight percent of Utah’s overall education budget.

“I’m here to say, ‘President Obama, we really want to thank you for your offer to continue that federal funding, but we’re going to graciously decline it,’” she said.

About ten parents and grandparents of students in public schools said they see the directive mainly as an example of federal overreach. Dalane England urged the governor to reject the guidelines and legislature to take up the issue in a special session.

“So that we have some consistency throughout the state,” said England. “So we don’t have everybody doing something different. Children know what is expected, teachers know what is expected, administration knows how to handle it. So that everyone is protected and everyone is respected as well.”

Many of the parents mentioned concerns about safety and privacy for their children and that they’d like to see unisex single-user bathrooms in each public school.

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