The Waterloo School Board met Monday evening in the Waterloo High School auditorium, again seeing a large turnout from community members who voiced opinions on the gender and bathroom policy passed in May.

The meeting again opened with public participation. Speakers were given three minutes to speak, and, just like last month, the total time for public comments was capped at 30 minutes.

Jenny Melican opened by explaining she has two transgender children – who she referred to as “daughters” – both of whom are recent WHS graduates.

Melican went on to describe anger at her child using the bathroom which aligns with her gender identity.

“When my daughter, a senior last year, told me that she had used the male restroom at least once, I was appalled and angry,” Melican said. “I was concerned that something could happen to her because, well, bullies in school. Along with that, she’s a female with female parts. Why should she be allowed to make students uncomfortable in that situation?”

She went on to say her disagreement with “the ideology” does not take away from the love for her children, a sentiment she said had previously been expressed to her.

Melican continued, questioning why students would be allowed or encouraged to identify as anything besides their biological sex.

She also made mention of Illinois HB1286, an amendment to the Equitable Restrooms Act passed into law Aug. 11, which allows multiple-occupancy restrooms to be designated for use by any person of any gender given specific signage, stall dividers and partitions.

Melican said this law allows businesses and establishments the ability to choose to have multiple-occupancy restrooms, further suggesting the school board chose to do so.

It’s unclear what relation this recently passed law has to do with the school district policy passed months ago.

Ashley Mathes, a WHS sophomore, was next to speak. Mathes expressed that she was speaking on behalf of many students she had reached out to who were too nervous to address the board publicly.

Mathes suggested the Illinois Human Rights Act is meant to provide access to accommodations for all, going on to describe the impact this policy has had on her personally, as well as describing some of the threats she has received after speaking out about the policy.

“I personally was late to most of my classes on the first day of school because I did not feel safe going into those bathrooms,” Mathes said. “Us students are missing classes because we do not feel comfortable going into the bathroom with the opposite sex. Not to mention I am standing up here, and I am now getting death threats sent to me because I’m standing up for what I believe in.”

Dominic Petruso followed, saying he’s been a resident of Waterloo for 15 years with all of his kids attending the school district at some point.

Petruso said he has never had an issue with the district before, but recently pulled his daughter out of the school district due to safety concerns.

“The district is already losing money from your despicable bathroom policy,” Petruso said. “How many students have left the school system? How many will not move into the district because of the social contagion and medical scandal masquerading as a social justice movement that’s festering in our town? Those all cost the district enormous amounts of money.”

Petruso said a fight for the sake of district kids must continue, further saying the issue needs to be taken to the Supreme Court.

During his speech, Petruso spoke against the WHS Diversity Club for allegedly providing access to clothes and chest binders for transgender students, further describing transgender students as “crossdressers.”

Following the meeting, Diversity Club faculty advisor Maggie Partipilo confirmed that the group has never made clothing or binders available to students, adding that she is unsure where this idea came from.

Zac Scheetz spoke next, saying he had searched for a variety of statistics on bathroom conduct, adding he found a number of instances where cases of misconduct were “pushed under the rug,” only for the perpetrators to repeat their actions elsewhere. It was not stated where these supposed incidents occurred.

Scheetz then pointed to one recent instance of “a trans person threatening to blow up a school” in Pinckneyville.

The story in question was printed by the County Journal and describes the arrest of a transgender individual who posted school shooting threats online. It’s noted in the story that no threats against a specific school were made and the individual in question “did not own any firearms nor possess a valid FOID card.”

Scheetz went on to thank district staff and faculty for providing accommodations for his children to use single-occupant bathrooms.

He also expressed concerns about the district’s approach to the mental health of its students.

“Let’s talk about what we’re doing for these kids on the mental side,” Scheetz said. “Are we giving them help, not only on the side of thinking they’re something that they’re not? What about my children that are being forced to do things a little different nowadays so I feel they’re protected?”

Cameron Fearing followed. He said he was the father of three boys in the district, adding the current debate concerns classroom issues as well.

“I know this is a tough subject, but it goes beyond bathrooms, too,” Fearing said. “As I’ve had conversations over the last week or so with Mrs. Costello, we need to be protecting our kids in every aspect of school. That includes the classrooms. And having a conversation with her, she says she has addressed it with the teachers that they need to be teaching the subjects that they are hired to teach. Not politics. Not ideology.”

Fearing added later in his speech he comes from a place of love and is not hateful but simply disagreeing with the policy. Fearing added he has a number of LGBTQ individuals in his family for whom he prays.

Next to speak was Elizabeth Mifflin, who opened by noting a petition which has circulated throughout the community over the last two months recently reached 1,735 signatures. Mifflin noted that number was greater than the number of votes some school board members had received to get elected to the board.

The petition in question comes from a group called Stand Up For Students-Waterloo, and it requests the school board revoke the district’s current bathroom policy and instead implement a bathroom/locker policy which requires every student to use the facility which aligns with their sex assigned at birth.

Mifflin offered her thoughts on what these signatures mean.

“They do not represent a community standing against a group of students,” Mifflin said. “They do not represent an attack on transgender students. And they do not represent an attempt to hurt people with opposing views. What they do represent are 1,735 people’s voices saying that we want something better with the current policy.”

Mifflin further urged the board to consider safety and accommodations for all students, adding the suggested policy for plentiful single-stall bathrooms throughout the district seems like an agreeable solution – though it would take a great deal of time and effort.

Mary Biby spoke next, saying she has lived in Monroe County for 30 years and lives in the school district.

Her speech focused on the numerous relationships with LGBTQ individuals she has, including friends, family and work relations.

Biby said she wished to share her experiences with the LGBTQ community in order to help people feel more empathy for trans people.

“I have found that not a single one of the transgender people that I know or that I work with are threatening or hostile or wish to do anyone harm,” Biby said. “They have a difficult life. I don’t know that everybody understands how hard it is to get up in the morning knowing that you’re going to face a hostile world because of who you are and trying to be yourself.”

Susan Jannon followed. She said she was a SWIC math teacher with previous experience as a substitute teacher at Waterloo Junior High School. Jannon spoke quite highly of her experience in the district.

The bulk of Jannon’s speech centered around an experience sometime ago at the YMCA, where she went to the bathroom only to find the marker for the women’s restroom had been removed.

“I stood there. I obviously am a mature woman,” Jannon said. “I stood at that bathroom door with my hand on that knob not knowing if I was gonna walk in on a gentleman using the bathroom because I have a husband, I know they don’t always remember to lock the door like they should. So I stood there in actual abject terror with my hand on that doorknob, afraid that I was gonna walk in on a gentleman using the restroom.”

She went on to say this same fear is being instilled in young students, suggesting that if an adult can feel that sort of dread about going to the bathroom, young students might well feel the same, if not worse.

Jeff Rock spoke next, saying that while some have praised the school board for following the law, it is sometimes correct to disobey an order, recalling an experience he had in the military.

Rock continued by suggesting the law in question is “objectively immoral,” adding the United States wouldn’t exist today if the Founding Fathers didn’t disobey the laws they faced.

He went on to explain that this debate comes down to a fundamental difference in values, and one side can’t force its values on the other.

After his comments, Waterloo School Board President Lori Dillenberger asked Rock to return to the podium and explain a comment he made at the July meeting.

The comment in question, as previously reported, was, “It’s just gotta stop. What’s happening in our society, it’s crazy. If we don’t fight with truth now, it’s gonna require blood later. Just saying. It’s love and truth, and love has teeth.”

Some members of the audience objected to Dillenberger questioning Rock, though Rock returned to the podium to add context to his previous comment.

Rock began his explanation by describing a conversation he had with this reporter following the publication of a story about last month’s meeting.

Rock described the omission in that story of “good conversations” he had after the public session with several individuals with whom he disagrees on the gender and bathroom policy.

“How come you didn’t mention that the main point of everything I said was a four-letter word called love?” Rock said. “You took the most salient thing I said and put it underneath my picture, which is the problem with journalism in America. It’s something I said at the very end of my talking point. I said it tongue-in-cheek, and it was over-emotional.”

Rock further stressed he does not want blood and did not intend to threaten anybody.

Rock further apologized for making the comment, adding he wishes he wouldn’t have said it.

After Rock finished speaking, Clinton Propst offered his interpretation of Rock’s comment.

Propst said it is the duty of everyone to stand up for freedom, adding that “evil will try to take our freedom at any cost.”

“There was taxation with no representation of the main majority of the United States, and when that took place, we created a free nation for all people,” Propst said. “And that’s what I take that comment as. As stuff will be forced down our throat as a majority of the United States, the only way to maintain a free country sometimes is the Second Amendment.”

This mention of the Second Amendment prompted murmurs from some in attendance.

Following the meeting, Waterloo School Board member Amanda Propst was asked if she had any relation to the speaker, to which she responded he was a veteran and her husband.

Also following the meeting, Clinton reached out to the Republic-Times to offer further context to his comments. He stressed his intention was to offer his interpretation of Rock’s previous comments.

Regarding the comment he made about evil taking away freedom, Clinton explained he does not see anyone on either side of the discussion as evil and was referring to “what dictators and authoritarians have done in the past,” not allowing individuals to have a say and instead making decisions on their behalf.

He added his comment that “stuff will be forced down our throats” concerned “things where we don’t get a say as citizens, and not necessarily this one topic but more of if things evolve where people aren’t getting a say.”

Clinton further explained his mention of the Second Amendment, saying “it is a right we have to protect our freedom, not particularly having anything to do with the transgender bathrooms, per se. It’s my thought right now that the majority is not being represented in democracy.”

Also following the meeting, Waterloo Superintendent of Schools Brian Charron spoke on the comments made by Rock and Clinton.

“It is difficult for me to describe the level of disappointment I have in what seems to be continued statements being provided by people representing one side of this issue which contain violent undertones and what is, seemingly, references to violence in our schools and/or community,” Charron said.

Following public participation, two key parts of the regular meeting also concerned the bathroom and gender policy.

The most clear of these was an approval by the board to begin installing partitions around the urinals of two bathrooms in the high school, effectively having urinals in these bathrooms be contained like toilets.

It was explained by Charron that this small piece of progress toward improving bathroom privacy in the school was chosen as it could be completed by October while other solutions – including major bathroom renovations and additional urinal participation installations – could take much longer.

Charron also shared that district administration had received an exceptional number of FOIA requests recently.

Most of these dozen-plus requests seemed to be at least somewhat related to the gender and bathroom policy and the district’s approach to LGBTQ individuals and topics in general.

Several requests concerned the high school’s Diversity Club, from its “lesson plans” – which Charron said didn’t exist – to club approval documents in 2016.

Other requests were more generally substantial, with one individual asking for a copy of every textbook in the district and another requesting copies of the last four years of Press Plus updates from the Illinois State Board of Education.

Charron commented on these FOIA requests, saying this was the greatest number of requests he’d seen since he began with the district.

He further said he’d previously heard rumors about a Facebook group in which it was suggested members attempt to inundate the district with FOIA requests.

Beyond discussion at the school board meeting concerning the gender and bathroom policy, one transgender student at the high school – who asked to remain anonymous for fear of bullying – expressed his thoughts about the policy’s impact.

This student spoke positively about some of the policy, saying it was quite beneficial for trans students signed up as it allowed the removal of their “deadname” – their name given at birth – from effectively all communication.

Concerns about the policy the student had included the fact teachers are strictly not allowed to refer to trans students by their preferred name or pronouns without the student establishing a gender identity plan.

Another concern was the fact that parents with students who don’t support their identity will be unable to access accommodations.

Concerning the overall atmosphere of the new school year, this WHS student was generally positive, saying things seemed to feel much the same as they did prior to the protests that took place in March.

“I think what it boils down to is aggressive parents screaming outside of school, and kids just wanting to go about their day inside the school,” he said.