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A draft policy would allow middle school students to play on the sports teams consistent with their gender identity. However, high school athletes would need to undergo an extensive process with the North Carolina High School Athletics Association. (Port City Daily photo/file)
NEW HANOVER COUNTY –– A New Hanover County Board of Education subcommittee plans to re-review a policy that would allow middle school students to play on the sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
The extracurricular activities and student organizations policy, No. 3620, is scheduled to go up for a vote of approval at the school board’s June meeting. Before then, board member Pete Wildeboer is asking for further examination of the newly proposed language.
A district-wide survey that will look at how middle and high school students in New Hanover feel about sexual harassment and discrimination will go before the Board of Education for approval soon.
The survey, created by the district s Title IX committee, will ask students questions about sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination, bystander intervention and other similar topics in the school district. Administrators say they hope the survey will give them a better understanding of the climate and conversation around these issues from the district s student body as a whole.
“I think we ve realized that we need to do a better job of actually listening and engaging our students,” said Jarelle Lewis, New Hanover County Schools Title IX coordinator. “We re looking at ways to approach our students to hear what they re experiencing, what their thoughts are.”
The New Hanover County school system has faced an uphill battle when it comes to sexual offense cases between students and school staff members.
In 2019, Michael Earl Kelly pleaded guilty to 59 charges of child sexual abuse after he d abused nearly 20 victims during his years as a science teacher at Isaac Bear Early College High School.
Last year, the New Hanover County Board of Education fired Roland-Grise Middle School band director Peter Michael Frank after he was charged with 12 felony sex crimes. He was later indicted on an additional 17 sex crime charges that included sex offenses with a child aged 13-15 between 1998 and 2000.
Listen to the story here.
On Monday, February 15th, New Hanover County Schools’ Title IX Committee decided they still need more time to flesh out the latest survey on school climate. But committee members did weigh-in on the survey’s overall scaffold.
The Title IX Committee was created in 2019 and it deals with issues related to sex discrimination and harassment. It’s now tasked with coming up with a survey to assess the prevalence of those issues.
To review what’s happened with the survey since the start of the year: At the New Hanover County School Board meeting on January 5th, 2021, Jarelle Lewis, the Title IX coordinator, presented a draft of the survey to be approved by the board.