The Kanawha County school board is furthering more policy changes to protect employees from discrimination based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation.
The board held its first reading Monday of a change that would add "ancestry and sexual orientation" to the equal opportunity section of the school system's cultural diversity and human relations policy. That section currently states that "Kanawha County Schools shall recruit, hire, train, and promote in all job titles without regard to" a number of characteristics, including race, age or "any other status protected by federal, state or local law."
In addition to adding ancestry and sexual orientation, the policy change - now likely set for a vote next month, said Jim Withrow, the board's general counsel - would cross out the reference to federal, state or local law. Unlike for "protected classes" such as race and age, there is no overarching federal or state law banning discriminating against individuals based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, leaving it up to local governing bodies like city councils and school boards to enact them.
Last month, the Kanawha school board unanimously passed amendments to a different section of the same cultural diversity and human relations policy that Withrow said would block discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in hiring, firing and promotion decisions.
But board member Ryan White, who brought the previous changes up, suggested at the time also adding the protections regarding sexual orientation and gender identity to the equal opportunity section in order to ensure consistency with the other rules - and to make clear to potential job applicants that Kanawha offers such protections.
His fellow board members instead opted to go ahead and approve the change already before them last month. On Monday, White also suggested adding a definition of sexual orientation to the proposed policy change, and Withrow agreed to copy one in the city of Charleston's anti-discrimination policy: "actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or gender-related identity, appearance or behavior of an individual, with or without regard to the individual's assigned sex at birth."
During Monday's brief discussion of the new proposed changes, school board member Pete Thaw said all he cared about was being in compliance with state requirements.
"I don't care about going beyond," he said.
The policy change is now on 30-day public comment period. You can comment on the policy at the Kanawha County Schools website, https://kcs.kana.k12.wv.us/, or mail written comments to the district's central office at 200 Elizabeth Street Charleston, WV 25311.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.