Public Comment Submission – Kurt Thigpen

Washoe County School Board – Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees

Agenda Item 3.08 – Discussion and Possible Action to Censure Trustee Jeff Church

Dear Esteemed School Board Trustees, Superintendent, and Members of the Public,

There have been few times that I felt compelled to write in to submit public comment to a
school board meeting since my resignation, but it is my belief that because of my time spent on
the Board of Trustees during the time Trustee Church started, that I have valuable input that I
hope you will consider when making your decision, especially those Trustees who are new.

It’s important for me to mention ahead of time that I bear no ill will towards Trustee Church.
On a personal level, we got along reasonably well, and had met prior to taking office to try and
establish some good will. When we were sworn in on January 4th, I felt hopeful that we would
both move forward and work together to do the best. Whenever he would reach out to ask for
advice, I would freely give it.

However, despite my best efforts that good will was tainted by some of Trustee Church’s words
and actions over the course of the time we served together.

For brevity, I will keep things focused to what I have always felt was the start of the behavior I
experienced, and highlight the two incidents that I made complaints about.

The first was an occasion (I can’t recall the dates because I don’t have access to my Trustee
emails) was when Trustee Church emailed me asking my thoughts on allowing transgender
athletes to be able to play sports under the gender they identify under vs. the gender they were
assigned at birth. I’m confident the records are still there if someone were to make a request,
but I will work from my memory here.

I remember asking why Trustee Church wanted to know my thoughts on the subject, as it
wasn’t something that was on an upcoming agenda item and seemed to come out of the blue.
In the context of what we were working on at the time, this question seemed out of place and
made me skeptical.

In his responses to me, Trustee Church portrayed himself as an LGBTQ+ ally (note: the T stands
for transgender) and that he wanted to educate himself better, but his initial feelings were that
young transgender women not be allowed to play on women’s sport teams. His reasoning
seemed to be from opinion articles I recall him sharing with me.

I explained to him that this was a settled matter that was already handled through a WCSD
policy, and also through state and federal law under Title IX which prevents discrimination
based on gender. I remember going back and forth in our conversation before I ultimately told
Trustee Church that if he really was an LGBTQ+ ally that I would encourage him to do his own
research on the topic, and sent some links to places like the Human Rights Campaign to help
point him in the right direction. At the end of the day, I told him, trans men are men and trans
women are women. Point blank.

A little time passed, I’m not sure how long since the email exchange, but soon after I was
alerted to an update on Trustee Church’s personal website (watchdogjeff.com) in which he
spoke out against the board policy I had mentioned to him, outlining information in a way that
could be taken to create fear and distrust towards our transgender students and stuff, and put
them in a more predatory and less human light. I’m attaching a screenshot taken from the
Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine which shows the section on his website I am referring to.
He has since taken this message down from the website, but it stayed there for many months.

I know this action likely violates a couple of board policies, namely the policies around creating
safe and welcoming spaces for everyone (students and staff) no matter their sexual orientation,
gender identity or expression. I also believe this violated the board governance policy in which a
trustee may not work to undermine a previously approved board policy. Since this policy wasn’t
on any agenda items for the year, it is my believe that Trustee Church took advantage of the
goodwill I had worked to establish in order to get this information and use it as a weapon
against an inclusive policy that helps some of our most vulnerable students.

After this information was posted onto Trustee Church’s website, I recall the board receiving
several emails speaking against this policy, and it being brought up in general public comment
at board meetings, despite this being a settled matter and one that wasn’t up for
reconsideration anytime soon on an upcoming meeting agenda.

I feel that Trustee Church’s actions helped to fuel anti-LGBTQ hate that exists in parts of the
community, and in doing so, put our transgender students and staff in uncomfortable and
potentially dangerous circumstances.

The next incident that happened, shortly after Trustee Church made this website update, was
behind the scenes during one of the board breaks we had taken. I think we were at Damonte
Ranch High school, and a group of us were taking turns waiting for a bathroom to become
available.

Trustee Church exits one of the bathrooms, and approaches our group to say, “If you suddenly
identify as a man, that bathroom is now available.” and he gestured to the bathroom he had
just exited.

I was appalled to say the least. Another Trustee was next to me that witnessed the exchange.
It was clear to me then that Trustee Church did not understand transgender or gender non-
confirming individuals at all, and this was merely a joke to him.

After the break, we went back to the dais, and I vented to some of my colleagues about what
had just happened, not knowing how to handle this.

It kept gnawing at me after the meeting. I felt violated in some way, so I did some research on
the type of behavior I had witnessed. Many HR resources I found mentioned that this could be
considered a form of sexual harassment. I then wrote to the Board President to make a formal
complaint about the actions made by Trustee Church, and to receive guidance on what could be
done.

Since he is an elected representative there wasn’t much recourse to be had, but both the Board
President and Vice President presented my complaint to Trustee Church in one of their
meetings. I don’t know if he was remorseful, but later I found a letter in my inbox signed by
Trustee Church saying he was basically sorry if he offended anyone. Not sorry he had said it.
I’ve attached a picture of the letter.
After these interactions with Trustee Church, I noticed that our board meetings received more
and more anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric during public comment, and that folks would even quote things
from Trustee Church’s website. This deeply disturbed me, and I know that staff and students
hearing this were likely feeling many things, including fear and hopelessness.

Eventually I started receiving messages from the public anytime I spoke up for LGBTQ+
students, their civil rights, and even condemning me for talking about my “lifestyle” as an
openly gay man to make a point during a board meeting.

For this reason, and many others I have mentioned publicly, I no longer felt that my safety
could be guaranteed in our board meetings. I didn’t feel safe being left alone with Trustee
Church, and I worried if the rhetoric would eventually lead to violence from members of the
public. We certainly noticed increased tensions at every meeting following.

For the two occurrences that I mentioned to you alone, it is my belief that Trustee Church poses
a danger to our LGBTQ+ students and staff, and his actions likely violate more than one board
policy, including the one centered around maintaining a safe and welcome workplace.
I would encourage the Board of Trustees to not only vote to formally censure Trustee Jeff
Church for his misconduct, but to also ask for his formal resignation from the Board of Trustees
effective immediately before this type of behavior continues, for the safety and wellbeing of
our students and staff.

Thank you for your time and the sacrifices you make for our students,

Sincerely,

Former Trustee Kurt Thigpen