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LEBANON, Ind. — The attorney for the school board of the Lebanon Community School Corporation went on a tirade Tuesday night, criticizing Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita for speaking out against a boy using the same locker room as girls at Lebanon Middle School.
“Our Attorney General of Indiana, Todd Rokita, ought to know better than to come out and say we are mishandling this.” Lebanon Community Schools’ attorney Kent Frandsen said during LCSC’s board meeting on Tuesday night.
Frandsen then went on to lie about Rokita’s record on the issue.
“He has not weighed in on this issue legally in any material way.” Frandsen said, despite Rokita making multiple court filings, including an appeal in 2022 with the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals which issued an injunction against an Indiana law meant to protect female sports.
“He’s a lawyer… he knows how our system works. He should know better than to say we should disregard the law.” Frandsen continued.
Several minutes later, Frandsen interrupted the meeting to issue a pseudo correction on some of his statements.
“I want to issue a correction… His (Rokita’s) office did join in a brief authored by 19 states in support of the Martinsville Schools in the U.S. Supreme Court.” Frandsen said. “My point was, with respect to Mr. Rokita, he’s not taken a vocal stand on this issue until recently… otherwise, I stand by what I said.”
All of this comes as fallout from a REAL News Michiana story last week highlighting the testimony of an 6th grade girl at LCSC’s January school board meeting. During that meeting, the child described how a boy was using the same locker room as girls at Lebanon Middle School.
“I’m here to discuss the matter of a male being in the female locker room.” The Lebanon Middle School student said at the board’s January 16th meeting. “Imagine this is you — you’re an 11-year-old girl who is coming into school thinking that they’re in a safe environment. You go to PE to get ready in the locker room and you see a boy in there. The first time you saw them, you panicked. Do I change in front of the boy? I feel like I’m doing something wrong. Do I take my shirt off? Do I take my pants off? He is doing so, so I think I should. I see him standing there, in his underwear. That was the first time I saw a boy half-naked — in a school that’s supposed to be safe.”
Last week, Rokita shared RNM’s story on social media. It’s that post that attorney Frandsen appeared to be referencing in his speech on Tuesday night.
“More insanity in our schools. The media said this wasn’t happening in Indiana.” Rokita wrote in posts to Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter), sharing the RNM story. “An 11-year-old shouldn’t have to go through any of this. Biological boys shouldn’t be allowed to change in the girls’ locker room or vice versa. It’s not a difficult concept. It’s common sense. Thank you (RNM reporter) Clifton French… for shedding light on this situation.”
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I wrote about this in American Thinker, with H/T RealNewsMichiana. A commenter on the article posted this:
“I pastored there for 30 years . . . and am unsurprised at this. The school board has been an enemy of uprightness for 50 years. Once they were confronted by a mom who objected to a book about the Viet Nam War that included graphic descriptions of the prostitutes in Viet Nam and how best to approach them. The teachers union put forward the great man of letters, a Mr. Goodwin, I think, as the justification for the use of this book. But both the teachers union and the great man of letters were ignorant that the book had been fabricated by the author; the supposed historical value of the book was zero. ”
So we should be similarly unsurprised at this attorney’s reaction. His corrected comment left us with only this criticism: “he’s not taken a vocal stand on this issue until recently”. So… why is that a problem when it is YOUR school that uniquely put a spotlight on it?
Voters in Lebanon; quick reminder.. you get who you vote for. Do a better job of vetting your candidates in the next election.
[…] School lawyer bashes AG Rokita for speaking out on girl safety […]