OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) has released proposed amendments it received this year.
These proposals came from school districts across Washington, including some in the Inland Northwest, to the WIAA. Two hot-button proposals have support from schools in our region, both of which pertain to gender identity.
One of the proposals touches on having participation in girls' sports be limited to students assigned female at birth. Some of the school districts that submitted the proposal include Mead, Colville and Omak School Districts.
The other proposal would set up separate athletic programs for boys, girls and an open division for all students interested.
It says students wanting to play sports according to their gender identity, if it's different from the one they were born as, would compete in the open division.
Both Mead and Eastmont School Districts were two of the school districts that submitted this proposal.
KREM 2 News spoke with Eastmont Superintendent Becky Berg in October, and she said the proposal doesn't come from a place of hate, but a place of inclusion.
"The intent of it is to record their time or distances or or efforts a little bit differently than the traditional born at birth female, or, I should say, female at birth," Berg said.
The WIAA's representative assembly will hash out the specific language and content of each amendment in late January. They will then vote on the proposals in April.
According to the WIAA, an amendment needs 60% of the votes to pass. For these two amendments, that would be equal to 32 votes out of 53.