COLUMBUS, Ohio — It all started with a trip to Walmart. An East Knox Local Schools second-grader saw a gray dress with black cats and thought it was cool. He decided to wear it to school last fall.
His dad and stepmom, who prefer to stay anonymous to protect their family, said they supported the decision after talking through the questions he might get from fellow students and after alerting his teacher. They said, when he actually did wear the dress to school, it barely made waves.
“All we want him to be is a healthy child, and you know, he’s a young, rambunctious boy who likes to run around and scrape his knees and get in trouble,” his dad said. “He just happens to wear a dress every so often when he’s doing it.”
The parents say they didn’t think much more about it until they were on a date night this past December, and they saw a post on social media. It was a local news story about the East Knox school board meeting, where a boy wearing a dress had been a topic of discussion.
“We were horrified,” the stepmother said.
The parents say they were never alerted by anyone else that some considered their son wearing a dress an issue. And they say it definitely was not a concern among students.
“Children did not have an issue with it,” the stepmother said. “Adults do. Adults are the ones that have created a problem out of essentially nothing.”
At that December school board meeting, members of the public spoke, along with board member Matt Schwartz, who also is a pastor.
Part of what he had to say was captured on audio recording.
“I have said last week that I have them on Proverbs, or last month, the Proverbs, I train the child the way he should go, and then I also talked about men wearing women’s apparel, it’s an abomination to the Lord,” Schwartz can be heard saying on the recording. “I remind us all we’re going to be judged by the word of God, not by popular opinion, not by the government. We’re going to all stand before God.”
Schwartz’s comments during that board meeting would later become the subject of a Freedom From Religion Foundation letter to the district. The parents say they did reach out to the FRFF with their concerns. And, on Feb. 8, the foundation sent a letter to the school board, asking members to cease prayer at board meetings and stop preaching religious beliefs.
The parents say they were the ones who reached out the FFRF not only to protect their son but also to protect others.
“You can disagree or agree with us on how we choose to raise our child,” the stepmother said. “Frankly we don’t really care. We’re pretty confident about our parenting choices. But it can be your child, you know what I’m saying, any parenting decision that these groups disagree with could be subject to this kind of protest or this kind of backlash that you get against your family.”
10TV reached out to the superintendent of East Knox Local Schools, Steve Larcomb, who pointed out that the public prayer had already been stopped before the board received the letter from the FFRF.
“I don’t think there’s a huge issue within the district itself, and I would certainly encourage people to stay within their own lanes and not use public school board meetings to try to further their cause on either side of the fence, whatever that may be,” Larcomb said.
After the December board meeting, the parents say the religious-based discussions continued into the January meeting and then again into the February meeting, which happened after the board had received the FFRF letter.
“These people brought their Bibles to the lectern, they still were discussing religion,” the father said. “They told the board members that they needed to govern the school according to God’s law, which is not how this works.”
Larcomb acknowledged that members of the public spoke during the February meeting but said he did not feel there was a religious undertone to the meeting overall. He also made clear that the child was never mentioned by name at board meetings.
“Perception’s reality, and I’m sure those folks are probably a little on edge about their perceptions about what occurred in the last couple months,” Larcomb said of the parents. “Certainly the only things that happened in our meeting last Thursday night were a couple of gentlemen addressed the board in the public participation portion of the meeting, and it really was pretty esoteric and bland and nothing that I would say, that I would construe as deeply religious in overtone for the rest of the board meeting.”
But the parents are not yet satisfied that there will be a clear separation between church and state at the school board meetings. They are calling on Schwartz to be removed or fired.
They already are working with the FFRF but say they will keep pushing beyond that, including taking potential legal action, if necessary.
“You can do what you want at home, you can do what you want at church,” the father said. “You can live your values even in your position. But you don’t get to use your position to espouse your beliefs and to try to proselytize others.”
10TV did reach out to Schwartz for comment but did not hear back.