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LGBTQ group reacts to school official's alleged post

Posted at 11:40 PM, Jul 02, 2018
and last updated 2018-07-02 23:40:06-04

Members of the LGBTQ community are calling for change in the Olean School District. 

After the drag queen story time two weeks ago, multiple media reports stated that a Title IX officer for the Olean School District posted, in part, that "gender identity issues are directly from Satan."  

The Title IX Officer's role is to ensure all children, regardless of gender, are treated equal. 7 Eyewitness News reached out to her, she did not respond. The LGBTQ community in Olean did have a response.

“She's supposed to be the protector of the people who need protection. And she's publicly speaking that these people, that will need some protection at some point, are in fact, basically, a by-product of the devil,” said Leo Wolters-Tejera, with the Cattaraugus County Pride Coalition.

Monday night in the Olean High School auditorium, the coalition wanted to get its message across to the Olean Board of Education. But, they aren't calling for anyone to lose their job. 

“We really knew that it was a non-starter for us to call for her to be fired. Also, that's not productive,” added Wolters-Tejera.

At the special board of education meeting they passed along their ideas to the board including:
Adding a gay-straight alliance in the middle school.
Reviewing the districts policies, to see what could be done differently in the future.
And better diversity training, especially for the LGBTQ community throughout the district.

The Board of education can't comment on personnel matters, but did hire outside council to recommend their next moves.

“We take this very seriously and we're going to do our due diligence and make sure a fair and equitable resolution has been made for everyone,” said Ryan Everhart, with Hodgson Russ Attorneys.

Everhart said he would come up with recommendations for the district as quickly as possible.

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