The Utah State Legislature on Thursday passed a resolution to censure a conservative school board member whose social media posts questioning the gender of a high school basketball player led to threats against the girl, prompting state officials to call for the school board member’s resignation. .
A day after the Utah State Board of Education unanimously voted to strip Klein of his board duties and nearly all administrative responsibilities, lawmakers passed a resolution condemning Natalie Klein’s actions. The board will no longer allow Klein to attend or discuss meetings, and his colleagues are asking him to resign by February 19th.
The legislative reprimands currently sent to the governor’s desk do not involve actual punishment, but are a formal way for lawmakers to express disapproval. The bill passed the House with just two votes from Democrats and two Republicans, and received unanimous support in the Senate.
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Both the Legislature and the Board of Education have given Klein the option to resign or remain in office with limited powers. She is up for re-election in November. Democrats had called on Republican legislative leaders to punish Klein more harshly by either impeaching her or allowing the board to impeach her, an authority the committee currently does not have.
Klein, who was previously under investigation for inflammatory comments about LGBTQ+ students, named a Salt Lake City athlete by name in a Facebook post and falsely implied the girl was transgender. Klein apologized for provoking her storm of vulgar comments after she learned the girl was not transgender.
House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said ahead of the vote that members of the House are “split” on whether to impeach Klein or let voters decide her future in the fall.
“If this body moves forward with impeachment, it will explode like a mushroom cloud on the national stage,” Schultz said. “The hate you’re seeing now against that family will be national. It’s a difficult decision.”
Republican Utah Rep. Mike Schultz looks on at the state Capitol on February 28, 2020 in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
House Minority Leader Angela Romero complained that Republican leaders cut off debate before proposing an amendment to begin impeachment proceedings. Nevertheless, she and her fellow Democrats overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution to censure Klein.
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox told reporters Thursday that he supports mandatory board questioning and believes it effectively has the same effect as impeachment. He had asked the board to take action against Klein, saying he had “embarrassed the state.”
Even as Klein apologizes, national efforts to normalize transgender identity have made it “normal to stop and wonder if people are who they say they are.” He defended his initial suspicions.
Cox on Thursday pushed back against criticism from LGBTQ+ rights groups who say he and Republican lawmakers enabled Klein’s actions by passing legislation banning transgender bathrooms. He claims he gave people the right to question someone’s gender.
“Even if this young man were transgender, it would still have been inappropriate,” Cox said. “That’s not who we are or what we’re supposed to do.”
Klein claimed in a Facebook post Wednesday that the board is depriving voters of their right to represent them without due process. She wrote that she did not have enough time to read all the materials and prepare a response before Wednesday’s meeting.
The board requires members to ensure that Klein respects student privacy and upholds the state’s standards for educators, including not participating in sexual or psychological harassment of students and treating students with dignity and respect. It was determined that this was in violation of the required policy.
According to the board’s resolution, Klein left negative comments about the girl on her social media page while deleting supportive comments, which together constitute “cyberbullying” as defined by Utah law. “It seems like they will.”
In a letter published Thursday in the Salt Lake Tribune, the girl’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Al van der Beek, also urged Mr. Klein to resign and called for his impeachment.
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“Ms. Klein did the same thing we teach our children not to do: She blew up on social media without fact-checking, and ultimately directed her daughter at the same time. “The barrage of hateful and vile comments continued for over 16 hours,” the letter said. “It was one of the most painful events we had to endure.”
