The room was packed with visitors on Wednesday as the Foothills School Division's board of trustees held their board meeting.

Parents were in attendance as the board passed the first reading of the draft of the newly adjusted policies, administration procedures, and student conduct.

The update to the paperwork comes after the Alberta government implemented the Guidelines For Best Practices: Creating Learning Environments That Respect Diverse Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities And Gender Expressions.

Nathan Stephan spoke on behalf of the parents who attended and says you can't set up policies, laws, or frameworks that allow for rights to be subjugated at the expense of other peoples' needs.

"I think that was the major issue that a lot of parents came into. An example would be your child has a right to privacy and to feel safe and secure in a change room or a washroom, that would be a right that they would feel, and there was concerns that right might be overlooked somehow with how the practices might be implemented."

He says laws, policies and procedures are put in place to guard against high impact risks even if there's a low likelihood of the risk occurring.

"The guidelines put out by the province didn't have a proper risk assessment that there was potential for abuse by individuals, not of the transgender community, but that could be abused and there would be little recourse or ability to prevent it because of the framework that was set up in the guidelines and policies the province put out."

After listening to the board pass the first reading of their documents Stephan says he's pleased with how the division is handling the situation.

"In reality that is a reasonable process to follow and to ask for feedback in the way that they are is perfectly acceptable and I'd hope that the other parents I represented recognize that as well."

FSD is required to submit their drafts to the government by Mar. 31 but the division's second reading will take place on Apr. 6.

The drafts can be viewed by clicking here.

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