The topics of trans and illegal immigrant students were again raised at the Northampton Area School District Board of Education meeting Oct. 28.

“Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequences,” Shannon O’Grady said during the public comment portion of the meeting.

O’Grady also spoke at the Oct. 14 meeting when the topic of trans students, also known as transgender students, in sports was raised.

Transgender is defined as “denoting or relating to a person whose gender identity does not correspond with the sex registered for them at birth.”

Concerns have been raised in school district, college, amateur, Olympic and professional sports. One argument is that a transgender woman (per definition, a person who was born a man) may possibly have a competitive advantage over a woman who was born as a woman.

“If anything, trans kids rarely play sports at all. They’re too afraid to because they know how likely it is that they will be bullied,” O’Grady also said at the Oct. 14 meeting.

The topic concerning illegal immigrant students was broached at the Oct. 14 school board meeting by school board Vice President Kristin Soldridge.

By law, a school district administration is not allowed to publicly discuss a student’s sexual orientation or citizenship status. No student was named or identified at the Oct. 14 or 28 board meetings.

Some of the comments by Soldridge and school Director Brian McCulloch at the board meetings have drawn rebukes by some audience members at board meetings and by some on social media.

Soldridge began her inquiry about illegal immigrant students during the four-plus-hour school board meeting Oct. 14.

Referring to an item during the agenda discussion, Soldridge said, “Who requires that volunteers receive a TB test? Is that a state or is that a district policy?

“And the reason why I preface this is, if we are allowing illegal immigrants into our school system, which do not require any vaccinations, then how can we require our volunteers to have a TB test?” Soldridge asked.

“The TB test is a state requirement,” replied NASD Assistant Superintendent Dr. Michelle Schoeneberger.

Soldridge continued: “And then in the case of when it comes to students who are here illegally who do not have to get the vaccinations, if they come in with TB and they do spread it because other people have, for whatever reason, chosen not to get that vaccine, how does the district address that? And why do we have two separate setups, two separate scenarios? Why is it not across the board?

“And are all students required to have a TB shot?” Soldridge asked.

“I know kindergarten students entering our schools all have to have certain vaccines. Is that true of any student who enters our school district? They have to have certain vaccines?” school Director John Becker said.

“Yes, that’s correct,” NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik replied.

“So, I go back to my question: How much money are we spending on illegals in our school system?” Soldridge questioned. “I think it’s a viable question to ask. Are we allowing students to come into the district and take away services from other students?”

McCulloch said, “I think what Kristin is saying is she wants to know how much money is being spent on these people. And I know it’s not something you want to answer because it’s going to make you guys look bad, but it’s an answer that the people in the audience and the people in the community want to know. And they have a right to the answer.”

During the discussion of policies on the Oct. 14 agenda, Soldridge read from board Policy 200, enrollment of students, including, “The district shall immediately enroll foster care and educational instability students even if the student can’t provide the required documents,” and “The district shall not inquire about the immigration status of a student as part of the enrollment process.”

“So, my question is this: If we’re going to hold one group accountable, shouldn’t we be holding another group accountable?” Soldridge asked. “If an illegal immigrant is here, they do not have legally any of the items noted. So, are we allowing them to be enrolled and supplementing them with education, or are we not enrolling them?

“And if we are enrolling them, how much money are we receiving from the federal government to cover the cost of these students? And are these students then getting additional educational assistance from our teachers who teach English as a Second Language since most of them, when they do come over, they do not speak English?” Soldridge asked.

At the Oct. 14 meeting, school board President Doug Vaughn asked district Solicitor Atty. John E. Freund III, founding partner at King, Spry, Herman, Freund and Faul, for clarification concerning Policy 200.

“It is unlawful to inquire into the immigration status before enrolling a student,” Freund said.

“But they are still required to establish residency?” Vaughn questioned.

Freund replied, “You still have to establish residency. It might be more difficult. You have to require residency. It’s the immigration status that cannot be inquired into.”

Soldridge added, “Mr. Freund said they have to provide residency. Last I checked, if they’re here illegally, they’re not supplying residency. If they’re here illegally, how are they going to establish residency? You’re not going to supply residency because then you’re going to get caught by the municipality or borough.

“I have nothing against these students,” Soldridge added. “But we have students here who need assistance. And why can’t we dig a little deeper to find out if we are actually not allowing illegals into our school district?

“I brought this up a few months ago, and I never really got a response other than ‘we have to look into it,’” Soldridge said.

“You can’t always assume that all the kids who come here are illegals. All of us came here at some point as illegals,” Becker said.

“So, just a follow-up, Mr. Kovalchik, you are telling me that there are no illegals in the school district, and we are not diverting funds?” Soldridge asked at the meeting Oct. 14.

“No,” answered Kovalchik, indicating no funds have been diverted.

“Mrs. Soldridge, we don’t track if they’re legals or illegals. I was just talking with Mr. (Craig) Neiman (NASD business administrator) about this. So that’s why we can’t provide the funds amount. From the homeless situation, if they move to Stroudsburg, as an example, we still provide the transportation to the district. We have transported students who were homeless,” Kovalchik said.