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School Board Member On Transgender Issue: 'Not Until The Plumbing Is Changed'

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (CBS4) - A school board member in Delta County has gotten national attention after making controversial statements about transgender students.

"One of the board members said that she had gotten comments from my district, that the people are very unhappy with me commenting, they're very abashed about what I said," Katherine Svenson told KREX in Grand Junction, referring to comments she made at an October school board meeting.

KREX obtained a recording of Svenson's comments that were made at the meeting.

"Massachusetts and California have passed laws relating to calling a student, irrespective of his biological gender, letting him perform as the gender he thinks he is, or she is, and I want to emphasize, and they're actually talking about joining girls sports teams going in the girls locker rooms and bathrooms, and I just want to emphasize not in this district. Not until the plumbing's changed. There would have to be castration in order to pass something like that around here," Svenson said at the meeting.

Svenson went on the tell KREX that she doesn't have a problem with boys thinking they are girls.

"I'm just saying as long as they can impregnate a woman, they're not going to go in the girls locker room," she said.

According to KREX, Svenson handed out an article to other school board members that discusses a new California law that allows transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice. She warned the issue could be coming to Colorado. Some school officials respect but don't agree with her opinion.

The Delta County School Board has a policy in place since June that states that discrimination against any student is prohibited.

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