Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight
PIERRE — A firestorm of criticism Wednesday forced a South Dakota lawmaker to lose a committee vice chairmanship and withdraw his bill to defund the Huron School District, which he filed in reaction to a tip about the district’s bathroom policy.
Meanwhile, a separate bill was filed to make school bathrooms “exclusively” male or female, as determined by a student’s “biological” sex at birth. That bill would also criminalize violations.
The demoted legislator is Rep. Phil Jensen, a Republican from Rapid City. He filed a bill Tuesday to cut off state funding for the Huron schools — which are 300 miles from his own legislative district — with no reason given in the text of the legislation.
Backlash was immediate at the Capitol, where lawmakers are gathered for their annual legislative session. Reactions to the bill dominated morning conversations.
House Education Committee Chairwoman Lana Greenfield, R-Doland — whose district includes Huron — asked Jensen, the vice chairman, to stay away from the committee’s Wednesday morning hearing.
Jensen’s bill wasn’t on the agenda, but Greenfield told Searchlight she knew there would be upset school administrators attending the hearing. They were in town for the School Administrators of South Dakota’s Outstanding Administrator Banquet, which was scheduled for later Wednesday at a Pierre hotel and conference center.
“I just thought instead of inciting any kind of a problem, it would be better if he would leave,” Greenfield said.
Jensen left the hearing but came back before it was over. He told Searchlight afterward that he had recently received a tip about Huron school officials, and he filed his bill “so they could come to Pierre and answer as to why they think it’s OK” for transgender students to use the bathroom or locker room of their choice.
When asked whether he knew the school district’s bathroom policy or any further details, Jensen deflected.
“They allow boys to go in the girls’ bathrooms now,” he said. “And that’s unacceptable.”
Jensen said he was willing to withdraw his bill and did so because he had been informed that another representative was introducing a bill addressing school bathrooms statewide. That bill is from Rep. Brandei Schaefbauer, R-Aberdeen, with Jensen as a cosponsor. It would require school administrators to ensure that areas such as changing rooms, restrooms and shower rooms are “designated for use exclusively by females or for use exclusively by males.”
Schaefbauer’s bill would make it a misdemeanor crime to knowingly enter and refuse to leave such a room in violation of the law.
Amid the hubbub surrounding Jensen’s Huron bill, House leaders asked him to step down as vice chair of the Education Committee, he said, adding that he agreed because he was willing to surrender his vice chairmanship to retain his seat on the committee.
The House clerk announced the demotion during the start of the House floor session Wednesday afternoon, saying “the speaker announced that Rep. Jensen was removed as vice chairman of the House Committee on Education.” Afterward, Speaker Jon Hansen, R-Dell Rapids, confirmed to South Dakota Searchlight that Jensen would remain a member of the committee.
A bit of theater ensued during the House floor session, due to Huron School Superintendent Kraig Steinhoff’s presence after his attendance at the administrators’ banquet. Lawmakers routinely ask for a “personal privilege” to recognize people in the gallery, and Rep. Kevin Van Diepen, R-Huron, was granted one to recognize Steinhoff and other Huron officials.
Van Diepen introduced Steinhoff as the superintendent of “the wonderful Huron School District.” Jensen applauded but remained seated as other members of the House stood to applaud and welcome the Huron contingent.
Steinhoff declined to answer questions from South Dakota Searchlight and instead provided a written statement about Jensen and his legislation, House Bill 1224.
“Representative Jensen and I have not communicated. I understand HB 1224 has been withdrawn,” Steinhoff’s statement said. “The bill caused fear, confusion, and unnecessary stress. As the superintendent, I am proud to serve ALL students of the Huron School District and will support and defend HSD with every breath I take.”
An article on the IW Features website relates an account — unconfirmed by South Dakota Searchlight — that may have motivated Jensen’s bill. IW Features is a project of the Independent Women’s Forum, a nonprofit that argues against the inclusion of transgender women in women’s sports and other settings.
The IW Features article alleges that two girls who attend Huron High School complained to school officials about a transgender girl using girls’ bathrooms and were told to use the school’s family restroom if they were uncomfortable.
Susan Williams, executive director of the Transformation Project in Sioux Falls, which advocates for transgender people, said Jensen’s bill and rhetoric were not surprising.
“For almost a decade we have seen Rep. Phil Jensen propose hateful, discriminatory legislation that targets transgender South Dakotans,” Williams said in a statement. “His demotion after his latest incidence of transphobia is well deserved. Rep. Jensen’s desire to use his position to hurt marginalized people, rather than help them is deplorable.”
But the particulars of the situation in Huron remained largely unknown around the Capitol as lobbyists and lawmakers swiftly condemned Jensen for his targeting of the Huron School District.
Sen. David Wheeler, R-Huron, called Jensen’s bill “a terrible waste of time for everybody.”
Rob Monson, executive director of School Administrators of South Dakota, released a statement on social media saying he and Steinhoff had met with House leaders and had requested that Jensen not only lose his vice chairmanship but also be removed from the committee. Monson said Jensen is “unfit to serve on that committee,” and later said there was still “ongoing discussion” about a removal.
South Dakota Democratic Party Executive Director Dan Ahlers, a former legislator, released a statement saying “these actions are beneath the office that Rep. Jensen holds.”
Monson and Ahlers described Jensen’s bill as part of a broader attack on public education this legislative session.
That attack, they said, consists of efforts including a less-than-inflation state funding increase of 1.25% proposed by former Gov. Kristi Noem, a pending bill that would require the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom, and a Noem proposal to create education savings accounts that would provide public funding to help families pay for private school tuition, homeschooling or other forms of alternative instruction. A bill that would have required public schools to allow chaplains failed Wednesday in the House.
Wednesday was not Jensen’s first experience with widespread condemnation of his actions or statements.
In 2016, he told the Rapid City Journal that one of his constituents witnessed “dozens of South Americans” fleeing a parked van in downtown Rapid City, and then Jensen described how they looked in language that the state Democratic Party called “bigoted.” At the time, Jensen was supporting legislation to close the state to refugees.
In 2014, Jensen told the Journal that businesses should have the right to deny service based on a customer’s race or religion, because the situation is best left to the free market.