A group of parents say they are concerned that proposed revisions to Cumberland Valley School District's anti-discrimination policies do not include protections for LGBT students and staff.

The district is voting to approve revisions to its policies in a meeting at 7 p.m. tonight as part of a review to ensure their consistency with federal regulations. According to school officials, the policies have previously never specified gay, bisexual, and transgender staff and students as protected groups because the district hasn't been required to include them.

But Mary Reichart, a parent who's son is gay and attends the district, believes it's time for that to change.

"Anyone who is going to a public school should feel like they are included as part of that community," Reichart said.

Reichart noted that Mechanicsburg, East Pennsboro, Harrisburg, and Camp Hill school districts all go beyond federal regulations and include language in their anti-discrimination policies that offer some level of protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and teachers.

Reichart said she and hopefully more than a dozen other parents would be attending tonight's Cumberland Valley School District meeting to support the inclusion of that language in the district's own policy.

Michael Gossert, president of the Cumberland Valley School District, said that he was sympathetic to the protection of marginalized groups but that the proposed revised policies were simply intended to ensure their continued consistency with federal regulations.

Gossert said that he felt LGBT students and staff were already protected by many of the school's existing policies, including its anti-bullying policy.

"In my opinion, it speaks to basic human decency, they protect people regardless of whether they are a protected group or not," he said.

Gossert said he also had concerns that including language that specified LGBT students and staff in its anti-descrimination policies would only lead to the inclusion of an ever-increasing list of groups in those policies in the future.

"What group do you look at and say, 'no'?" Gossert said. "What's the next group down the road?"

Gossert said the district had otherwise tried to be as open and transparent about the revisions as possible. The proposals had gone through the board's policy committee and had been read and voted on twice in recent board meetings that are open to the public.

Up until now, Gossert said, the board had received no feedback from parents that expressed concern about the proposed revisions.

Tonight's meeting represents the board's third and final vote on its revised anti-discrimination policies. But Gossert said, even if the policies are approved in tonight's meeting, it was not necessarily the end of the story.

Gossert said if the board determined that it should include LGBT students and teachers in those policies then it could revise them before next year's scheduled review.

Cumberland Valley School District meets at 7 p.m. in the district board room at 6746 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg. The meeting is open to the public.