The Obama administration told USA public schools yesterday that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice, upsetting Republicans and raising the likelihood of fights over federal funding and legal authority. Dr. John Jungmann.Superintendent of schools for Springfield Public Schools.says the letter serves as a “guidance” to school districts concerning the civil rights and treatment of transgender students.
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The controversial letter, issued jointly by the US departments of Education and Justice, states that transgender students are protected under Title IX, which prohibits K-12 districts, colleges and universities that receive federal dollars from discriminating against students based on sex. However, schools that refuse to comply could face civil rights lawsuits from the government, and the Obama administration could try to cut off federal aid to schools to force compliance. Currently, three LPS students are using bathrooms according to their expressed gender; none are using locker rooms. “There’s an expectation that the only other people will be the same gender as they are and that’s the way we’ve been doing things for a long time”. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick responded by calling Scribner a “dictator”.
According to the guidance letter (PDF) calls for schools to allow students to use restroom facilities and locker rooms based on the gender they identify with, upon being notified of the student’s transgender status. Already, officials from eight states West Virginia, Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Maine and North Carolina signed on to a brief in recent days asking a federal appeals court to re-hear a case in which it sided with a Virginia transgender student seeking to use the boys bathroom.
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory released a statement saying: “President Obama’s administration has instituted federally mandated edicts that affect employees as well as every parent and child within a public school system”.
Officials with the Perris Union High School District and the Menifee Union School District said the policy was not an issue for them.
“A transgendered child’s peers are going to grow up with that person and think well that’s just the way people are and that’s OK, ” Wachtel said. “I would wait until I got home”.
The Obama administration is pushing for transgender rights following the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalising same-sex marriage in June a year ago.
Virginia Schools have been allowing transgender students to use the bathroom and locker rooms they identify with for the past year.
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On Friday, Horry County School Board Chairman Joe DeFeo said the Obama directive is essentially moot because the issue is already before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. “I think it would be unsafe in a way”.
