“We’re talking about kids”, the president said from the Roosevelt Room in the White House.
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He said the new guidance – distributed jointly by the departments of Education and Justice – was created to give schools “our best judgment about how to approach it”.
Gwinnett County public schools will be making gender-neutral restrooms available, after federal guidance last week that said transgender students should not be forced to use the restroom of their biological gender. WNIJ contacted a number of area school districts about the policy: only two replied, including LaSalle-Peru Township High School.
Georgia State School Superintendent Richard Woods also has concerns about the federal directive.
The mandate reads that “a school may provide separate facilities on the basis of sex, but must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity”, as a condition of continued funding.
“They are vulnerable. And I think that it’s part of our obligation as a society to make sure that everybody is treated fairly and our kids are all loved and that they’re protected and that their dignity is affirmed”, he said.
In the BuzzFeed interview, which was broadcast live on the Facebook and YouTube social media platforms, Obama made a passionate case that public officials give weight to the impact of their actions on a minority group subject to harassment, particularly in schools.
The administration’s guidance, issued Friday, inserted the Obama into a national debate over gay and transgender rights.
Obama would not comment directly on the Justice Department lawsuit, only saying that the “courts will affirm or reject how we see the issue”.
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“Given the unique safety and privacy concerns of elementary and secondary school students”, the district said, “this issue should be handled at the local level where school leadership can best address the needs of its students in accordance with the shared values of order, fairness, and respect”.
