In Georgia on Thursday night, the Fannin County school superintendent said transgendered people are protected under the Civil Rights Act and surrendering $3 million in annual federal funding to avoid the issue isn’t an option.
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The federal Education Department is drawing on those practices to guide other schools as they work to comply with the Obama administration’s directive that transitioning children be treated consistent with their gender identity.
Texas’ attorney general suggested that the guidelines would result in “yet another legal fight” over transgender bathroom access.
Asaf Orr, a lawyer who directs the Transgender Youth Project Staff at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the guidance could help temper the transgender rights backlash that the restroom issue has engendered in states such as North Carolina by showing that minority rights and privacy rights can co-exist if schools respect all students’ need to be comfortable.
Columbus City Schools spokeswoman Jacqueline Bryant said the district has been “progressive” in response to the issue, adding that several years ago “gender identity or expression” to its nondiscrimination policy.
For athletics, “A school may not. adopt or adhere to requirements that rely on overly broad generalizations or stereotypes about the differences between transgender students and other students of the same sex (i.e., the same gender identity) or others’ discomfort with transgender students”, the letter states. However, one woman says she didn’t mind the idea.
Shorewood was the only Wisconsin district referenced in the report, which highlights policies in 13 states and the District of Columbia. Schools may make individual user facilities available to to all students who seek privacy.
Ohio Department of Education officials say they are reviewing the federal guidance.
Stand for Fort Worth, a group of about 50 people including some students, called Superintendent Kent Schribner’s new guidelines unsafe and argued they give students full rights to use the bathroom or locker room of the opposite sex with no medical or mental health diagnosis.
Niehoff said that since the state has a policy prohibiting boys from playing on girls’ teams, a transgender girl would be allowed to play on a girls’ team, but not a boys’ team.
The Obama administration has given OH school leaders some summer homework with a new federal directive on transgender students and bathroom use in public schools.
In order to receive federal funds, schools agree not to exclude or treat students differently regardless of their gender identity.
“We will reflect upon President Obama’s directive, as we would with any directive, legislation or statute, to get a better understanding of the possible effects, if any, on our school community”, Rosenblum said.
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But sometimes there are mistakes. “Kids that are young, it’s okay, but kids that are older, you know, like in high school, I think it would not be a good idea”. “Honest mistakes are much different than affirmatively saying, ‘I’m not going to support my students on this'”.
