Feds reject school district's plan for transgender student,

[tres3]

The battle for equal access for transgender students is pitting Illinois' largest high school district against federal authorities.

At issue is locker room access for a transgender high school student in Palatine-based Township High School District 211. The student, who identifies as female, is asking that she receive full access to the girls' locker room.

Citing privacy concerns, the district has denied the request and instead offered a separate room where the student can change.

"At some point, we have to balance the privacy rights of 12,000 students with other particular, individual needs of another group of students," said District 211 Superintendent Daniel Cates. "We believe this infringes on the privacy of all the students that we serve."

An official with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the student in a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education, called the district's stance "blatant discrimination, no matter how the district tries to couch it."

"We're talking about somebody who is being denied fair and equal treatment as compared to the other students, only because she is transgender," said John Knight, director of the LGBT and HIV Project at ACLU of Illinois.

Federal officials responded to the complaint, which was filed about a year and a half ago with the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, by saying the school is in violation of the Title IX gender equality law, according to the ACLU and district officials. A representative of the civil rights office could not be reached Monday.

For transgender students, schools craft policies of support
For transgender students, schools craft policies of support
The controversy appears to have done little to faze district officials, who remain adamant that transgender students should not be allowed unfettered locker room access.

School officials and board of education members worked for months in hopes of finding an acceptable compromise, Cates said. The proposed solution, which Cates said was "quickly squelched," required the transgender student to change and shower in private.

Transgender students also are given the option to use the locker room of the sex from which they transitioned, a district spokesman said.

The student who filed the complaint has been living as a girl for a number of years, Knight said. She plays sports and would like to be in the same locker room as her friends and classmates. Relegating her to a separate room down a long hallway from the gym only serves to stigmatize her, he said.

With educational campaigns and a recent media spotlight on transgender issues, school officials have found themselves wrestling more than ever with establishing best practices for their transgender students.

Suburban wife loves the person, not gender, after spouse comes out as woman
Suburban wife loves the person, not gender, after spouse comes out as woman
Last year, the Office for Civil Rights reached a settlement with a California school district after a transgender elementary school student filed a complaint alleging gender discrimination. The district ultimately agreed to allow the student to use female-designated facilities, including the locker room and bathroom.

In Barrington Community Unit School District 220, officials work with several transgender students and their families to ensure they feel included, spokesman Jeff Arnett said.

Only one middle school student has needed to use a locker room, Arnett said. That student is allowed full access to the locker room, with a slight variation.

"We provide an aide to the student in the locker room to be there and observe from a distance in case there are any questions or any issues," Arnett said.

Just last year, Chicago Public Schools adopted guidelines for its transgender students, which included a case-by-case determination of locker room and bathroom use.

Neither Barrington nor Chicago has reported a problem, but that's not been the case in all school systems. In recent years, backlash forced East Aurora school officials to retract a policy that allowed transgender students access to the locker rooms and bathrooms of their identified gender.

Alex Sennello, a local transgender activist, said she battled with school administrators at Lake Forest High School before graduating in 2013. She said they wanted her to use out-of-the-way faculty bathrooms. She ended up using the girls' bathroom stalls to change for physical education.

Now 20 and a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Sennello co-founded Trans Student Educational Resources, an advocacy group. She said students can best decide for themselves which facility to use, with laws against sex crimes in place to protect everyone involved.

"Most transgender people, like most cisgender (or nontransgender) people, are perfectly capable of making smart decisions for themselves," she said. "A lot goes into this: 'Am I going to be safe? Am I going to be made fun of, or feel self-conscious?' "

Despite the federal ruling to the contrary, Cates said he does not see District 211's policy as prejudiced. The district, he said, is responsive to the needs of its transgender students, including listing their self-identified gender and preferred name on school records. Transgender students also can play on the sports teams of the gender with which they identify and use the bathrooms of that gender.

"For all of us, our identity is who we are," Cates said. "This identity, though their body doesn't match, their identity is that of the other gender. And we fully, fully support that and acknowledge that."

If the district cannot reach a compromise with federal officials, it risks losing some of the $6 million it receives in federal funding. Cates also acknowledged that litigation is a likely outcome.

Mike Cannon, parent of a former student at Fremd High School in District 211, supported the district's position. Cannon is also a Rolling Meadows alderman but emphasized he was not speaking for the city.

"The solution District 211 came up with seems to be reasonable to me," he said. "If someone wants to be a transgender person, I think giving them a private place to change would be a reasonable solution. To make special arrangements to fit into the general population is almost abusing the rights of others."

Providing alternatives for all students who would like more privacy is a good thing, said Harper Jean Tobin, policy director at the National Center for Transgender Equality.

But Tobin said: "It's a very different thing to say 'Here's the facility. Here's how everyone else can use the facility, except you. We've determined there's something wrong with you that you cannot use the facility in the same way that everyone else can.' "






www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-transgender-student-locker-room-palatine-met-20151012-story.html

[wawa]

This quote sums up everything wrong here to me:

"The solution District 211 came up with seems to be reasonable to me," he said. "If someone wants to be a transgender person, I think giving them a private place to change would be a reasonable solution. To make special arrangements to fit into the general population is almost abusing the rights of others."

Two issues here.

1. If somebody WANTS to be a transgender person.  wants?  WANTS??  The fuck dude?   Nobody just wakes up one day and says, "you know what'd be a lark?  being transgendered!!  I'm going for it."   She IS transgendered.  What she WANTS is to be treated like all the other female students. 

2.  to make special arrangements to fit into the general population  That is actually the exact opposite of what she wants.  She wants an NONSPECIAL arrangement.  She wants to be allowed to have the same access to the girls locker room just like all the other girls.  She wants exactly no special treatment.  Just, "are you a girl?  yes?  Proceed to locker room."  YOU are the one who insists that she doesn't belong in the "general population."  This is the EXACT DEFINITION OF OTHERING OMG.

[miniroller]

I realize I might be giving the younger generation lots of credit, here, but something tells me the high school students would accept this so much better than the administrators & parents. Yeah, there might be a couple who shy away at first, but I think after a week or two, it would be no big thing at all. Whereas, the older generation is always going to roadblock equality for someone they don't understand

[emilyj]

This is so stupid. I mean, really. It is.

I don't know the circumstances surrounding this girl - is she accepted by her peers, I mean. The article said she plays sports, so I want to assume that she is. So really, who would notice if she used the girl's locker room? Do they really think she'd be in there flaunting, running around causing a scene? No. She'd probably act like every other teenage girl, and hide behind a towel or big shirt to change.

Instead, the school is making this a problem by singling her out. It's sad.

[msmerymac]

She's allowed to choose to use the men's locker room, since she's biologically male, even though she presents as a women? Yeah, I can't see anything going wrong there.

[debatethis]

How many times are bigots going to continue to trot out variations of "separate but equal"? It's getting old. I'm kind of surprised that Palatine is having this issue, too, but Barrington didn't.

[blink]

The saddest thing about these stories is the pervasive attitude/belief that people who are transgender are faking it. If it a girl, well in that case it is really just a boy trying to get access to see girls in the locker room and we need to protect the "real" girls. If it is a boy, well he is really a girl and we need to protect himself. AND if it is a boy, well you can't have women switching to the "more powerful" gender. When the vast majority of people, cis- or transgender are not that malicious or manipulative.

[BlondeSpiders]

Oct 13, 2015 7:15:47 GMT -5 wawa said:

2.  to make special arrangements to fit into the general population  That is actually the exact opposite of what she wants.  She wants an NONSPECIAL arrangement.  She wants to be allowed to have the same access to the girls locker room just like all the other girls.  She wants exactly no special treatment.  Just, "are you a girl?  yes?  Proceed to locker room."  YOU are the one who insists that she doesn't belong in the "general population."  This is the EXACT DEFINITION OF OTHERING OMG.

This reminds me of something that happened to my mom many years ago. She called me, all excited to show her support for LGBT by signing a "Equal Rights Not Special Rights" petition. I had to tell her that she actually signed her support of a bill that prevented workplace discrimination laws for LGBT. She was so furious at being tricked by circular wording.

That's exactly what's happening here! Hue and cry about "separate arrangements" and "special treatments" when the trans girl in question has asked for none of that. The exact opposite, actually.

And stupid fear-mongering people will hear that and believe it. 

Asshole.

[BlondeSpiders]

Oct 13, 2015 12:35:35 GMT -5 blink said:

The saddest thing about these stories is the pervasive attitude/belief that people who are transgender are faking it. If it a girl, well in that case it is really just a boy trying to get access to see girls in the locker room and we need to protect the "real" girls. If it is a boy, well he is really a girl and we need to protect himself. AND if it is a boy, well you can't have women switching to the "more powerful" gender. When the vast majority of people, cis- or transgender are not that malicious or manipulative.

I guess some folks are on Huckabee's side. 

[penguingrrl]

That poor girl. Why schools won't treat her like any other girl is beyond me. I would venture to guess that most of the students wouldn't think twice unless the adults in their lives told them to.

[NewOrleans]

Ugh, here's the thing. I don't think this district is run by bigots. They are pretty clear that they are concerned about students, and I read that she is allowed to play on girls' sports teams and use girls' bathrooms. So I don't think it's bigotry, exactly. I think it's... an unwillingness / intellectual laziness to mobilize and teach the student body how to handle these situations? Or a misunderstanding of what it means? Or most likely, a fear of having to face the wrath of parents? I think it's more spinelessness than it is bigotry.

Here's the other thing. I think it *IS* a legitimate concern that some girls would not be comfortable. They might not understand what transgender means, that it's not cross-dressing or whatnot. And I don't think we can expect kids to just deal with their discomfort because that's not fair, either, to expect them to understand shit adults don't understand half the time.

But they would only be uncomfortable because the district went public with their dumbassery, and the kids now know the person is a boy. Had the district never made an issue of it, the kid would have changed quickly in and out of uniform like everyone else, and the other girls would probably be none the wiser.

ALSO, KIDS REALLY DON'T SHOWER AFTER GYM ANYMORE, SO NO PENIS IS HAPPENING.

In short, the best solution here is to get rid of gym class entirely, as most kids spend more time avoiding participating than they do actually engaging in physical activity.