|
 The Township High School District 211, with seven high schools in
the suburbs west of Chicago, has provided separate spaces for
transgender students to change and shower, but it has refused to go
further, saying the privacy needs of other students were at stake.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which filed a
complaint in 2013 on behalf of a transgender student who identifies
as female, has said the arrangement is discriminatory and that it
stigmatizes transgender students.
Negotiations between the district and the Department of Education's
Office of Civil Rights (OCR) have failed to resolve the impasse.
The issue may come to a head on Monday when the OCR announces its
findings. If it says the district's arrangement violates gender
equality rules, the schools may lose $6 million in federal funding
and clarify a murky regulatory area.
"Having a finding and analysis from the Department of Education
specific to locker rooms will certainly have a national impact in
terms of telling school districts around the country what they
should be doing," said John Knight, a lawyer with the American Civil
Liberties Union of Illinois.
The Illinois case comes at a time of expanding awareness of
transgender issues, due in part to the high-profile transition of
Caitlyn Jenner, the reality TV star and former Olympic athlete once
known as Bruce. More and more states have made it illegal to
discriminate against transgender people.
The Illinois case is not the first case of its kind. In 2013 and
2014, two California school districts that adopted similar policies
eventually settled with the government, agreeing to allow
transgender students unrestricted access to restrooms and locker
rooms consistent with their gender identity.
Schools from Ohio to Missouri have also wrestled to shape rules over
locker room and restroom access that conform with Title IX, a
federal law on sex discrimination in public schools.
A finding in the Illinois case could clarify what the federal law
requires. The Department of Education investigated the complaint and
in July ordered the district to give the girl unrestricted access.
The girl, whose name has not been made public, has identified as
female from a young age and has been living full-time as a female
for seven years, the ACLU said.
[to top of second column]
|
For its part, the district has defended how it meets the needs of
transgender students. They are listed under their preferred gender
and can play on the sports teams of the gender they identify with,
spokesman Thomas Petersen said.
"This is an emerging and critical matter for school districts
everywhere," Daniel Cates, superintendent for the district with
12,500 students, wrote in an op-ed piece in the Daily Herald
newspaper this week.
"This is not the time for a federal agency to determine a course
that removes reasonable, dignified, tested and workable solutions
from school districts," he said.
He said the OCR was bullying schools into settlements with the
threat of revoking funds for lunch programs for poor students. Even
so, he said the district was prepared to lose its funding.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal
group, sent a letter of support this week to the school district,
saying it was not violating federal rules.
"Protecting students from inappropriate exposure to the opposite sex
is not only perfectly legal, it's a school district's duty," Matt
Sharp, a lawyer for the alliance, said in the letter.
(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Frank McGurty)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
