School won’t comply with order regarding transgender student

The student’s family filed the federal complaint in spring 2014 after the district offered use of a private locker room space.

A transgender high school student’s request to share the locker room of the gender the student identifies with has led to a federal complaint against a northwest suburban school district, which was ordered to grant the student unrestricted access but is refusing.

Superintendent Daniel E. Cates said the district is sensitive to the challenges of transgender students and that they are allowed to use restrooms that match their gender identity.

“After serious and lengthy consideration, the District will continue to provide private accommodations for transgender students to ensure a respectful school environment, and will not allow unrestricted access to its locker rooms as directed by OCR”, Cates writes.

So, Lytle started an online petition, seeking support from others who felt the same way as he did. “This is about simply protecting student privacy”.

The case involves a transgender student who identifies as femal eand wants to use the girls’ locker room at her school. Cates said litigation is possible. “Our students do not attend school in government offices in Washington, D.C. We are very hopeful to continue those discussions and that reasonableness will prevail”. Mr. Knight told the Associated Press that putting the student in a separate room makes her feel stigmatized.

“District 211 has provided individual accommodations in a manner that does not infringe on the privacy concerns of other students, and it will continue to do so”, a message on the district’s website read. She was already living as a girl and was playing sports, but was forced to change in a separate room a long hallway away from the gym.

The ACLU noted that transgender students are at a greater risk for bullying, harassment and discrimination and said the district’s policies “put these vulnerable students at greater risk of harm”.

“Transgender students now are a part of everyday American life as society has become more accepting of all kinds of differences”, John Knight, the ACLU of Illinois’s director of the LGBT and AIDS Project, said in a statement to the newspaper. It is the District’s position that OCR’s unilateral mandate does not consider the best interests of all District 211 students and their families. A violation of this ruling could be deem discriminatory, a decision that threatens withdrawal of federal education funding. “The school leadership’s decision is a poor reflection on the community they represent”.