Local schools mostly mum on transgender restrooms

A month after President Barack Obama’s administration reminded school districts that they risk losing federal funding if they don’t allow transgender students to use a restroom or a locker room that differs from their birth sex, it’s still unclear how this issue is being handled in the Columbus area and how many cases of such requests have been made here.

The Ledger-Enquirer on May 18 emailed six local superintendents questions about transgender access to facilities in their school district. Monday, the L-E asked again and informed those superintendents a story about this issue would be published online Wednesday and in Thursday’s paper. As of Wednesday, officials from only two of the six school districts had responded – and neither of them stated whether transgender students in their school district could use a restroom or a locker room that differs from their birth sex.

Here are the original questions the L-E asked the superintendents in Muscogee, Harris, Chattahoochee, Russell and Lee counties and Phenix City:

▪  What is the school district’s policy about transgender access to restrooms and locker rooms?

▪  What is your reaction to the letter from President Obama’s administration to public school districts detailing federal guidelines about this issue?

▪  Does your school district allow a person whose birth gender differs from the restroom’s or locker room’s posted gender to use that facility?

▪  How many such requests have been made in your school district this school year, and what was the result of those requests?

▪  How has that number changed over however many years your records go back?

▪  How many students have identified themselves as transgender in your school district?

▪  How has that number changed over however many years your records go back?

▪  How many employees have identified themselves as transgender in your school district?

▪  How has that number changed over however many years your records go back?

▪  What else should the L-E’s readers know about how your school district is handling this issue?

Muscogee County School District

The same day, May 18, Muscogee County School District communications director Valerie Fuller, on behalf of superintendent David Lewis, wrote in her emailed response, “Please know that we at the Central Administration office are currently reviewing the letter with legal counsel and will review it with the school board to determine what, if any, District-wide policy or procedure changes are appropriate. At this time, we are not asking principals or program leaders to take any specific action, but we merely shared the information, so that they would be aware of the guidance.

“The District has a good history of handling issues related to all students respectfully and in a manner that keeps the needs of all students at the forefront, and we remain committed to that agenda.

“I cannot confirm any requests for bathrooms based on gender at this time, nor have any been reported through my office.”

The L-E noted the questions Fuller didn’t answer, especially what the district’s policy is about transgender access to restrooms and locker rooms, so we asked those questions again the same day. Three weeks later, the L-E hasn’t received any more answers regarding this issue from MCSD.

Phenix City superintendent Randy Wilkes, Harris County superintendent Jimmy Martin, Russell County superintendent Brenda Coley and Lee County superintendent Mac McCoy or any official in their school district haven’t responded to the L-E’s May 18 email or Monday’s follow-up email.

Chattahoochee County schools

Chattahoochee County superintendent David McCurry has been the most responsive. On May 20, he told the L-E in an email, “Currently the school system has no knowledge of any student or employee identified as transgender and has not had to address any concerns regarding this. The school system is committed to protecting the rights of all students and employees, transgender or otherwise.”

The L-E noted the questions McCurry didn’t answer, especially what the district’s policy is about transgender access to restrooms and locker rooms, so we repeated those question May 23.

McCurry responded the same day, telling the L-E in an email, “At this point Chattahoochee County has no policy for transgender access to restrooms and locker rooms. Currently we have no students or employees who have identified themselves as transgender. We are consulting with our school board attorney to decide what next steps the school system should take. As State Superintendent Woods said in his official statement, this is a very complex and sensitive matter.”

Georgia’s response to Obama

Georgia superintendent Richard Woods on May 20 emailed the state’s school district superintendents about how to respond to the Obama administration’s May 13 “Dear Colleague” letter, which Woods called “overreach of power by the Executive Branch of the federal government.”

“As this guidance does not have the force of law, you are not required to comply with this directive or make changes to your established actions and policies,” Woods told superintendents in his letter. “However, if the federal government does decide to withhold federal funds, enforce this directive, or bring suit against any district in Georgia because of a decision a local district makes, we will work with all parties to take appropriate action.”

Georgia didn’t wait to find out. Five days later, it joined 10 other states in a preemptive strike. They filed a federal lawsuit in Texas to block the Obama administration from enforcing its interpretation of Title IX of the 1972 U.S. Education Amendments, which outlaws sexual discrimination in federally funded education programs or activities. The other states in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The Obama administration’s “Dear Colleague” letter was its response to the lawsuits the U.S. Justice Department and North Carolina filed against each other after the state passed a law requiring people to use public restrooms consistent with the gender on their birth certificate.

All of which continues to beg the question in the Columbus area schools. Because he was the only superintendent who had been responding to our queries, the L-E asked McCurry in an email Monday, “Today in the ChattCo school district, if someone tries to use a restroom or locker room that differs from their birth gender, would that person be allowed to do so? And if not, what would happen to that person?”

McCurry answered, “As of today we have no identified transgender students or employees, and therefore have no facilities to accommodate them. There is no true legal requirement to provide facilities. However, the school system is committed to protecting the rights of all students and employees, transgender or otherwise.”

So we still don’t have an answer to that question from any school district in the Columbus area.

“It means they don’t have an action plan,” said Jeremy Hobbs, director of ColGay Pride in Columbus. “I believe there is no policy that addresses this (locally). That’s why they can’t give you a definitive answer.”

Letter backfires

The number of transgender students or the number of requests for such accommodations in local school districts also isn’t definitive. Hobbs said he isn’t aware of any local cases and didn’t even have an estimate. In fact, he said, no local organization specifically advocates for transgender issues beyond being lumped in with ColGay Pride, which represents the LGBT community of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

But there is a transgender inclusion organizer, Chanel Haley, at Georgia Equality, the Atlanta-based LGBT advocacy group. Haley transitioned from a man to a woman in 1998, a year after graduating from North Atlanta High School. Although she never tried to use a restroom or locker room that differed from her birth gender while at school, Haley said she had no trouble doing so while working in the state capitol from 2010-14.

“Never an issue,” she said. “It didn’t burn down. I even, at the end of the session, received a resolution from the Speaker of the House.”

It’s become an issue in K-12 schools, Haley said, because the Obama administration has made it a national debate. She said she isn’t aware of any transgender students in the Columbus area but she has been quietly helping such access cases at three schools, one each in north and south Georgia and Savannah.

“Most schools work this out with the parent and the child,” Haley said. “They don’t need to make a public statement about how they’re dealing with it.”

Hobbs senses the Obama administration’s “Dear Colleague” letter has backfired.

“It’s intrusive,” he said. “That’s not a good negotiating tactic. It’s blunt. It’s brutal. At the same time, we need help to educate people. That’s the No. 1 barrier between acceptance and discrimination.”

Haley agreed.

“There certainly are school systems with transgender children that could have been denied,” she said. “If something isn’t right, it needs protections. But whether it needs to be written and said aloud is a different story.”

For example, in Fannin County, a transgender student quietly was permitted to use a restroom that differs from the child’s birth gender. But during 2½ hours of public comments at the standing-room-only school board meeting May 12, outraged residents protested the practice, the Fannin Sentinel reported. And two weeks later, Fannin superintendent Mark Henson told parents in a letter that the board reversed course.

“Fannin County will maintain restrooms and locker rooms for the 2016-17 school year which are based on birth sex rather than gender identity,” Henson wrote. “Alternate restrooms will be provided for any transgender students we may have enrolled next year.”

But such an accommodation, although well meaning, also is discriminatory, Haley asserted.

“A unisex bathroom essentially outs them,” she said.

The Obama administration made that point in its “Dear Colleague” letter when it wrote, “A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so. A school may, however, make individual-user options available to all students who voluntarily seek additional privacy.”

This story was originally published June 8, 2016 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Local schools mostly mum on transgender restrooms."