What the federal government gives, the federal government may take away, if local schools don’t allow boys to use girls; bathrooms.
Anticipating such a result, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board has suspended the bathroom policy that allowed students to use whatever bathroom they felt comfortable in, regardless of gender.
Instead, students will use bathrooms that comport with their biological, not preferred gender identity — at least for now. Board member Dwight Probasco was the only no vote last week, while board members Tom Bergey, Jim Hart, Ole Larson, Jubilee Underwood, and Jeff Taylor all voted in favor of returning to the prior bathroom and locker policy until the board’s policy committee can review the district policy.
The ultimate decision to keep bathrooms separate by gender may cost the school district its federal funding, since the Biden Administration is interpreting Title IX rules as requiring transgender students into intimate spaces previous reserved for the opposite gender. Title IX is law established in 1972 that prohibits gender discrimination in schools or education programs that receive federal funding.
The issue was on the agenda last week after the policy committee recommended that the district suspend it and go back to the prior policy; recently a boy who prefers to use the girls’ facilities has been doing so, causing parents and students to object to the relatively new policy that allowed it.
“That Court action affords the Committee an opportunity to review its current policies regarding such matters, and for the District’s administration to review its guidelines regarding student use of communal bathrooms/locker rooms that match their gender identity. The Committee believes that the District’s Guidelines should be placed on hold pending such reviews,” according to the policy committee.
According to the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, as a condition of receiving federal funds, schools must agree to “not exclude, separate, deny benefits to, or otherwise treat differently on the basis of sex any person in its educational programs or activities unless expressly authorized to do so under Title IX or its implementing regulations. The Departments treat a student’s gender identity as the student’s sex for purposes of Title IX and its implementing regulations. This means that a school must not treat a transgender student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity. The Departments’ interpretation is consistent with courts’ and other agencies’ interpretations of Federal laws prohibiting sex discrimination.”
The federal guidance continues: “The Departments interpret Title IX to require that when a student or the student’s parent or guardian, as appropriate, notifies the school administration that the student will assert a gender identity that differs from previous representations or records, the school will begin treating the student consistent with the student’s gender identity. Under Title IX, there is no medical diagnosis or treatment requirement that students must meet as a prerequisite to being treated consistent with their gender identity.6 Because transgender students often are unable to obtain identification documents that reflect their gender identity (e.g., due to restrictions imposed by state or local law in their place of birth or residence),7 requiring students to produce such identification documents in order to treat them consistent with their gender identity may violate Title IX when doing so has the practical effect of limiting or denying students equal access to an educational program or activity.”
Further, the federal government says that schools must allow students this access “even in circumstances in which other students, parents, or community members raise objections or concerns. As is consistently recognized in civil rights cases, the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students.” In other words, in any circumstance, the schools are required to allow boys to use girls’ bathrooms.
The federal guidance is at this link.
That guidance was issued in 2016, but was not applied uniformly during the Trump Administration. The Biden Administration, however, says it will withhold public funds from schools that do not allow gender mixing in bathrooms and locker rooms.
The school board meeting room was packed during last week’s meeting with parents and concerned citizens, may of whom testified in favor of returning to gender-specific facilities. There were no testifiers who rose to support the cross-over bathroom policy, which had been in place since 2015.
In coming days, the policy committee is expected to bring a new recommendation before the school board for consideration.
