STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) — Many school districts were prepared for the federal government’s directive two weeks ago concerning transgender students using bathroom facilities for which they identify themselves.
One such district is Stevens Point. Interim Superintendent Dr. Lee Bush and Director of Student Services Gregory Nyen told the Stevens Point City Times they have been discussing this for about a year already. Bush and Nyen confirm they received what was called a “joint guidance document” from the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the Department of Education Office For Civil Rights, and the Department of Public Instruction. Nyen says the district was already in line with the document’s best practices, and added language relating to inclusion of transgender individuals to several district policies last March.
The administrators say they can neither affirm or deny presence of transgender students in the district, and that they need to respect their privacy, and identifying them as a group opens up opportunities for undeserved bullying or harassment.
Nyan says as they are approached with transgender concerns and requests, they will have to look at each case individually. “Just as we want to provide for the dignity and uniqueness of student A, affording them their rights may create a level of uncomfortableness in student B, and we then need to address the needs of student B, so there is not clearly a one-size-fits-all that we can apply as a school district.”
Bush says the transgender community is a protected class under federal Title Seven and Title Nine, and the district receives considerable funding under Title Nine, so going against the federal government on an issue like this could harm the district. “We get money through Title Nine, and the title programs, those are federal programs, and with the limited resources the school districts have, we’re not going to forego federal dollars by going against the federal government’s guidelines.”
Nyen says you won’t find students simply walking into any bathroom because they want to. He says there will be guidelines to follow. “It’s a deep belief in the transgender population that they were born with a mismatch in their anatomy, so a student can’t just walk up to an administrator and say, although my birth certificate says that I’m a male, today I want to use the female bathroom, so a casual comment like that is not going to allow access.”
For those concerned about adults that may seek to join children of the opposite sex in the restroom, Dr. Bush says that’s highly unlikely because of existing school security procedures. “We protect our students. We have security at our doors. We don’t allow anybody to come into our schools, so adults generally when they come into a school, if they want to use a restroom, they will ask for a staff restroom or there’s unisex restrooms.”
SPASH principal Jon Vollendorf told the City Times his staff is already having frank discussions with students not only to explain the new directive, but to address concerns for privacy and safety, and that the school’s counselors and staff are resources for the students.
Many school districts in the state were preparing for this issue. Bush says districts like Mount Horeb and Menasha already have policies, and they are currently reviewing these and others before recommending an official transgender policy to the Stevens Point School Board. He says the Wisconsin Association of School Boards also has several policies on file.
In the future, Bush and Nyen say bathrooms may be built or remodeled differently, to provide more privacy. They say it could mean more unisex facilities and fewer traditional multi-person bathrooms.
by Larry Lee, WSAU with contributions from Brandi Makuski, Stevens Point City Times
