LEBANON — Hoosier public schools cannot lawfully deny transgender students access to facilities used by the gender with which they identify.
Every school district in Indiana has to follow the same rules.
Some families are asking the Lebanon Community School Corporation to require transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.
But the school board’s hands are tied, Superintendent Jon Milleman said.
Title IX of the Civil Rights Act states, “No person in the United States may, on the basis of gender, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to prejudice under any schooling program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Schools globally have asked Congress to understand if the word “sex” means female assigned at birth only, or if it may also include a female one chooses.
Title IX has been challenged by Indiana school districts in Evansville, Vigo County, and Martinsville, all of which spent a great deal of money and lost, Kent Frandsen, counsel for the Lebanon school district, said during the March 19 school board meeting.
The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has consistently upheld its 2017 decision on a Wisconsin case, ruling that “sex” includes the gender with which one identifies. And the treatment of gender dysphoria entitles a student to be treated as the sex of their personality, the judge ruled. The Seventh Circuit serves Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.
Transgender pupils in neighboring Missouri, however, may be forced to employ features related to their sex at conception. Missouri falls under the command of the Eighth Circuit.
“When there’s a fight in the loop authorities, the Supreme Court is supposed to get a situation and understand or resolve the conflict, so we have the exact rules in Indiana as in Missouri”, Frandsen told kids who attended the meeting. Some were there to argue that trans students be required to use services related to their biological sex.
Martinsville filed an appeal of the district court’s judgment with the Supreme Court, which this year declined to hear it and gave no explanation for the decision.
Frandsen also expects the great court to discover a similar event. In the meantime, Hoosier colleges must work within the rules, despite the visit by some in the group to ignore it and let the chips fall where they may.
The Seventh Circuit Court’s determination allows school districts to ensure a student is serious about their transgender standing before allowing apartments. And Lebanon universities do vet those who claim to be trans.
“There’s a process”, Milleman said.
School management work with students and their families. Little occurs without parental role. And the institution considers elements including: if the baby has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, how long they’ve identified as the opposite gender in school, in social circles, or at home, if the child has requested a name change, or if the parents have begun a lawful name change, the presence of physiological treatments, and the real and enduring intermediate status, Milleman said.
Not all of the elements have to be present, and gender dysphoria and the likelihood of a long duration weigh heavily, Milleman said.
Only two children in the Lebanon district have formally sought and received transgender accommodations, Milleman said.
When students qualify, they and their parents reach a plan for “reasonable accommodations” with the school, Frandsen said. Transgender students are offered private facilities, about the size of a public family restroom, for their use. They may choose to use the locker room of their preferred gender, but are asked to disrobe in a private place, such as a stall, in the locker room.
The transgender students are also asked to be considerate of their cisgender classmates’ sensibilities and comfort.
There have been two situations in which a transgender student in one class misunderstood his ability to use a private facility and mistakenly changed in a private space in a locker room, Milleman said.
Some of the girls in the class were uncomfortable with that. And the administration immediately met with the student and family to clear up the matter and prevent a recurrence.
Parents at a recent school board meeting asked if cisgender students who feel uncomfortable sharing facilities with transgender students may ask for private facilities to use.
Any child, regardless of gender identity, may request private facilities, Milleman said, although no cisgender students, or their parents, have done so.
And the district is building additional private facilities as part of remodeling projects at the high and middle schools. Those facilities will be self-contained and not accessible through the other locker rooms or restrooms.
But those who pretend to be transgender “on a lark” and traipse into facilities for the opposite sex will suffer serious disciplinary consequences, Milleman said.
Milleman and the school board are united, he said, in “making sure all of our students feel welcomed, supported, and safe”.
Milleman doesn’t lose sleep over many of the stressful situations he faces daily, but concern over student well-being “keeps me awake at night”, he said.
Written policy
The school has no written policy stating that transgender students are entitled to accommodations because the Civil Rights Act dictates that, and the district follows the law, Frandsen said.
But parents were surprised to learn at last week’s school board meeting that there is not a written document outlining the district’s criteria for evaluating a transgender student’s “genuine and enduring transitional status”.
Frandsen recommended that Milleman create a document to share with the public, and Milleman said he will do so.
How to change things
Frandsen advised parents who disagree with Title IX of the Civil Rights Act write to or call their U.S. senators and representatives and ask them to clarify the language as it relates to transgender status.
