School districts across the country are rushing to make policies for the tiny number of students who claim to be transgender. The latest to make such a policy is the Troy, Ohio, school district which has added a “gender neutral” bathroom policy, causing gay and transgender groups to descend upon the town to celebrate the decision.
On Tuesday, Equality for Ohio and The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network both announced that they planned to hold rallies near the Troy Board of Education to celebrate the new policy.
Troy has decided to add a gender neutral bathroom in every school. The district justifies its move by saying the federal government is forcing its hand under federal Title IX education laws. The district insists that adding the bathrooms is an attempt to avoid future discrimination lawsuits.
The district went further than simply mandating the gender neutral bathrooms by also ruling that transgender kids may also use whatever facilities match the gender with which they claim to identify. So transgender kids will not be limited to separate transgender facilities, meaning that teenaged boys who “identify” as a girl will be able to go into a girl’s locker room during gym class.
While Superintendent Eric Herman of the Troy schools admitted that the decision was basically made by the district’s lawyers, he also insisted that everyone’s rights would be protected.
“We try to make sure all of our kids are safe and protect their rights. It is a big job,” Herman said. “We are trying to work our way through it the best we can. My role in this is to comply with the law as superintendent.”
But many parents worried over boys claiming to be girls using the girls bathroom.
Bryan Kemper of Troy, who has six children in the system, says the new transgender policy is “outrageous,” and went on to say, “My students deserve privacy/No co-ed bathrooms.”
Another parent said he wouldn’t approve of the reverse situation, either.
“If my daughter was going into the guy’s bathroom, I wouldn’t be alright with it. Something could happen to ’em. You never know,” West Milton dad, Sean Call said.
Tonya Morgan, another Troy resident, also criticized the decision.”My oldest son is in kindergarten right now and I do not think it’s a good idea for them to share bathrooms,” she said.
The decision in Troy, Ohio, comes at the same time that a school in Hillsboro, Missouri, is dealing with a transgender boy claiming to identify as a girl and demanding to be allowed to use the girls facilities.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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