SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'Good Day' for Transgender Students as Ruling Says School Violated Civil Rights
Ruling by US Department of Education is a win 'for all students, but especially those who are transgender all across the nation.'
Nov 03, 2015
The U.S. Department of Education on Monday made what the ACLU described as a "landmark ruling" by ordering a public school in suburban Chicago to stop discriminating against a transgender student and warning the district it will lose federal funding if it does not allow the student access to the women's restrooms and locker room within one month's time.
The DOE's Office for Civil Rights announced its decision after spending nearly two years investigating the complaint filed by the ACLU on behalf of an unnamed student at Township High School District 211, in the town of Palatine. In issuing the ruling, the government said it found "a preponderance of evidence" that school officials had directly violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, by creating an aura of stigma around the girl's sexual identity and for denying her equal access to a gender-appropriate locker room simply because she is transgender.
"All students deserve the opportunity to participate equally in school programs and activities - this is a basic civil right," said Assistant U.S. Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon in a statement.
The ACLU welcomed the ruling and applauded the DOE office for taking a stand on behalf of the young student.
"What our client wants is not hard to understand. She wants to be accepted for who she is and to be treated with dignity and respect - like any other student," said John Knight, director of the LGBT & HIV Project of the ACLU of Illinois. "The District's insistence on separating my client from other students is blatant discrimination. Rather than approaching this issue with sensitivity and dignity, the District has attempted to justify its conduct by challenging my client's identity as a girl."
In a personal statement released through the civil liberties group, the student said the ruling was not only important for her, but had far-reaching implications for other students and transgender people as well.
"This decision makes me extremely happy--because of what it means for me, personally, and for countless others," said the student. 'The district's policy stigmatized me, often making me feel like I was not a 'normal person'."
Monday's ruling, she added, "makes clear that what my school did was wrong. I hope no other student, anywhere, is forced to confront this indignity. It is a good day for all students, but especially those who are transgender all across the nation."
According to the Chicago Tribune:
For the student at the center of the federal complaint and all other transgender students at the district's five high schools, the staff changes their names, genders and pronouns on school records. Transgender students also are allowed to use the bathrooms of their identified gender and play on the sports team of that gender, school officials said.
But officials drew the line at the locker room, citing the privacy rights of the other 12,000-plus students in the district. As a compromise, the district installed four privacy curtains in unused areas of the locker room and another one around the shower, but because the district would compel the student to use them, federal officials deemed the solution insufficient.
The dispute highlights a controversy that a growing number of school districts face as they struggle with an issue that few parents of today's teens encountered. The Department of Education has settled two similar allegations of discrimination of transgender students in California, with both districts eventually agreeing to allow the students to use female-designated facilities.
Speaking on behalf of the ACLU, Knight said the school's compromise position and refusal to offer equal treatment to this particular student was intrinsically damaging to both her and the student body as a whole.
The District's position, said Knight, "is wrong as a matter of science and harmful to all the students of District 211. Trying to misinform students and tell them that discrimination is acceptable isn't the kind of conduct we expect from school administrators - and isn't a message that students are likely to accept."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The U.S. Department of Education on Monday made what the ACLU described as a "landmark ruling" by ordering a public school in suburban Chicago to stop discriminating against a transgender student and warning the district it will lose federal funding if it does not allow the student access to the women's restrooms and locker room within one month's time.
The DOE's Office for Civil Rights announced its decision after spending nearly two years investigating the complaint filed by the ACLU on behalf of an unnamed student at Township High School District 211, in the town of Palatine. In issuing the ruling, the government said it found "a preponderance of evidence" that school officials had directly violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, by creating an aura of stigma around the girl's sexual identity and for denying her equal access to a gender-appropriate locker room simply because she is transgender.
"All students deserve the opportunity to participate equally in school programs and activities - this is a basic civil right," said Assistant U.S. Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon in a statement.
The ACLU welcomed the ruling and applauded the DOE office for taking a stand on behalf of the young student.
"What our client wants is not hard to understand. She wants to be accepted for who she is and to be treated with dignity and respect - like any other student," said John Knight, director of the LGBT & HIV Project of the ACLU of Illinois. "The District's insistence on separating my client from other students is blatant discrimination. Rather than approaching this issue with sensitivity and dignity, the District has attempted to justify its conduct by challenging my client's identity as a girl."
In a personal statement released through the civil liberties group, the student said the ruling was not only important for her, but had far-reaching implications for other students and transgender people as well.
"This decision makes me extremely happy--because of what it means for me, personally, and for countless others," said the student. 'The district's policy stigmatized me, often making me feel like I was not a 'normal person'."
Monday's ruling, she added, "makes clear that what my school did was wrong. I hope no other student, anywhere, is forced to confront this indignity. It is a good day for all students, but especially those who are transgender all across the nation."
According to the Chicago Tribune:
For the student at the center of the federal complaint and all other transgender students at the district's five high schools, the staff changes their names, genders and pronouns on school records. Transgender students also are allowed to use the bathrooms of their identified gender and play on the sports team of that gender, school officials said.
But officials drew the line at the locker room, citing the privacy rights of the other 12,000-plus students in the district. As a compromise, the district installed four privacy curtains in unused areas of the locker room and another one around the shower, but because the district would compel the student to use them, federal officials deemed the solution insufficient.
The dispute highlights a controversy that a growing number of school districts face as they struggle with an issue that few parents of today's teens encountered. The Department of Education has settled two similar allegations of discrimination of transgender students in California, with both districts eventually agreeing to allow the students to use female-designated facilities.
Speaking on behalf of the ACLU, Knight said the school's compromise position and refusal to offer equal treatment to this particular student was intrinsically damaging to both her and the student body as a whole.
The District's position, said Knight, "is wrong as a matter of science and harmful to all the students of District 211. Trying to misinform students and tell them that discrimination is acceptable isn't the kind of conduct we expect from school administrators - and isn't a message that students are likely to accept."
The U.S. Department of Education on Monday made what the ACLU described as a "landmark ruling" by ordering a public school in suburban Chicago to stop discriminating against a transgender student and warning the district it will lose federal funding if it does not allow the student access to the women's restrooms and locker room within one month's time.
The DOE's Office for Civil Rights announced its decision after spending nearly two years investigating the complaint filed by the ACLU on behalf of an unnamed student at Township High School District 211, in the town of Palatine. In issuing the ruling, the government said it found "a preponderance of evidence" that school officials had directly violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, by creating an aura of stigma around the girl's sexual identity and for denying her equal access to a gender-appropriate locker room simply because she is transgender.
"All students deserve the opportunity to participate equally in school programs and activities - this is a basic civil right," said Assistant U.S. Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon in a statement.
The ACLU welcomed the ruling and applauded the DOE office for taking a stand on behalf of the young student.
"What our client wants is not hard to understand. She wants to be accepted for who she is and to be treated with dignity and respect - like any other student," said John Knight, director of the LGBT & HIV Project of the ACLU of Illinois. "The District's insistence on separating my client from other students is blatant discrimination. Rather than approaching this issue with sensitivity and dignity, the District has attempted to justify its conduct by challenging my client's identity as a girl."
In a personal statement released through the civil liberties group, the student said the ruling was not only important for her, but had far-reaching implications for other students and transgender people as well.
"This decision makes me extremely happy--because of what it means for me, personally, and for countless others," said the student. 'The district's policy stigmatized me, often making me feel like I was not a 'normal person'."
Monday's ruling, she added, "makes clear that what my school did was wrong. I hope no other student, anywhere, is forced to confront this indignity. It is a good day for all students, but especially those who are transgender all across the nation."
According to the Chicago Tribune:
For the student at the center of the federal complaint and all other transgender students at the district's five high schools, the staff changes their names, genders and pronouns on school records. Transgender students also are allowed to use the bathrooms of their identified gender and play on the sports team of that gender, school officials said.
But officials drew the line at the locker room, citing the privacy rights of the other 12,000-plus students in the district. As a compromise, the district installed four privacy curtains in unused areas of the locker room and another one around the shower, but because the district would compel the student to use them, federal officials deemed the solution insufficient.
The dispute highlights a controversy that a growing number of school districts face as they struggle with an issue that few parents of today's teens encountered. The Department of Education has settled two similar allegations of discrimination of transgender students in California, with both districts eventually agreeing to allow the students to use female-designated facilities.
Speaking on behalf of the ACLU, Knight said the school's compromise position and refusal to offer equal treatment to this particular student was intrinsically damaging to both her and the student body as a whole.
The District's position, said Knight, "is wrong as a matter of science and harmful to all the students of District 211. Trying to misinform students and tell them that discrimination is acceptable isn't the kind of conduct we expect from school administrators - and isn't a message that students are likely to accept."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.