district 211 doesn't rescind deal on transgender student after heated debate - chicago tribune
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04/03/16 8:42 pmDistrict 211 doesn't rescind deal on transgender student after heated debate - Chicago Tribune
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News / Local news / Breaking News
District 211 keeps deal on transgender studentafter heated debate
By Duaa Eldeib • Contact ReporterChicago Tribune
DECEMBER 8, 2015, 9:58 AM
ust days after approving a historic and controversial agreement to provide locker room access to atransgender student, a suburban school again heard heated appeals on both sides of the issue but
declined late Monday to rescind the settlement.
The meeting in Palatine-based Township High School District 211 was called after the district expressedoutrage at how the other party to the agreement — the U.S. Department of Education's Office for CivilRights, where the student filed a complaint — had interpreted the settlement. But after receiving a letterfrom the federal office earlier in the day, the board declined to take another vote on the matter lateMonday, thereby keeping the settlement in place.
Just days after approving a historic and controversial agreement to provide locker room access to a transgender student,the Palatine-based District 211 school board met to consider rescinding the measure in front of a crowd of hundreds of communitymembers.
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The outcome came after another two hours of public comments in front of the hundreds who gathered atConant High School, following by a lengthy private board meeting. In another indication of howcontentious the issue has become, a man was escorted by police out of the meeting after interruptinganother speaker and ignoring directives to take a seat.
"We never expected to be back here tonight, mere days after hundreds of hours invested in listening,discussing and debating an important issue for our district and its students," board President MuciaBurke said at the end of the meeting. She called the outcome "the best course of action for the studentwhile balancing the needs of all the teenage students in our district."
District officials had maintained that the agreement did not represent a districtwide policy and onlyapplied to the student in question. Earlier Monday, the district released a letter from the Office for CivilRights in which officials agreed that the settlement's provision on locker room access applies to only onestudent.
Local and federal officials also have disagreed on whether the student, who was born male but identifiesas female, would be required to use a private area of the locker room to change and shower.
Burke said the district is installing privacy curtains in the locker rooms, "with the assurance that thisstudent will use them." She added that any student who wishes can also use the private dressing areas,aiming to address concerns that the settlement compromises the privacy of other students.
A short time into Monday's meeting, a man approached the podium and began speaking while anotheraudience member had the floor.
Police walked the man out of the meeting after board members told him to sit down. At the same time,another man yelled from the audience, "Verify they're residents!" — a reference to the previous speakers.
In contrast to last week's school board session, many of the people who addressed the board early on inthe meeting expressed support for the student and decried what one speaker called "institutionalizedsegregation."
A number of mental health professionals, transgender individuals and parents of transgender childrenspoke. They cited the increased risk of depression, suicide and violence faced by transgender students asthey implored the district not to rescind the settlement.
"I'm proud to be here to support Student A and in support of the district's decision to affirm her," saidOwen Daniel-McCarter, policy and advocacy director at The Illinois Safe Schools Alliance. He then read astatement from a board member in Berwyn South School District 100, which in August adopted a policythat included allowing transgender students to use the locker room and bathroom of their identified
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gender.
Another speaker noted that other schools have adopted similar policies without problems.
"On the contrary," one speaker said, "such policies support and reinforce students' identities, strengthentheir ties within the school community and go a long way towards fostering whole and healthydevelopment."
Yet other speakers echoed many of the comments from last week, saying they don't agree with the basicpremise that the student should be considered female.
"Regardless of what anybody says, this student is a male," one audience member said.
To raucous applause of some in the crowd of about 600, another man said: "It seems the rights of thisone person are trumping the rights of everyone else." He added that his primary interest was for hisdaughters, prompting members of the audience to scream out, "And my girls!" "Mine too!"
"I'm angry because I'm tired of being told there is something wrong with what I believe," he said. "Like itor not, we are setting precedent here. Other school boards are going to look at what we did here, andthey're going to cave to the OCR too."
Jessica Miller, an outspoken critic of a settlement, said she believed the district could win if the matterwas taken to court.
"OCR cannot be trusted," Miller said. "We don't want their empty threats."
Some carried signs that read, "No Deal With OCR" and "Go To Court!" Others hoisted opposing signswith the message "Separate Is Not Equal."
Superintendent Daniel Cates opened the board meeting with a call "not to let this matter divide us."
"We must work beyond existing preconceptions and use both understanding and sensitivity as we workwith all of our young people going forward," Cates said.
He expressed disappointment at the confusion surrounding the U.S. Department of Education's Office forCivil Rights' "apparent misstatements and lack of clarity" but said he was "gratified" that federal officialsclarified their statement in Monday's letter.
"With the eyes of many upon us tonight, we will listen to your voices and your perspective," Cates said."We have heard from hundreds about this matter, and your thoughts tonight are just one aspect of themany factors and considerations that go into our decision-making."
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The district has been locked in a rancorous battle with the federal office following a complaint filed twoyears ago by a transgender student alleging that the district discriminated against her by barring her fromthe girls locker room.
The two parties appeared to have reached a solution last week when the board approved the settlement,but that seemed in jeopardy after the district and federal officials expounded on how the agreementwould be implemented.
"The agreement provisions specific to locker room access apply only to Student A, and the District'sagreement to provide Student A access to locker rooms is based on the student's representation that shewill change in private changing stations," Catherine Lhamon, the Education Department's assistantsecretary for civil rights, wrote in a one-paragraph letter to a district attorney.
In an interview last week, Lhamon said it was "facially inconsistent with the terms of the agreement" forthe district to contend the policy did not apply districtwide.
"The law already is that this district and any other district cannot discriminate on the basis of sex," shesaid.
In an email Monday afternoon, an Education Department spokeswoman said, "The letter is consistentwith what we've said about the resolution agreement."
Both sides appeared mollified with the understanding that while the locker room provisions apply only tothe student who filed the complaint, the settlement's other terms do not. Those conditions include thedistrict revising its nondiscrimination notice to expressly prohibit discrimination based on sex,consulting a child and adolescent gender identity expert, and submitting to reporting and monitoring byfederal officials. District officials must provide the Office for Civil Rights regular written reports anddetails of all gender-based discrimination or harassment complaints, as well as open their doors to visitsfrom authorities at any time during the course of the agreement, which is anticipated to last through June2017.
Nowhere in the agreement does it explicitly state that the student is "required" to use the privacycurtains, though it highlights that the district agreed to allow her access "based on Student A'srepresentation that she will change in private changing stations in the girls locker rooms."
Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which is representing thestudent, said he expected federal officials to "implement the agreement with vigor."
"We find it impossible that the OCR would allow the district to allow access to our client, while they don'tdefend a Student B, or Student C," Yohnka said.
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Last month's finding that the district had violated Title IX, the federal law that bans discrimination onthe basis of sex, in the case of a transgender student was the first of its kind. The district was given 30days to reach an agreement or risk having its federal educational funding suspended or terminated, aswell as face possible litigation.
A decision to revoke the settlement would be extremely rare, particularly at the K-12 level. Last year,education officials found Tufts University in breach after officials there backed out of an agreement toresolve a Title IX violation surrounding sexual assault and harassment issues. Less than two weeks later,in a message to the community, the university president cited a meeting with Lhamon in the school'sdecision to reaffirm the agreement.
District 211's board faces mounting pressure from community members on both sides. Hundreds turnedout for last week's meeting. Many of those who spoke in opposition of the settlement invoked the privacyrights of the other students and blasted what they saw as federal overreach.
Superintendent Cates said after the meeting that he believed the resolution "strikes a critical balance forsafeguarding the privacy of all students, recognizing the dignity of all students and allowing every studentto participate fully in our educational program."
Supporters, including a handful of students who spoke, argued that the district discriminated against thestudent and urged that she not be denied equal treatment.
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