By Michael Hernandez
PALATINE—A northwestern school district in a suburb of Chicago (population 69,000) is forcing females to share locker rooms with biological males in a 5-2 board decision made mid-November that is being called a “landmark” decision for transgender advocates nationwide. Privacy stalls are available but transgender students will not be required to use them.
Jim Denison, writing for the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture, reported that one female student was left in tears after the ruling, saying she felt “uncomfortable”… My privacy’s being invaded, as I am a swimmer. I do change multiple times, naked, in front of other students in the locker room. I understand that the board has an obligation to all students, but I was hoping that they would go about this in a different way that would also accommodate students such as myself.”
According to The Daily Herald (the local newspaper), the board action comes as a response to a 2017 lawsuit for discrimination filed by Nova Maday, a biological male who identifies as a transgender. The Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board members voted to lift the requirement that transgender students use privacy stalls with two board members dissenting whom wanted to postpone the vote in favor of a March advisory referendum.
Vicki Wilson, a Palatine resident who co-founded Students and Parents for Privacy called the new policy “a joke and a slap in the face…when you turn all intimate spaces coed.”
The issue debated over the past four years was whether students still completely undressed in high school locker rooms. Advocates for transgender students’ unrestricted access said “no”, while members and supporters of Students and Parents for Privacy said “yes.” Members of the public on both sides of the issue had spoken at the last four board meetings.
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He has worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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