Local educators say transgender policies won't change after Trump rollback

[BeckyDem]

A new sticker is placed on the door at the ceremonial opening of a gender neutral bathroom at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle on May 17, 2016. (Elaine Thompson / AP)


Duaa Eldeib
Contact Reporter Chicago Tribune

The Trump administration announced late Wednesday it has rescinded a key Obama directive granting transgender students federal protections in public schools, though the impact in Illinois may not be as pronounced as elsewhere and many local educators said they will not roll back existing policies.

The announcement by new Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions was condemned by those who saw the Obama-era guidance as a civil rights victory. But critics of that policy, which allowed transgender students to use the bathroom and locker rooms matching their gender identities, had called it federal overreach and lauded its reversal.

Highlighted from OP.
The news of the reversal did not faze officials in Illinois' largest and second-largest school districts, who said they plan to keep in place the guidelines they had previously adopted. Before the guidelines came down from the Obama administration, Chicago Public Schools last year announced its own policy allowing transgender students to use the restrooms and locker rooms of their gender identity.

"CPS led the way among school districts on bathroom policies for transgender students and staff, and we have no intention of backing down no matter what President Trump does to discriminate against the LGBTQ community," spokeswoman Emily Bittner said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-transgender-bathroom-trump-order-met-20170222-story.html

[onecaliberal]

1. I guess we'll see tonight at the board meeting. There was a battle to unseat

Board members who were in favor of protecting ALL students here last year.

[BeckyDem]

2. Interesting, maybe you could post about it afterwards? I am curious how communities will

respond.

[onecaliberal]

3. Yes, l can do that

[BeckyDem]

4. Thank you. Considering the number of school districts this is going to be concerning where

efforts will need to be made for advocacy. Some like the OP won't need to be pushed, others will be a big fight.

[onecaliberal]

5. This is a dark red county in a deep blue state. Hate is running wild here at the moment. Sad!

[BeckyDem]

6. That is where we need to try our best to put our resources. I hope we can bring together

legal representation through the ACLU or any civil rights attorneys in the area who would donate their time. Schools don't like being sued and have bad media attention. It is so sad to see this happening.

[onecaliberal]

7. I'm embarrassed to say the district was dragging its feet about protecting these students

Until the ACLU came knocking about our dress code and gender equity. At the end of the day the board kept their oath, they upheld their fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers in the district by not engaging in litigious actions which had zero chance of prevailing and voted to change the dress code and grooming standards.

The district ended up going several steps further than the dress code because hateful people were making demands about locker rooms and restrooms. Long story short, we made accommodations for ALL student by building extra facilities at the intermediate and high schools. The haters were not satisfied with this solution and went on a mission to unseat 4 dedicated board members, public servants. The haters wanted to take away music sports and performing arts in order to spend the tax dollars on court battles against settled law that was upheld by a conservative Supreme Court against them. The November election ended with the incumbents retaining 3 of the 4 open seats. Keep in mind they're all conservatives. Old school conservatives (incumbents) against the unhinged right wing. It was pretty wild watching republicans protect our public school system from other republicans who were seeking to destroy it.
Many folks fail to understand that it is our responsibility to take ALL of these children as they are and educate them to the best of our ability. We owe it to them.

Board meeting tonight: The haters ended up satisfied with our initial solution. (Several pulled their children out of the public system and put them in private schools) There were no more than a handful of haters, they were given the chance to speak their minds. It went nothing like I thought it might earlier today. Who knows maybe there is hope in the world.

[BeckyDem]

8. Hope is alive and in the end, it worked out. The threat of the ACLU is still powerful, thank

God. Sometimes we get a win or see people acquiesce for the wrong reasons but its ok. The point is to protect the kids and in time some of the haters adjust and see their hatred is baseless. Where I live we have the standard Republican, they like their tax breaks but they're not primarily socially conservative. You can reach them on a human level but they can be quick to push for monetary cuts to art, music, but never football. It's ridiculous the priorities they have but we do not have the fundamentalists, thankfully.

Thanks for sharing the back story, staying vigilant and active is so important right now!