District 211′s policy on transgender student will stand in deal with feds

An agreement approved early Wednesday morning by the Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 school board dictates that a transgender student will use a separate changing area within a girls locker room but not have unrestricted access to that locker room.

About 250 people attended the open meeting earlier Wednesday night as several parents spoke for and against granting the student full access to the locker room, the Daily Herald reports. Then the school board went into closed session about 9:45 p.m. and emerged about 12:30 a.m.

The 5-2 vote was for an agreement with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that basically upholds the position the school district has been arguing for throughout the public dispute of the past two months.

The federal agency had said requiring the student to change in a separate area violates Title IX laws. The agency issued its finding last month, responding to the student’s complaint that the district was discriminating by limiting access to use girls’ locker rooms.

But the school board was meeting over a proposed settlement with the federal agency and did not disclose terms of the deal until after its public vote early this morning.

However, the agreement also spells out that it pertains only to the student who filed the federal complaint that sparked the debate and doesn’t represent a district-wide policy.

Furthermore, the district will allow any student access to privacy accommodations in the locker room through a variety of potential options.

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