Bellevue Public Schools has recently announced and adopted a policy that will allow transgender students to use the restrooms and locker rooms of the opposite biological sex. Some schools are considering these types of policies because they believe that schools will be legally required to allow students to use opposite sex-restrooms, showers and changing rooms on the basis of Title IX.
Alliance Defending Freedom highlighted in a recent article:
- No federal law requires public schools to open sex-specific restrooms, showers and changing areas to opposite-sex students,
- Providing such access violates the fundamental rights of the vast majority of students and parents, and;
- Schools have broad discretion to regulate the use of school restrooms, showers, and changing areas.
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The article highlights what Title IX actually requires, as well as two cases that were decided in 2015.
According to Title IX, “[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” 20 U.S.C. § 1681. Importantly, the regulations implementing Title IX specifically allow schools to “provide separate toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex.” 34 C.F.R. § 106.33. Accordingly, no court has ever interpreted Title IX as requiring schools to give students access to opposite-sex restrooms and changing areas. Rather, courts have consistently found that schools do not discriminate under Title IX when they limit use of sex-specific restrooms to members of the specified sex.
In March 2015, a Pennsylvania federal court similarly examined “whether a university, receiving federal funds, engages in unlawful discrimination, in violation of the United States Constitution and federal and state statutes, when it prohibits a transgender male student from using sex-segregated restrooms and locker rooms designated for men on a university campus.” Johnston v. Univ. of Pittsburgh of Com. Sys. of Higher Educ., 2015 WL 1497753, at *1 (W.D. Pa. Mar. 31, 2015). The court concluded that “[t]he simple answer is no.” Id…
Likewise, in September 2015, a federal judge in Virginia dismissed a Title IX discrimination claim brought by a female-to-male transgender student (represented by the ACLU) who sought access to male restrooms. G.G. v. Gloucester Cnty. Sch. Bd…The judge also denied injunctive relief under the Equal Protection Clause… Focusing on the privacy rights of the students, the court held that “[n]ot only is bodily privacy a constitutional right, the need for privacy is even more pronounced in the state educational system. The students are almost all minors, and public school education is a protective environment.” Id. at 22.
ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco and ADF Legal Counsel J. Matthew Sharp conclude:
Allowing students to use opposite-sex restrooms and locker rooms would seriously endanger students’ privacy and safety, undermine parental authority, violate religious students’ free exercise rights, and severely impair an environment conducive to learning. These dangers are so clear-cut that a school district allowing such activity would clearly expose itself to tort liability. Consequently, school districts should reject policies that force students to share restrooms and locker rooms with members of the opposite sex.
Read the full article here: Schools and Transgender Students – Alliance Defending Freedom
