If you want to see overreactions, have somebody with a penis going in the girls restroom. The girls parents will turn this into a **** show. It simply cannot happen. They will freak out. This will do nothing but harm to the child. This whole thing is bad parenting 101. If they cared about their child as much as political stunts, we wouldn't even know about this case.
Putting the cute "sic erat scriptum" by transgendered people's pronouns is childish. If a person is a transgendered man, call him "him." If a person is a transgendered woman, call her "her." It's puerile, derogatory, and bullying. It's the cool kids taking back "gender," because they confuse the biological terms of sex and gender. I have two young daughters, and I think the chances of them scamming on squirrel in a restroom with closed stalls is slim to none. Maybe it's because everyone who's posted on this thread is a man and obviously doesn't conceive what might happen in a girls' restroom. If the student dresses like a girl, looks like a girl, acts like a girl, and socializes like a girl, why in the world would she be pulling out a penis? Rights of parents are taken away in every school across the nation when a student steps out of the car and on to the sidewalk in front of the school. Whether it's curriculum, discipline, or classroom management, the parents quite honestly don't have much say in any of it, especially in public school districts. If this is where you choose to turn your rage, then I'll state again that you probably need bigger things to worry about. "Your juvenile mocking of these issues just shows how out of touch you are." On the contrary, I'm the only one who has asked for harms. My sqeamish and icky examples were trying to get that ball rolling. Honestly, I tend to side with the district on the "Family" restroom or nurse's bathroom and that's what I would have gone with had I raised a transgender student. But everyone jumping on board with the "HE has a PENIS!" games just gets me. It's not conducive to what the parents or the framers of the CADA had in mind. It's boys being mean.
The liberal mania of self-identification seems to confer a godlike status. All one has to do is to announce his or her new status, be it sexual, racial, or anything else. In the meantime, the rest of society must conform to the individual's demands and rules, accommodating the new gods' demands. But in this case, I don't think it will work. The needs of the many will still outweigh the needs of the few..Women will protest and parents will sue. At best, I think the new gods will be able to do is force government to provide a third bathroom for that child or 6'4" 240lb hairy man who claims to be a woman. Obviously, installing additional restrooms is a huge expense for business and public institutions that drains limited resources but this is world in which we live. And until this happens, I personally can wait to hear the news stations going wild when a transgender woman using a men's restroom is abused at a nightclub where everyone acts shocked for something that could easily be foreseen. Additionally, expect a lot of horny men claiming to be transgender to enter the women's restroom. After all, there isn't much to stop it.
This case is baffling. i've read that the child is one of triplets with two sisters and cried when put in line for the boys restroom. I'm not qualified to solve this problems and I have a lot of sympathy for the school district and the child. I'm frankly wondering, given the fact that the court that made the decision with a lot more information and expert testimony than I if maybe I should just trust and respect its ruling?
Per Deez - "We're making the issue of what bathroom someone uses a subjective matter." Except we're not. We're talking about a transgender person. The slippery slope people will create some sort of fictional world like a Judd Apatow teen romp flick with Michael Cera pretending to be a transgender woman so he can go look at vaginas in the girls' restroom, but that's just not what it is. Again... this is a person who acts like, sounds like, and looks like a girl. With probably the same emotional attachments and needs as a girl. So the idea that she would somehow NOT let the penis flag fly inside the restroom is beyond comprehension for dudes on a message board because we're dudes and that's how we see it. I'm hoping by the time this student goes to middle school they've had some more serious conversations about using the unisex bathrooms or nurse's one, but until then, I tend to side with the law on this one.
"When we're dealing with high school age people, locker rooms, and showers, what's the right approach?" The high school question is an appropriate one, as I even stated that I hope they have more conversations about this particular student before middle school. I think the idea of a first grader who is basically a little girl doesn't really "offend" the other students... especially the ones who didn't have much of a clue about transgenderedness before. It offends the parents. The student in question probably encountered a real-life situation that made this issue arise in the first place, so they might have to put some rules in place (only one allowed at a time, etc.). I'm not against placing limits on how it's enforced. I'd say there would have to be some sort of litmus test and administrative support options before they just go willy-nilly letting anyone use any bathroom. Write it in to a kid's IEP. You can basically do whatever accommodations you want with those anyhow... some kids get extra time on the SAT because they were slow on a standardized test in 3rd grade. I'd say that individual campuses should be allowed to meet with the student & student's parents, write it in to the IEP that they can or cannot use the appropriate restroom, and then it's a legal document. I think by HS there would probably be other considerations. But not so much for elementary. If her future HS is against it, have the district bring up the issue again with the CADA and see what they can change in it.
Sorry, CMIT/504 is what I meant. Any student can have non-special-ed accommodations for lots of different circumstances.
Using 504 for transgender kids is a hot topic right now for sure. Currently there needs to be a physical condition present such as missing ovaries or a hermaphroditic condition for 504 to apply. Even then, the 504 accommodation wouldn't necessarily be for the kid to use the restroom with other kids.
