South Carolina school district bows to Obama policy, lets boy use girls bathroom
A South Carolina school district has yielded
to the Obama Administration policy imposing
gender ideology on
public schools, and will allow a male student to use female restroom
facilities. The district agreed as well to change its discrimination policy in
keeping with the
Administration’s assertion that gender
theory is a civil right.
The parents of a male elementary student in
Dorchester County School District Two near Charleston had filed a complaint
last August with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, contending
that the district’s refusal to give the boy access to the female restroom was a
violation of his civil rights because he had begun identifying as female.
Providing access to a private restroom was not
satisfactory, the complaint said.
“This embarrassed the Student because she was forced to separate from her
friends, who would often request to accompany her to the restroom, and because
it required the Student to address questions from her classmates about why she
was using a different restroom.”
The Office of Civil Rights agreed the district
had violated the boy’s rights, The Post and Courier reports, but while the
federal agency found the district’s policies and procedures complied with the
Title IX federal anti-discrimination law, the district will still “Revise its
policies and procedures to include gender-based discrimination as a form of
discrimination based on sex” as part of a “voluntary
resolution agreement” with the Obama Department of
Education.
Despite the threat of lost federal funding
implied in the Administration’s May 13 letter of “guidance,” a Dorchester
County District Two spokesperson said the policy change was voluntary. Public
Information Officer Patricia Raynor told LifeSiteNews that the district has
always focused on having a non-discriminatory policy and would submit to the
Obama administration’s recommendations.
“We are going to comply certainly with the
request,” she said.
Asked how the district would respond to
potential parent concerns over male students having access to female restroom
facilities, and whether this would constitute discrimination against female
students, Raynor said, “We certainly don’t want any child to feel discriminated
against.”
The district would not infringe on any
students’ rights, she continued, and said district leadership had always
listened to families’ concerns and that this would not change.
Roughly 20-25 parents attended the district’s
June 27 board meeting, Raynor told LifeSiteNews, several of them making
comments of concern over the matter.
In addition to allowing the boy access to the
girls’ bathrooms as a result of the Education Department’s agreement, the
district must:
- Provide the student and
“her” parents with the option of requesting, at any point during the
student’s enrollment in the district, that a support team be convened to
ensure that the student’s access and opportunity to participate in all
programs and activities is not denied or limited based on her gender
identity, and is otherwise protected from gender based discrimination at
school;
- Revise its policies and
procedures to include gender-based discrimination as a form of
discrimination based on sex; and
- Provide annual training
to district and school level administrators on the district’s obligation
to prevent and address gender-based discrimination.
The Obama
Administration issued
the “guidance”
in May directing the nation’s public schools to allow students to use the bathrooms,
showers and locker rooms of the opposite sex immediately upon the moment the
child states they identify as the other gender.
The
directive also
insists students be allowed to stay in hotel rooms of the opposite sex on field
trips and requires school administrators and staff to refer to the transgender
child by their chosen name and identifying gender.
While gender confusion, known as gender
dysphoria, is a disorder classified by the American Psychiatric Association,
the transgender
policy levied
on U.S. schools does not require a medical diagnosis or treatment, and
threatens loss of federal funds for non-compliance.
Response to the move to push gender
theory in
schools resulted in pushback,
with some parents pulling
their children from school, varying districts and states refusingto take part, the U.S. Catholic
Bishops’ Conference calling it “deeply
disturbing,” and at least 11 states suing over
it.
Citing privacy and safety concerns,
family advocates blasted the
Obama Administration edict as unconstitutional and government overreach.
The Berkeley County, South Carolina, School
District, which neighbors Dorchester County District Two, opted in April to let
students use restroom facilities that correspond with their “gender identity.”
A Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling
forcing a Virginia school district to allow a
female student into the boys’ bathrooms at
her high school is likely headed to
the Supreme Court.