Lebanon Community School Corporation follows federal guidelines when determining accommodations for transgender students, as all public schools must, Superintendent Jon Milleman said. Reporter file photo
LEBANON — Hoosier public schools cannot legally deny transgender students access to facilities used by the gender with which they identify.
Every school district in Indiana has to follow the same rules.
Some parents are asking the Lebanon Community School Corporation to require transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their biological genders.
But the school board’s hands are tied, Superintendent Jon Milleman said.
Title 9 of the Civil Rights Act states in part, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Schools nationwide have asked Congress to clarify if the word “sex” means gender assigned at birth only, or if it may also include a gender one chooses.
Title 9 has been challenged by Indiana school districts in Evansville, Vigo County, and Martinsville, all of which spent a great deal of money and lost, Kent Frandsen, attorney for the Lebanon school district, said during the March 19 school board meeting.
The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has repeatedly upheld its landmark decision in 2017 on a Wisconsin case that “sex” can mean a gender with which one identifies. And the diagnosis of gender dysphoria entitles a student to be treated as the gender of their identity, the court ruled. The Seventh Circuit serves Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Transgender students in neighboring Missouri, however, may be forced to use facilities corresponding with their gender at birth. Missouri falls under control of the Eighth Circuit.
“When there’s a conflict in the circuit courts, the Supreme Court is supposed to take a case and clarify or resolve the conflict, so we have the same law in Indiana as in Missouri,” Frandsen told parents who attended the meeting. Some were there to advocate that transgender students be required to use facilities corresponding to their biological sex.
Martinsville filed an appeal of the district court’s opinion with the Supreme Court, which this year declined to hear it and gave no reason for the decision.
Frandsen still expects the high court to hear a similar case. In the meantime, Hoosier schools must operate within the law, despite the call by some in the community to ignore it and let the chips fall where they may.
The Seventh Circuit Court’s decision allows school districts to ensure a student is serious about their transgender status before allowing accommodations. And Lebanon schools do vet those who claim to be transgender.
“There’s a process,” Milleman said.
School administration work with students and their families. Nothing occurs without parental involvement. And the school considers elements including: if the child has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria; how long they’ve identified as the opposite gender in school, in social circles, or at home; if the child has requested a name change, or if the parents have begun a legal name change; the presence of hormonal treatments, and the genuine and enduring transitional status, Milleman said.
Not all of the elements have to be present, and gender dysphoria and the likelihood of a long duration weigh heavily, Milleman said.
Only two children in the Lebanon district have formally sought and received transgender accommodations, Milleman said.
When students qualify, they and their parents reach a plan for “reasonable accommodations” with the school, Frandsen said. Transgender students are offered private facilities, about the size of a public family restroom, for their use. They may choose to use the locker room of their preferred gender, but are asked to disrobe in a private place, such as a stall, in the locker room.
The transgender students are also asked to be considerate of their cisgender classmates’ sensibilities and comfort.
There have been two situations in which a transgender student in one class misunderstood his ability to use a private facility and mistakenly changed in a private space in a locker room, Milleman said.
Some of the girls in the class were uncomfortable with that. And the administration immediately met with the student and family to clear up the matter and prevent a reocurrence.
Parents at a recent school board meeting asked if cisgender students who feel uncomfortable sharing facilities with transgender students may ask for private facilities to use.
Any child, regardless of gender identity, may request private facilities, Milleman said, although no cisgender students, or their parents, have done so.
And the district is building additional private facilities as part of remodeling projects at the high and middle schools. Those facilities will be self contained and not accessible through the other locker rooms or restrooms.
But those who pretend to be transgender “on a lark” and traipse into facilities for the opposite sex will suffer serious disciplinary consequences, Milleman said.
Milleman and the school board are united, he said, in “making sure all of our students feel welcomed, supported and safe.”
Milleman doesn’t lose sleep over many of the stressful situations he faces daily, but concern over student well-being “keeps me awake at night,” he said.
Written policy
The school has no written policy stating that transgender students are entitled to accommodations because the Civil Rights Act dictates that, and the district follows the law, Frandsen said.
But parents were surprised to learn at last week's school board meeting that there is not a written document outlining the district's criteria for evaluating a transgender student's "genuine and enduring transitional status."
Frandsen recommended that Milleman create a document to share with the public, and Milleman said he will do so.
How to change things
Frandsen advised parents who disagree with Title 9 of the Civil Rights Act write to or call their U.S. senators and representatives and ask them to clarify the language as it relates to transgender status.
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