Kansas school district bans trans students from their preferred restrooms and sports teams

Kansas school district voted Monday to approve a policy prohibiting transgender students from using their preferred bathrooms and playing on sports teams that correspond to their gender identity.

Following months of debate, the Gardner Edgerton school board voted 5-2 to approve the policy - to the elation of some parents and disappointment of some students in the community.

The new policy states that students must use facilities and play on athletic teams that correspond to their gender assigned at birth.

Initially, the board proposed that school staff also use the names and pronouns of students that align with the birth assignment. 

However, after a sharp objection from the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and students, the policy was amended to say staff are advised to address students by their preferred pronouns.

Gender non-conforming former Gardner Edgerton student Carter Robinson said parents' have a 'weird obsession' with the transgender issue and use their voice to make life harder for students like them - Robinson uses they/them pronouns

Gardner Edgerton mom Brenda Thompson said she thinks the school board made the correct decision in banning transgender students from using bathrooms and playing on sports teams that don't correspond with their gender at birth. She said the decision caters to the majority of the community

The Kansas ACLU remains extremely displeased with the decision, arguing it violates federal law.

D.C. Hiegert of the ACLU said, 'the policy would not only negatively impact trans students' mental health, it could also threaten the district's federal funding and open the school board up to potential costly litigation.'

'The law is on the side of trans students' rights,' he said Monday.

In a statement, the organization said that policies like the one just approved are 'proven to negatively impact the mental health and physical well-being of LGBTQ+ students in the district.'

'The ACLU of Kansas has heard from multiple families in the USD 231 (unified school district) with trans students who have already been harmed by this policy and the community debated surrounding it.

'All students deserve to feel safe and supported at school, and we are evaluating the situation in USD 231 and considering all appropriate options.' 

Board members who favored the policy have said they have heard from parents worried about the bathroom and pronoun policy at their children's schools, as well as student safety.

One such parent, who was at Monday's meeting, is Brenda Thompson, who said the board 'finally listened to the majority of our community' and have 'done what is right for the majority of the students.'

But some students who vehemently disagree with the new policy and were at Monday's meeting to speak their minds.

Student Elizabeth Fielder said: 'We've never had an issue with a trans student in the bathroom that I am aware of, that any of the students I've talked to are aware of.'

Fielder told the board: 'You have been elected for parents to be able to choose what happens in their kids' education. But parents have a choice.'

'One where they show their kid love and acceptance no matter their identity. Or one where they treat children like predators.'

'These kids are trying to be themselves, not predators,' she said. 'I am here telling you there are people being creepy in our bathrooms. It is not the trans students.' 

Gardner Edgerton student Elizabeth Fielder (right) said the school has 'never had an issue with a trans student in the bathroom that I am aware of, that any of the students I've talked to are aware of'

Larissa Briscoe, a junior at Gardner Edgerton High School addressed the board in opposition to the policy.

'What you guys are doing is doing more harm than good,' she said. 'Stop trying to make kids fit the status quo.'

'You school board members have shown me that you don't care about teen suicide.' 

Carter Robinson, a former student in the district, who goes by they/them pronouns, said there is little evidence to back up the parental concern about student safety.

'Nationwide, parents have gotten a weird obsession I feel like with locker rooms, restrooms, anything involving trans students,' they said.

'It's just a matter of what they decide is dangerous without actually having evidence.'

Robinson says the policy does little good and primarily isolates and hurts students like them. 

But Thompson disagreed.

'This is not, you know, direct measures at them (transgender students). This is for our school district as a whole and what the majority would like to see,' she said.

Some teenage students petitioned the school board against the decision, arguing that the new policy would hard the mental health of transgender students

In the final version of the Kansas policy, staff are instructed to keep a transgender student's gender-nonconforming status confidential unless the child allows them to disclose it to a parent or guardian.

Staff would, however, be required to notify parents if a transgender student then requested some form of institutional support, like a separate locker room. 

Board President Tom Reddin voted in favor of the policy. He said he was 'covering all our bases.'

'I want to have a safe environment for everybody. But I'm getting lots of emails and stuff that this isn't just the transgender community, we've also got special needs children we want to make sure we're covering,' he said.

In another vote of 5-2, the school board members also struck down $80,000 in proposed funds to add unisex and Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant restrooms to Gardner Edgerton schools.

The district already has several unisex and ADA-complaint bathrooms, but is planning to add more by changing the signage on some restrooms - a plan that will move forward even without the funding.

The question of the remodel will, however, come up again at a board meeting next month.

Reddin, who voted against the funds said he 'left it because it seems like there's still more discussion that needs to be made on it.'

Kansas school district voted Monday to approve a policy prohibiting transgender students from using their preferred bathrooms and playing on sports teams that correspond to their gender identity 

Parents' worry for their students has grown since the issue of transgender teenagers at public schools caught the attention of the national media. 

In particular, following stories like that of the transgender student in Loudon County, Virginia, in which a teenage biological male allegedly raped a 15-year-old in a school bathroom and the school board and local politicians did little to act.

Four weeks after the girl told teachers she was raped in the girls' restroom at Stone Bridge High School, the county Superintendent Scott Ziegler told a crowded school board meeting that to 'my knowledge, we don't have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms.'

The alleged attacker was ultimately accused of carrying out yet another attack at a different Loudon County high school. 

The story had a major galvanizing effect on local parents and helped catapult now-Governor Glenn Youngkin to a decisive victory last November.

The Republican politician has since proposed a new policy in Virginia that would require students who prefer to be addressed by a different name or pronouns to obtain written permission from their parents.

When Youngkin proposed the new policy in September, thousands of students walked out of schools across the state in protest.

The state of Vermont encountered a similarly unfortunate issue when a transgender student issued death threats against another student who had complained about the biological male using the women's changing room.

The student's father was subsequently dismissed from his role as a coach of the girls' soccer team after calling the student in question a male. The family has since launched a lawsuit against the school board, the Superintendent and the two co-Principals of the Vermont school.

Unlike Virginia, Vermont has offered no policy solution to the ongoing tension caused by transgender students in locker rooms, bathrooms and on sports teams.

Also unlike Virginia's policy, students in Kansas are not required to obtain parental permission before changing the name and pronouns they use at school.