School district to reconsider transgender locker room deal
Associated Press
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
20 hours ago

CHICAGO (AP) — School officials in a suburban Chicago district said Friday they may back out of a newly minted deal with the U.S. Department of Education allowing a transgender student to use a girls’ locker room, over a dispute about a hypothetical: What would happen if the girl decided against using the privacy curtains she’s agreed to use?

Less than two days after school board members approved the settlement, Township High School District 211 Superintendent Daniel Cates issued a statement angrily condemning a top federal official for how she portrayed his description of it.

Cates had said if the student doesn’t use privacy curtains when changing or showering, she won’t be granted unrestricted access to the locker room. Federal officials countered that the agreement does not require her to use a privacy curtain, although the student has said she will do so.

District officials “are outraged by the mischaracterizations in the press by Catherine Lhamon of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and her blatant disregard for the facts of the negotiated agreement,” Cates said.

The office “acted in bad faith,” so the district will convene an emergency board meeting to discuss actions, “including the potential retraction of the agreement,” Cates said. The meeting has been scheduled for Monday at Conant High School in Hoffman Estates.

Apparently, the anonymous student, who was born male but identifies as female, filed a federal complaint when she was denied unrestricted locker room access, kicking off the whole brouhaha. The district had installed privacy curtains in the locker room as a compromise, curtains that any student seeking privacy is to be allowed to use, but federal officials decided the curtains violated the student’s rights under Title IX. The student seems to have since said that she will change behind the curtains, probably because she is getting flak at school. I imagine the social pressure on this girl has become intense.

Here’s the significant line from the follow-up article on this controversy:
“Until the settlement, the district had been at risk of losing millions of dollars in federal funding over the issue.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois is representing the girl.

Eduhonesty: I am sad that this has become an issue worth millions of dollars. I am sad that this school district will now be diverting funding that might have gone toward education into some law firm somewhere in order to answer the ALCU. I am sad that a compromise appears to be coming apart.

What should the district do? They might try scrapping the whole idea of gym clothes. Some districts don’t require a clothing change. The correct dress code can ensure that students are adequately dressed for physical education. My plan would eliminate locker rooms altogether. That solves the locker room problem.

Of course, the ‘anonymous’ transgender girl will get the blame for my plan — or any other plans that might be created. I hope the ACLU, government and district will remain aware of this girl as they push their larger agenda. I guarantee that girl is not anonymous in the hallways of her school. She may now feel that she has a tiger by the tail in the purest sense of that saying.

I hope she has lots of friends. Given the agendas unfolding around her, I suspect she will need those friends.