http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Suburban-School-District-OKs-Transgender-Students-Locker-Room-Access-360432641.html

CHICAGO (AP) — A suburban Chicago school district has approved a deal allowing a transgender student a separate changing area in a girls’ locker room.

The Township High School District 211 school board in Palatine met for hours Wednesday, hearing public comments and then meeting in closed session.

The vote came after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ruled last month that the district violated federal law by not permitting the student — who was born male and identifies as female — full access to the locker room. But with the settlement, the student has agreed to use the private areas to change and shower.

The district had proposed the compromise allowing access to the locker room but requiring the student to change and shower in a separate area.

The Department of Education said Thursday it had entered into the resolution agreement with the district.

Eduhonesty: Oh, my. We are living in Complicated Times. This sticky situation has lawyers underpinning every move, even as students and administrators try to find an answer for all. I’d like to commend this girl for being willing to use a separate changing area within the greater girls locker room. If she’d insisted on being treated exactly like all the other girls, we could be mired in lawyers.

We get to decide and declare our gender nowadays. I strongly hope parents are providing help and counseling with this transition. According to a study by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Williams Institute, a full 41% of transgendered persons will try to kill themselves at some point in their lives, compared with 4.6% of the general public.

For schools, the immediate problem comes from student histories, I believe. If James decides to become Jasmine, she still has been James to all her classmates for years. Eventually, those classmates may relate to her as Jasmine, but for the first year or two of her new identity especially, she still carries the scent of James with her wherever she goes. And I can see where girls would not want to change in front of the boy from their fourth, fifth and sixth grade classrooms — to change in front of the girl who will remain a boy in their heads for at least awhile.

I’d say those girls should have some civil rights here, too. Frankly, I found changing for gym traumatic at thirteen years of age and beyond. I hated it. My body definitely did not meet my standards. I had enough trouble with other girls seeing me. If I had thought the boys could see me too, I think I might have done an eighteenth century swoon, fainting just to get out of the room. If I were this transgender girl, I would not want to change in front of all those male eyes, either.

As I say, kudos to the girl for compromising, for being willing to have her own changing area in the girls locker room. Kudos to all the players here who came to a mutual agreement that protected adolescent rights at a sensitive time in life.