Page 23 - 2018_Jour_85-1_Societal-Issues

Schools and Societal Issues 23

Wyatt. The parents legally changed Wyatt’s name to Nicole as she prepared for fifth grade.
During the primary years, Wyatt had used the unisex, single-stall bathroom, but in fifth
grade this would change. Nicole began using the girls’ bathroom, but a male student began
bullying her and following her into the bathroom. The Orono school seemed unable or
unwilling to stop the harassment, and the community became involved in the dispute over
bathroom access. Eventually, Kelly, Jonas, and Nicole moved to Portland, Maine, and the
children were enrolled in a new school with only the staff knowing Nicole was transgender.
In the meantime, the Maines family was legally challenging the Orono schools to
become more accommodating. At the same time, the Maine legislature was debating a bill
requiring people to use the bathroom according to their biological sex. Wayne and Nicole
lobbied the Maine legislature, and ultimately the bill was defeated. Their case against the
Orono school district was not so successful; the judge ruled the school had not violated
Nicole’s rights. The case was appealed to the Maine Supreme Court, which overturned
the lower court’s decision in 2015. The case led to school policies permitting students to
use the restroom “assigned to the gender which the student consistently asserts at school”
(Nutt, 2015, p. 241). The Maine court decision noted, “Our opinion must not be read
to require schools to permit students casual access to any bathroom of their choice.” The
decision further noted:
Decisions about how to address students’ legitimate gender identity issues are not
to be taken lightly. Where, as here, it has been clearly established that a student’s
psychological well-being and educational success depend upon being permitted to
use the communal bathroom consistent with her gender identity, denying access to
the appropriate bathroom constitutes sexual orientation discrimination” (Kennedy,
2015, p. 18).
In 2014 the U.S. Department of Education’s
Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued guidelines That there are transgender
that stated “Title IX’s sex discrimination persons is not new. What
prohibition extends to claims of discrimination
based on gender identity or failure to conform are new are the current
to stereotypical notions of masculinity or
femininity” (Kennedy, 2015, p. 18). Several prominence in media and
individuals and states have challenged the ruling.
While a candidate, Donald Trump proclaimed in books, new discoveries in
he was an ally to the LGBT community and “that science related to development,
the transgender reality star Caitlyn Jenner could
use whichever bathroom she wanted” when at and the increasing numbers
Trump Tower. One month into his presidency,
however, he withdrew the 2014 federal guidelines of individuals exploring their
“that allowed transgender students to use the gender identity.
bathrooms that match their gender identity”
(Bissell, 2017).
The change in guidelines had an impact on
a Virginia student’s case. Gavin Grimm, a Virginia high school student, had been using
the boys’ bathroom for 7 weeks at Gloucester High School without a problem. Following
complaints from the community, the district changed its policy and said the transgender
male student would have to use either a bathroom matching his biological sex or a single-
stall staff bathroom. In an interview, Grimm stated, “I feel humiliated and dysphoric every
time I’m forced to use a separate facility” (Brown & Balingit, 2016, p. A1). Grimm’s case was