By Carla O’Day
The Washoe County School District reassured the public on Thursday that transgender students can continue to use restrooms of their identified gender despite the Trump Administration rescinding an Obama-era policy Wednesday.
“One of the things the administration is saying is that these should be left to states and local districts to determine,” said Gina Session, school district civil rights compliance director. “In compliance with Nevada law, the school district has a regulation that protects rights of transgender students and that regulation isn’t impacted by the administration.”
Session said things on the national stage sometimes cause alarm locally and the district thinks it’s important to inform the community and this small-but-vulnerable group of students that things aren’t changing.
The district’s board of trustees passed an administrative regulation in February 2015 regarding transgender and gender non-conforming students. It complies with federal laws and regulations that include Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
“We’ve been pleased [with] how it’s been implemented,” Session said.
There have been no reported problems at schools surrounding the regulation, Session said. Opponents want to portray scenarios about males going into female locker rooms to spy, but she called that a “fundamental misunderstanding of how this operates.”
Washoe County School District Administrative Regulation No. 5161:
http://washoecountyschools.net/csi/pdf_files/5161%20Reg%20-%20Gender%20Identity%20v1.pdf
