Walton County school officials will be facing some tough decisions over the summer in light of the President’s new transgender bathroom policy.
The Departments of Justice and Education sent a letter earlier this month to every public school district, instructing them to allow transgender students to use whatever restroom they feel comfortable using.
“There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.
The guidance comes after the Justice Department sued North Carolina over a new state law that says transgender people must use public bathrooms, showers and changing rooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate. The administration has said the law violates the Civil Rights Act.
What does it all mean for Walton County, Florida students? According to Walton County School Superintendent Carlene Anderson, failure to implement the president’s policy could result in the loss of millions of federal dollars to the district, which fund school lunch programs. ‘For many of these kids, their only two hot meals a day come from school. That’s money that we don’t have and can’t make up,” said Anderson.
Though there have been no real issues locally, one male student did arrive at Walton High School in a skirt this past year and wanted to know if he met the dress code. Principal Russel Hughes dealt with the issue in a firm and fair way. “We’re not here to discriminate against anyone,” said Hughes. “But, we’re not going to allow the rights or safety of the majority to be violated either,” he said. Within a few days, the young man was back in men’s clothing.
Washington & Holmes County School Superintendents have assured parents and students that there will be no changes to their respective restroom policies. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has said the directive is under review.
Locally, Superintendent Anderson says she will be requesting a meeting with the Walton County School Board sometime this summer to address the issue.
Courtesy WZEP
Replies
74
BannedAuthor
Transgender is not child molestation nor is it about teenagers behaving badly. Those terrible incidents can happen anywhere... So awful. But totally unrelated. Transgender people are not child predators or rapists. Molesters and rapists don't care about laws.
Seeing people lump these issues together is unfortunate.
Never said it was Teresa. I don't care what sex you are or about your sexual proclivities, I don't think boys belong in girls bathrooms transgendered or not, period! By the way Teresa,,,please understand this is about having a penis. If you have one...until you are really transgendered use the appropriate bathroom!
What you also fail to understand is bad behavior can happen in a girls bathroom if men or boys (some possibly molesters and rapists) are allowed where they have no business being in the first place.
SoWal Guide
Transgender is transgender. With or without surgery or a penis or other body parts. Male or female. This is a person. Not a criminal. Not a risk factor. But I don't think they care because they have never been the problem and will always be in search of that proper bathroom where no one will be offended. Because he might look like a man but he was born a woman.. He is not going to be welcome in either bathroom regardless of his body makeup. Now we've made a law just for him. It was never an issue for us, until now, but it's always been one for him.
Beach Lover
#541
Beach Fanatic
Teresa, as you have pointed out this should be a non-issue. Transgender people represent around 1-3% of the population at most. This figure is less for school age children. I doubt there are more than 5 such children in any school in Walton County. These children are being taken care of by staff in a quiet and professional manner. The change you are supporting as proposed by the Obama administration allows any CHILD to use whichever bathroom they choose based on what they FEEL that day. So, boys can use the girls facilities (and vice versa) if they say they FEEL like a girl/boy that day and the school cannot stop them. Think about the consequences of such a policy. So, to fix a problem that everyone says was not a problem we will create zones in each school where teachers will not go because what teacher would risk their career being in the same bathroom as a student of the opposite sex? These areas will be free of any discipline and it will only be a matter of time before someone is sexually harassed or worse. The 97-99% of students and staff have a right to not be subjected to such. Note that I never said anything about the transgender students themselves being anything but a potential victim. It is the other types of miscreants that I do not want to turn loose unsupervised. If you think there is not a significant percentage of students who would take advantage of such a misguided policy then I suggest you spend some time in a classroom at any grade level.
SoWal Guide
I understand what you are saying and where you are coming from Danny. I just don't think that the protection of children who are different has anything to do with the potentialproblems you mention. I see no connection whatsoever. But that's my own opinion. I have a child and I've worked in several school settings as a teacher director and then as a volunteer in many capacities in my son's schools. With proper supervision of students these are just non issues. And I can't see how they would suddenly become real issues as we protect all our children from discrimination and bullying.
I don't know if I support the Fed govt directive. I understand the intent. But it might not be the best approach. I don't know. It's the north Carolina law that seems so inappropriate and unnecessary.
I don't know if I support the Fed govt directive. I understand the intent. But it might not be the best approach. I don't know. It's the north Carolina law that seems so inappropriate and unnecessary.
Beach Fanatic
I just wish someone could explain why we need draconian changes to the system when there was no problem to start with. Why take any chances with the vast majority of other children to allegedly help a couple of children who have been taken care of? It absolutely defies logic and common sense.
SoWal Guide
I just wish someone could explain why we need draconian changes to the system when there was no problem to start with. Why take any chances with the vast majority of other children to allegedly help a couple of children who have been taken care of? It absolutely defies logic and common sense.I agree. But I also extend this opinion to the bathroom laws sweeping the country.
Regarding schools, it may be a growing issue in large cities as LGBT issues come to light in today's world. I don't know but I'm interested in learning more.
SoWal Insider
Just like interracial marriage, voting rights, civil rights, school integration, gay marriage, and non-discrimination laws, Conservatives will find that this too will be accepted by society with little or no ill effects and the country will not crumble into dust and be taken over by Satan. It will be interesting to once again witness children, the group supposedly being protected, being the first ones to fully accept a positive change and treat transgenders as equals. I just wonder which group the rightwing will target next with their SOP of hatred, fear, and bigotry. It gets tiring having to drag these people into a future of equal rights, equal pay, and equal quality of life.
SoWal Guide
Transgender and LGBT have no party lines. Many people on all sides will appreciate these rights and recognition. We're still learning and evolving. Always a struggle to get there.
I hope people will take the time to learn about this small segment of our nation. Don't listen to the ugly politics. Find good info right from the sources: schools, parents, teachers, researchers, PEOPLE. Hear their stories from cities all over the country.
I hope people will take the time to learn about this small segment of our nation. Don't listen to the ugly politics. Find good info right from the sources: schools, parents, teachers, researchers, PEOPLE. Hear their stories from cities all over the country.
Edited
Moderator
#611
SoWal Guide
Ain't nobody got time for that.
Beach Fanatic
I'm a perfectly 'ordinaary' woman and I'd like to note:
In the 90s, I was assaulted by another woman in the bathroom of the Pensacola Civic Center. Arena security was rather spectacular in not giving a damn about it. No conservative groups seem terribly concerned about that kind of thing.
I've also used my share of (typically single stall) men's rooms over the years, often at the urging of a store manager or owner who saw me waiting for the ladies' room while the men's was clearly open. The laws now in place are so sweeping as to turn a kindness by the manager into a criminal act.
They also criminalize things like not letting an elderly man enter a women's restroom with his disabled wife in order to assist her with toileting or would force a 4-6 year old boy to use the men's side of the toilets at a public rest stop instead of being under safe watch of his mother in the women's room during that time. (When I'm feeling cranky, I call the bathroom laws the 'Freedom to molest children at rest stops act')
They're demolishing the county courthouse in Crestview right now- toxic mold that would just cost too much to remediate compared to building a new one. Before they tore it down, the facilities manager gave a tour to a writer from the Daily News, and it was talked about how, in 1950s Southern public building practices, you put in three restrooms- white women, white men, and 'colored men and women' who were expected to share a small and inferior toilet space in a building sub-basement next to the filing cabinet labeled 'beware of the panther'.
What's this long-standing Southern obsession with which type or person uses which type of restroom anyways?
In the 90s, I was assaulted by another woman in the bathroom of the Pensacola Civic Center. Arena security was rather spectacular in not giving a damn about it. No conservative groups seem terribly concerned about that kind of thing.
I've also used my share of (typically single stall) men's rooms over the years, often at the urging of a store manager or owner who saw me waiting for the ladies' room while the men's was clearly open. The laws now in place are so sweeping as to turn a kindness by the manager into a criminal act.
They also criminalize things like not letting an elderly man enter a women's restroom with his disabled wife in order to assist her with toileting or would force a 4-6 year old boy to use the men's side of the toilets at a public rest stop instead of being under safe watch of his mother in the women's room during that time. (When I'm feeling cranky, I call the bathroom laws the 'Freedom to molest children at rest stops act')
They're demolishing the county courthouse in Crestview right now- toxic mold that would just cost too much to remediate compared to building a new one. Before they tore it down, the facilities manager gave a tour to a writer from the Daily News, and it was talked about how, in 1950s Southern public building practices, you put in three restrooms- white women, white men, and 'colored men and women' who were expected to share a small and inferior toilet space in a building sub-basement next to the filing cabinet labeled 'beware of the panther'.
What's this long-standing Southern obsession with which type or person uses which type of restroom anyways?
SoWal Guide
Thank you @beachmouse. I hear you.
Beach Fanatic
I do not like this whole thing. Just another politically and media driven issue that divides people.
If someone has gender identity issues I wish them peace.
If someone has gender identity issues I wish them peace.
Beach Fanatic
Teresa, this has to do with the rights of the vast majority and allowing the school administration to handle the very small minority of issues in a tactful and private way. Think of the consequences of what you are proposing. Say a 15 year old girl decides she is a boy today and enters the boys locker room. First, no teacher is going to be in those locker rooms anymore because of the liability issues. So that child is going to be in a room with a bunch of 15 year old boys. Bullying and sexual harassment would probably be the mildest thing that would occur. This disaster is contrasted with what would happen now. That child would be allowed to use a private bathroom and other students would not have much if any knowledge or interaction.Whoa! Say that again, Danny. There is NO teacher in locker rooms due to liability issues? When did this happen?
Beach Fanatic
Hasn't happened yet because bathrooms are not open to any who "feels" a particular way yet. What I said was place yourself in a teachers position. If either sex can go into whichever locker room or restroom they choose, what teacher will go in there? Would you allow yourself to be in a room with an undressed/half-dressed teenager of the opposite sex? The answer is no one would risk their career in that manner. Teachers will go solely to the staff rest rooms and the students will have free reign in the student areas with no supervision. This is reality.
Beach Fanatic
...Would you allow yourself to be in a room with an undressed/half-dressed teenager of the opposite sex?...In my younger hedonistic days, I'd be all over that like yellow flies on a black sticky ball.
Beach Fanatic
The light finally came on for someone at the ACLU
ACLU leader quits after daughters encounter men in the women’s restroom
ACLU leader quits after daughters encounter men in the women’s restroom
SoWal Insider
I'm reading her daughters were frightened by three tall women with deep voices. Did I miss something?
SoWal Guide
Some people, or most people, aren't really comfortable with the idea of transgender people or have never known them and wouldn't recognize them. I wonder what made the woman think these were transgender people?
Fear is what we teach our children. Not that long ago Mothers and children were afraid to use the same bathroom as people with different color skin. I wonder if this African American mother considered that at all.
Fear is what we teach our children. Not that long ago Mothers and children were afraid to use the same bathroom as people with different color skin. I wonder if this African American mother considered that at all.
Edited
Beach Lover
The Obama administration didn't make laws about transgender bathroom use. They merely responded to multiple requests from school districts requesting clarification on the issue under Title IX.
The whole issue is ridiculous, women often use the men's room when the line is shorter, and parents have been taking young children of the opposite sex into the restroom for years. A toilet is a toilet, so if using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity keeps kids from being bullied or attacked, I am all for it.
Do your business, wash your hands, and quit worrying so much.
The whole issue is ridiculous, women often use the men's room when the line is shorter, and parents have been taking young children of the opposite sex into the restroom for years. A toilet is a toilet, so if using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity keeps kids from being bullied or attacked, I am all for it.
Do your business, wash your hands, and quit worrying so much.
SoWal Insider
Transphobics believe they have a constitutional right not to feel "icky". I was on Eglin AFB this afternoon and needed a fuel and pee stop. The restroom was a gender neutral style. While conducting my business I was overcome with the fear I could be picking up some transcooties. My thoughts turned to the children, the poor children.
SoWal Insider
That's why I pee in the bushes every chance I get. Let's see the tranny's find me there!
Beach Fanatic
That's why I pee in the bushes every chance I get. Let's see the tranny's find me there!One of life's simple pleasures...Peeing outside in the woods.
Much enhanced after beer consumption...or coffee at daybreak on a cool autum morning, as the steam rises from the elimination.
^^^Reads like a Halmark moment doesn't it
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