EVANSTON, IL — The Evanston Township High School District 202 board approved a revision of its policy regarding the rights of transgender students at a meeting Monday night.

The new policy says students should be provided rights in accordance with their gender identity and would allow students to use the restrooms and locker room of the sex with which they identify.

"This board just made history," said superintendent Eric Witherspoon. He said the board had "just passed a policy unlike any policy at a school district in the state," according to Evanston Now.

Adoption of the policy was supported by all but one members of the ETHS board. At his final meeting, outgoing member Doug Holt said he supports transgender human rights, Evanston Now reported, but he described the issue as legally "ambiguous and unresolved."

Read More: ETHS Administrative Procedures regarding the Support of Students and Staff who are Transgender and/or Gender Expansive (pdf)

ETHS has already adopted several policies regarding transgender and gender non-conforming students, according to the district. Those policies include addressing students by the name and pronoun of their gender identity, gender-neutral transcripts and letting students sign up for the sport or P.E. class corresponding with their gender identity.

District 202 board member Gretchen Livingston said allowing transgender students to use the restroom or locker rooms of their gender identity is the obvious next stop.

Last month, she told the Evanston Review that while there may be some opposition to the new policy, "the more real risk to our district is a lawsuit brought by a transgender student."

» Read More: from Evanston Now


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Top photo | Evanston Township High School | Patch file

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Originally published May 2, 2017.