UPDATE: District 211 Sticks to Agreement in Transgender Case

The Township High School District 211 school board on Monday night decided to keep an agreement between the school district and the Office of Civil Rights, which means a transgender student will be provided a private area, but will not be allowed open access, to the girl’s locker room.

The school district issued the following statement after the meeting:

We believe this is the best course of action for this student while balancing the needs of all the teenage students in our District. The District will accommodate gender-identified locker room access for this student predicated on agreement to use the privacy measures provided. We are installing privacy curtains in our locker rooms, with the assurance that this student will use them. Any student currently using the locker room may also choose to change in the privacy curtains. The agreement applies to this student only, and it recognizes that in doing so, the District does not admit any violation of federal law or regulations. The privacy and comfort of all of our students is paramount. We are pleased to proceed with the plan as agreed that is in the best interest of all of the students that we serve, and we anticipate respect and clarity in any issues with the OCR going forward.

The public meeting Monday evening came days after an original agreement was reached between the federal officials and the local school district and after school officials said the Office of Civil Rights was incorrectly representing what the two parties had agreed upon to the media.

“The OCR appears to be stating to the media what they wish was in the agreement, rather than what was actually agreed upon by both OCR and the District 211 Board of Education – after the Board spent countless hours of listening, reviewing and careful consideration,” Superintendent Daniel Cates said in an earlier statement.

District officials said the agreement reached applied only to one student and was not a district-wide policy. The school district received a letter Monday from the OCR, clarifying the locker room access applied only to one student.

Here is a look at the full statement released by District 211 following Monday’s meeting:

We never expected to be back here tonight, mere days after hundreds of hours invested in listening, discussing and debating an important issue for our District and its students.

Very early Thursday morning, December 3, District 211’s Board approved what we thought was an appropriate and balanced approach to the enormous challenge facing us because of the federal Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR’s) directive that transgender students must have totally unrestricted access to locker rooms of opposite anatomy.

Their directive came based on a single case filed by a student and this student’s parents. We proposed a common sense compromise with which the OCR agreed. It was based on the fact that gender is not the same as anatomy – and that we are dealing with teenagers. The negotiated agreement stipulated that access to this student’s genderidentified locker room would be provided contingent upon the student’s assurance that privacy curtains would be used for changing. If the student didn’t comply, access would be rescinded.

The agreement applied to this student only and did not establish policy for our district or any other district. It was both shocking and disappointing when, virtually minutes after our vote, senior representatives from OCR seemed confused about the terms of the agreement to media – and then subsequently in a letter to us. It caused a lot of concern and questions in our community. Late this morning, District 211 lawyers received a letter dated December 7, 2015 from OCR’s public spokesperson Catherine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, in which OCR has issued an official clarification – stating “… the agreement provisions specific to locker room access apply only to Student A and the District’s agreement to provide Student A access to locker rooms is based on the student’s representation that (the student) will change in private changing stations.” The letter goes on to state that the agreement explicitly recognizes that the District does not admit any violation of federal law or regulation.

We are disappointed that the OCR made an already very difficult, passionate and emotional issue very confusing with their apparent misstatements and lack of clarity in describing the agreement. We are gratified, however, to receive the letter today that provides official clarity and removes any confusion surrounding the plan our Board approved early on December 3.

As a result of all of the confusion, the District 211 Board met in a special meeting this evening, and, after listening to our constituents and deliberating in executive session, we declined to take any action to alter our approval of the resolution agreement between District 211 and the OCR relative to this matter.

We believe this is the best course of action for this student while balancing the needs of all the teenage students in our District.

The District will accommodate gender-identified locker room access for this student predicated on agreement to use the privacy measures provided. We are installing privacy curtains in our locker rooms, with the assurance that this student will use them. Any student currently using the locker room may also choose to change in the privacy curtains. The agreement applies to this student only, and it recognizes that in doing so, the District does not admit any violation of federal law or regulations.

The privacy and comfort of all of our students is paramount. We are pleased to proceed with the plan as agreed that is in the best interest of all of the students that we serve, and we anticipate respect and clarity in any issues with the OCR going forward.

More Coverage On Patch

• District 211 Reaches Settlement With Feds in Transgender Case
• District 211: Transgender Student Not Allowed Open Acess to Locker Room
• Local Residents Sound Off on District 211 Decision
• UPDATE: District 211 Transgender Case Making National News
• Mother of Transgender Student Who Was Denied Access to Locker Room Speaks Out
• Fremd Student Starts Petition in Favor of Allowing Transgender Students Access to Locker Room

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The following was posted on Sunday.

On the heels of what was an appropriate and balanced approach to resolving an important issue of access to our locker rooms by one transgender student, we are outraged by the mischaracterizations in the press by Catherine Lhamon of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and her blatant disregard for the facts of the negotiated agreement.

It is wrong, it is an act of bad faith, and our school district will not let it stand. To be clear, what was agreed upon between District 211 and the OCR struck a critical balance for safeguarding the privacy of all students, recognizing the dignity of all students, and allowing all students to participate fully in our education programs.

The resolution agreement’s provisions on locker room access, approved by our School Board just 36 hours ago, apply ONLY to the student who lodged the complaint. It does not apply district-wide, nor set precedent for other school districts in the country. It gives this student access to the gender-identified locker room with this student’s stated assurance that privacy curtains will be used.

And, if this student doesn’t comply, access will no longer be allowed. The agreement also removes the threat of the loss of federal funds and states that no violation of Title IX or discrimination by the District has occurred.

We communicated to the OCR that we expected a full retraction of their inaccurate portrayal of the agreement in the media. They refused. Failing that, we will convene an emergency board meeting to discuss taking action, including the potential retraction of the agreement because the OCR acted in bad faith.

Citizens have a right to expect more from a federal agency than smoke and mirrors.

A special board of education meeting will be held starting at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 7 at James B. Conant High School, 700 E. Cougar Trail in Hoffman Estates. The Board of Education will consider nullification of prior vote approving draft resolution agreement with the Office for Civil Rights, according to the agenda.s