Case 3:17-cv-00739-TJC-JBT Document 192 Filed 07/26/18 Page 18 of 70 PageID 10696
According to the School Board Attorney, the gender-neutral bathroom option was added to the Guidelines and is now part of the school policy as a reasonable alternative for transgender students so they would not be required to use the bathroom of their sex assigned at birth. Doc. 162 at Tr. 61–62. The School Board’s position is that this approach reconciles the interests of transgender students without violating the School Board policy of having separate bathrooms for boys and girls. Id. at Tr. 62. The retired Director of Student Services also explained that the Best Practices Guidelines accommodate gender-fluid students while protecting against the possibility that students might claim to be gender-fluid to gain access to the bathroom of the opposite sex. Doc. 161 at Tr. 216.
Several months after the School District implemented the Best Practices Guidelines, the United States Departments of Education and Justice issued guidance (“the 2016 Guidance”) that the term “sex” under Title IX included gender identity. Doc. 152, Def. Ex. 84. The 2016 Guidance directed that schools that provide sex-segregated restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities must allow transgender students to use those facilities consistent with their gender identity. Id. at 3. In response, the School District issued a statement through its Superintendent that it
certain gender at a certain moment in time, and … then switching, perhaps, back.” Id. at 365.
Adams is not gender-fluid. Other than discussing defendant’s contentions about gender-fluidity, the Court’s opinion does not address how schools should handle this complicated issue.
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