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School District Defiant in Face of Locker Room Edict

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A Chicago school district has 30 days to change their current transgender student locker room policy or they could lose millions of dollars in federal funds.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Education said that Illinois' Palatine Township School District 211 is violating the rights of a transgender student by refusing to allow them unrestricted use of a girls' locker room.

The school had initially proposed a compromise that would allow access but require the student to change and shower in a separate area.

''There are private changing stations and each of those individual stations would afford access into the locker room and opportunities to engage with peers in the locker room. At the same time protecting matters of privacy that are very critical among teenage students," Superintendent Daniel Cates said.

Not satisfied, the student filed a federal complaint with the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union against the suburban Chicago school district, requesting unrestricted access to the locker room, including the ability to change and shower in the open areas.
 
ACLU lawyer John Knight said that when in the girl's locker room, his client is required to use a privacy curtain, which is not required for other girls and shames the transgender student. Knight called it "blatant discrimination."

''I think the message is that the world is changing. And that, you know, trying to discriminate against someone else on the basis of what you perceive to be the privacy interests of other students is not the way to go," ACLU of Illinois spokesman Edwin Yohnka said.

Cates does not agree with that stance, and said the decision in favor of the one trangender student is not the right thing to do for all students, calling it "a serious overreach with precedent-setting implications."
 
''By imposing this unrestricted access without any measure of expected privacy, we believe that is not the right thing to do for our young people," Cates said. "We continue to be very hopeful that we are going to be able to work toward a solution together that serves the best interest of all of our students, those who are trangender and those who are cisgender."

District 211 has 30 days to change the policy, or risk losing millions in federal funding. In 2014, $6 million of the school's funding was contingent on compliance with Title IX, according to Reuters.
 
Cates said they hope to come to a compromise on the matter but are prepared to go to court if necessary.

"District 211 continues to believe that what we offer is reasonable and honors every student's dignity," he said.

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