The Mat-Su School Board is set to debate whether to nix a current guideline from 2015 that allows transgender students to access the bathrooms and locker rooms of the opposite sex.

The school board’s Policy Committee is now requesting that the board direct District Superintendent Randy Trani to suspend the transgender guidelines.

A note on the agenda item explains that a federal judge has recently blocked the Biden Administration from using Title IX to force schools into allowing students to use bathrooms or locker rooms of their preferred identity, regardless of their biology.

“Our District has been following that [Biden Administration] guidance in its Transgender Student Guidelines,” the Policy Committee states. “That Court action affords the Committee an opportunity to review its current policies regarding such matters, and for the district’s administration to review its guidelines regarding student use of communal bathrooms/locker rooms that match their gender identity.”

The committee said it believes the transgender guidelines should be “placed on hold” pending the court’s decision.

Rather than letting biological males or females to use the intimate facilities of the opposite sex, the committee suggests that the district continue to let transgender-identifying students use school bathrooms and locker rooms that provide “locked access and privacy,” and to allow transgender students to continue using communal bathrooms and locker rooms that match their biological sex.

Current guidelines from 2015, also direct teachers and students to use whichever personal pronouns a transgender student desires.

At one point, the current document appears to contradict a new board policy, approved in June, which directly prohibits students from competing in athletic competitions that are reserved for members of the opposite sex. In contrast with board policy regarding athletics, the 2015 guidelines say, “transgender students may participate in accordance with the gender identity consistently asserted at school.”

In order to ensure all teachers and staff are on board with a student’s transgender plan, the document under reconsideration directs the superintendent and school principals to “institute in-service training and/or distribute educational materials about transgender issues to school staff, as he/she deems appropriate.”

The next school board meeting will be held on Sept. 7, starting at 6 p.m., at the Mat-Su School Board Chambers (MSBSD Central Office, 501 N Gulkana St, Palmer). 

TAKING ACTION

— Click here to read the document on transgender students.

— Click here to contact members of the Mat-Su School Board.

— Click here to contact Mat-Su Schools Superintendent Randy Trani.

— Click here for information on how to participate in the Sept. 7 school board meeting.

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