The Pascack Valley Regional School District in New Jersey approved a policy allowing transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity irrespective of the sex mentioned on their birth certificates.
The district board passed the measure by a wide margin of 6-1, which they say will protect transgender students from discrimination.
"If you want to be called by your newly identified gender name, then we're going to allow you the opportunity. If you want to be called by a different pronoun, you're going to be given the opportunity to do so," said P. Erik Gundersen, School Superintendent. "I would say that the use of the restroom and of the locker room is probably the final chapter of the student's transformation, at least in high school."
Joseph Blundo was the sole member of the board who did not vote in favour of the policy. He told NJ.com that he was not opposing the policy for religious or political reasons, but he said that many people told him they were not happy with the policy even though they did not speak at the meeting.
"The burden is now shifting on them to be in an uncomfortable situation," he said.
Blundo did not specify the reasons people were not happy with the new policy.
A three-hour debate preceded the voting, where many expressed their views about what the new rules would mean for them.
"Now I feel it's more openly accepted," Kax Petkovic, a transgender freshman at Pascack Valley High School told NJ.com.
This was the second time the proposal was brought forth for voting, after it failed in February when parents blocked the policy citing concerns.
After the voting, still many parents feared privacy invasion of non-transgender students.
"How many of you have allowed your sons and daughters to change with members of the opposite sex? Why does it make sense now?" Bernadette Orso, one of the parents said.
"While bathrooms generally have stalls which provide everyone with a level of privacy, locker rooms do not," Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi said in a Facebook post. "If a 14-year-old child is uncomfortable getting undressed next to another child who is still biologically a member of the opposite sex, what option does the non-transgender child have? If they tell the school they feel uncomfortable, will an accommodation be made for this child or in a worst case scenario could this child be written up for discriminating against a fellow student and/or bullying?"
The school board said that the changing areas already ensure individual privacy, and each student will have to prove that they are serious about gender change.
"The student has to be able to show consistent evidence, and the administration has to truly understand that this is part of the student's core identity," Gundersen said.
He added that students who are not comfortable with sharing changing rooms in front of pupils of other sex will be provided with alternative arrangements.
One school board member suggested that the issue was far from being resolved, saying that he expects lawsuits against the school district.
