Transgender school restroom meeting to take place in Pickens County
PICKENS COUNTY, Ga. - The Pickens County Board of Education will meet Monday to discuss bathrooms for transgender students.
The district plans to build special gender-neutral single stalls, but some parents aren't on board with the plan.
Superintendent Dr. Carlton Wilson told FOX 5 News the district must follow the law.
“The [US Court of Appeals for the] 11th Circuit was very, very clear in their ruling that a student that is transgendering has the right to use the bathroom that they identify with, have a transgender student that is transitioning from a female to a male,” Wilson said.
He said the recent ruling by the federal appeals court in Florida goes a step further in protecting transgender students.
“The judge ruled a transgender student when using these facilities has a greater protected right than the non-transgender student,” Wilson said.
Wilson said transgender students have been allowed to use gender-neutral bathrooms in the teachers’ lounge. Those bathrooms are available to any student uncomfortable with the situation.
The ultimate plan, he said, will be to build gender-neutral single stalls available to everyone.
“You walk down the hall and there are four or five doors and you open a door and each one of them are four or five individual restrooms,” said Dr. Wilson
As some consider legal action, the district is inviting all to a town hall meeting Monday night at 6 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center at Pickens High School. The Superintendent told FOX 5 News the public will have plenty of opportunities to speak their mind at the town hall meeting.
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