PICKENS COUNTY, Ga. - The Pickens County Board of Education will meet Monday to discuss bathrooms for transgender students.
This browser does not support the Video element.
Transgender restroom meeting to take place in Pickens County
The school district plans to build special gender-neutral single stalls, but some parents aren't on board with the plan.
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.
RELATED: Controversial transgender policy adopted in Pickens County