On May 13 the Obama Administration officially announced that schools nationwide are at risk for losing federal education aid if they limit bathroom separations by gender. Assistant secretary of education for civil rights and the head of the Justice Department’s Civil RIghts Division made the decision due to the results of Gavin Grimm’s case last month.
The Federal Appeals Court in Richmond reversed the dismissal of the Gavin Grimm case, ruling in favor of the transgender student on April 19. Grimm, a junior at Gloucester high school of Gloucester County, wanted access to the men’s restroom, but was initially turned down by the Federal District Court in September.
The lower court must now open his case back up, and determine if it infringes on the right to student privacy, or if it is gender discrimination in accordance with Title IX of federal law. Title IX, a title within the Educational Amendments Act of 1972, “prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program that gets federal funding.”
At the time, Gloucester County followed a “corresponding biological genders” policy, but according to NPR, the school now provides a unisex bathroom for Grimm.
This ongoing case affects all Virginia school bathroom policies. Schools typically have three options: distinguishing bathrooms by sex or gender, or providing an alternative unisex facility.
Marshall follows Fairfax County Public Schools’ Policy 1450, adopted in 1986. When it was originally adopted, It was a standard non discrimination policy, which up until 2014 applied exclusively to age, race, color, sex, religion, national origin, marital status and disability. However, two years ago the policy was updated to include sexual orientation. According to FCPS School Board Chair Tamara Derenak Kaufax, the decision to add gender identity to Policy 1450 had to do with promoting equality and respectfulness.
“This tells our students and staff that school and the FCPS workplace are places where they can be safe from harassment and discrimination,” Kaufax said. “The School Board has taken this proactive step to protect our students and staff from discrimination.”
The policy faced potential revisions last year, but remained unedited despite discussion among the School Board during May. The Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education demands that gender identity be included and that a consultant be hired to examine individual transgender cases, so if this adaptation to the policy had not been made, the OCR could have suggested the removal of federal funding to the county.
Initial parental concern existed with the potential for claims pertaining to sexual orientation to be made with wrongful intentions, but FCPS established a vetting process that the Department of Special Services runs to legitimize claims made by students or parents.
The decision made on Friday by the federal government means that the School Board may need to make revisions to policy 1450, or implement specific changes to bathroom usage now that Grimm’s case is being reexamined, in order to keep federal aid.