The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District’s Board of Trustees discussed reconfiguring the girls’ locker room at Paso Robles High School at its Tuesday meeting.
The conversation was spurred on by discussions about which bathrooms and locker rooms transgender students should be able to use.
The state of current policy
California law says students can choose to use a gender-neutral facility or the locker room that aligns with their gender identity, Superintendent Jennifer Loftus told the Board of Trustees.
“ We are not going to be allowed to tell a student, ‘You must – if you are a transgender student – use a gender-neutral facility,’” Loftus said. “The student gets to decide based on what they feel most comfortable doing.”
Loftus also told the board that transgender students must be able to play on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
During public comment, parent Liz Tashma said her daughter is the only transgender high school athlete she was aware of, so she didn’t understand why the topic was still being discussed.
“How many transgender athletes are there in Paso Robles High School?” Tashma asked. “I know one, and she's graduating in June.”
Tashma said her daughter goes “ out of her way to ensure that other students are comfortable,” and that she changed in the Nurse’s Office before P.E. classes during her freshman year.
Making locker rooms more private
Superintendent Loftus also discussed adding seven or eight private changing areas to the girls’ locker room.
One student said in a public comment that the added changing stalls would improve privacy, “but it doesn't solve the main problem.”
“Girls are still expected to change in an area where male students can be present,” the student said.
Board of Trustees member Sondra Williams said the school can’t make it a policy that transgender students use separate changing areas.
“While I don't disagree with privacy,” Williams said, “I think we should find all avenues to provide privacy. We cannot force a transgender student to change in that one stall.”
Williams also questioned if eight changing rooms would be enough for more than 40 students to use at once.
Superintendent Loftus said that the boys’ locker room at Paso Robles High School already has some private changing stalls, and students in the girls’ locker room already use bathroom stalls for privacy.
“ We want all students to feel welcome. We want all students to feel safe,” Loftus told the board.
The topic of gender-specific spaces and the participation of transgender students on sports teams has come up frequently during previous meetings.
Board President Joel Peterson said this was the first time these issues were formally added to the meeting’s agenda.
Trustee Jim Cogan said he would like the board to “remove the word ‘safe’ from our vernacular.”
“It presumes that students that are in a bathroom with a trans student are somehow unsafe, and that is not true,” Cogan said.
The Board of Trustees didn’t vote on any policy, but the first three to four changing stalls are scheduled to be finished during the high school’s spring break.
The bigger picture
The board's discussion happened against a backdrop of state and federal legal fights over how to treat transgender students in schools.
During the meeting, Loftus and members of the board discussed how federal policy and upcoming Supreme Court decisions could impact California’s education policy.
The Trump administration has sued the California Department of Education and threatened to withhold funding from schools that allow transgender girls to play on girls’ sports teams.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has also filed suit against the Trump Administration over policies involving transgender students.
