What Do Teachers Think ABout Transgender Bathroom policies in schools (government, high school)
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Bathrooms in many schools are a problem. And, you are right that in many "boy's rooms" stall doors have been removed due to drug issues and smoking. So that is a relevant issue. But adults need to also start making better decisions about facilities. For example, one day I learned that our head custodian had decided on his own that he would no longer put toilet paper in student restrooms because occasionally kids would throw an entire roll in a toilet. And when I raised the issue with him and said, "So can we take away the toilet paper in the custodial restroom." "Well no. How would we wipe ourselves?" "That's my point exactly!"
Frankly, I think the only real solution has come from OldHag and I in previous posts -- individual little bathrooms. If they can do it in stores (and I have seen some), they could also do it in school restrooms.
I sub at many schools and have no choice but to use the same restrooms as the students at many of these schools. At some schools, using the faculty restroom would mean walking from the second floor to the faculty lounge on the first floor. At the high school where I subbed this week, the boys' restroom on the second floor is locked, so that isn't even an option. It makes it difficult to go to the restroom on the 3-4 minutes between classes.
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Originally Posted by DDMP77
It's not just bathrooms but locker rooms also. It is a privacy issue. There's also the issue of the people pushing these policies trying to redefine what it means to be a man and a woman. There is a lot of stuff being pushed into the schools along with these bathroom/locker room policies. They're starting to teach kids about gender identity and gender fluidity. It's blatant social engineering and indoctrination. I expect the public school system to teach my kids how to read, write and do math, not talk to them about how some boys have vaginas and some girls have penises. Parents need to fight this crap.
Who is pushing these policies other than the ones who have decided they are transgender? I'm not aware that it is coming from anyone other than these students and groups who represent them.
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Originally Posted by phetaroi
And where did you come up with that number?
And do we only do things if they are cheap, or if they are the right thing to do?
Public showers DO traumatize many kids...and most won't even take showers in gym class for that reason. So what you're saying is: if it is broke, don't fix it.
You will rarely find any students taking showers in school unless they have swimming class. Even students on sports teams do not take showers in school.
Times have changed since my junior high swimming class where the swimming teacher told us swim suits were optional. We had strict orders to take a shower after gym and swimming, which meant 40 guys taking a 30 second shower under six shower nozzles. They gym teacher would stand by the door with a paddle and threaten to paddle anyone whose hair was dry. I heard stories that the female PE teachers also had the same showering rule. Somehow we managed to survive without being traumatized.
Last edited by toobusytoday; 02-19-2017 at 06:14 AM..
Reason: removed previously deleted comment
Actually science tells us that there are two sexes and that they are not fluid. I don't know what PC compromised medical journals you've been reading.
Intersex refers to a biologically anomaly which is experienced by an extremely minute fraction of the roughly 8 billion people living today.
Schools and medical science are both succumbing to a very small but extremely vocal and extremely vindictive group in our society with a political agenda. Political correctness irreparably taints the integrity and objectivity of everything it touches. It's cancer.
if it's so friggin easy peasy then why don't the transgender kids use the nurse's office?
scientists are uncovering new complexities in the biological understanding of sex.
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Gender is an amalgamation of several elements: chromosomes (those X’s and Y’s), anatomy (internal sex organs and external genitals), hormones (relative levels of testosterone and estrogen), psychology (self-defined gender identity), and culture (socially defined gender behaviors). And sometimes people who are born with the chromosomes and genitals of one sex realize that they are transgender, meaning they have an internal gender identity that aligns with the opposite sex—or even, occasionally, with neither gender or with no gender at all.
I would have loved single user restroom and locker room facilities as a student, myself, for reasons of privacy that have nothing to do with gender/transgender issues. Private restrooms are great (every workplace I've been at happens to have had them, versus stalls/lines of urinals). And communal locker rooms/showers suck in general, and especially in middle and high schools, no matter who you are or your gender identity.
OMG it's a bathroom! It has stalls. There is no privacy issue. No one sees anything. What the heck are people so worried about? No one is up in arms about family changing rooms. I'm a teacher and I don't see the problem with it. A girl who was born a boy but dresses and acts and is treated like a girl might as well be a girl for all intents and purposes when it comes to the bathroom. People who worry about such things usually don't even know any transgender people. They imagine drag queens or something. They are just clueless over-reacting hover parents.
I think people should use the bathroom that fits their anatomy. Using the other bathroom doesn't change your gender. Neither will hormones or surgery. I feel bad for transgender people because they can never be what they want to be but I worry that we're encouraging kids to make adult decisions here. Some kids will do anything for attention even the wrong kind but is it real? My dd went through a tom boy period where she wanted nothing to do with girl stuff. She even cut off her curls because she didn't want them. Judging by the plethora of beauty products on her bathroom counter and her love for getting her nails done I think she got over that. I think kids pretend and ask "what if" as they are trying to figure out who they are and I think we need to give them the time to figure that out without encouraging them to change genders. Once you switch bathrooms there are expectations from others that may pressure someone who was just asking what if into going down a road they really didn't want to go down.
School bathrooms are for relieving yourself. Go into the bathroom that fits your anatomy, do your business and go about your day. You open a can of worms when you switch bathrooms.
OMG it's a bathroom! It has stalls. There is no privacy issue. No one sees anything. What the heck are people so worried about? No one is up in arms about family changing rooms. I'm a teacher and I don't see the problem with it. A girl who was born a boy but dresses and acts and is treated like a girl might as well be a girl for all intents and purposes when it comes to the bathroom. People who worry about such things usually don't even know any transgender people. They imagine drag queens or something. They are just clueless over-reacting hover parents.
I am also a teacher and I see an issue. The issue I see is once you declare your "right" to use the other bathroom you've gone public and kids/teenagers do stupid things to save face. You may find yourself feeling you have no way back if you change your mind and many kids do. From what I've read you really can't decide if you are transgender until well into your 20's. I'm not sure we should be encouraging switching bathrooms. Perhaps the answer is to just make them all unisex or to have three versions. Boys, girls and Haven't decided yet (but you still draw attention to yourself with that last one)
It's just a bathroom. Use the one that fits your anatomy and go on with your day. I have been known to use the men's teacher bathroom but it doesn't make me feel like a man. I had to pee and it wasn't occupied.
According to the complaint, “Student X” allegedly danced to loud music with sexually explicit lyrics while grinding and lifting up her skirt to reveal her underwear. She reportedly asked one girl about her bra size and requested they “trade body parts.” Student X is said to have danced “like he (sic) was on a stripper pole” to songs like “Milkshake” by Kelis.
Some of the girls were reduced to tears, FOX News reports. The school told girls who felt uncomfortable to use a secondary locker room. Another plaintiff was told she could use a vacant boys basketball locker room for privacy. Student X reportedly followed her to that locker room and proceeded to remove her pants in front of other female students.
The most troubling part of story is that the transgendered student followed them when they tried to remove themselves and purposefully engaged in activities to make the other students even more uncomfortable. The transgendered student engaged in sexual harassment regardless of the gender of anyone involved. Had this involved any other student they would have been rightfully suspended, sent to an alternative school, or even expelled. In other words, the transgendered student was not treated equally to a non-transgendered student and, since being transgendered does not put a kid on an IEP, that is not acceptable.
This case has been put on hold until the case out of the state of Virginia is heard by the Supreme Court this summer.
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Originally Posted by Ceece
There is growing suspicion that many transgender kids are on the autism spectrum. It could be something they pick up on the internet to deal with being uncomfortable with themselves. I think autistic people are particularly vulnerable to the internet and what they find there.
I think people should use the bathroom that fits their anatomy. Using the other bathroom doesn't change your gender. Neither will hormones or surgery. I feel bad for transgender people because they can never be what they want to be but I worry that we're encouraging kids to make adult decisions here. Some kids will do anything for attention even the wrong kind but is it real? My dd went through a tom boy period where she wanted nothing to do with girl stuff. She even cut off her curls because she didn't want them. Judging by the plethora of beauty products on her bathroom counter and her love for getting her nails done I think she got over that. I think kids pretend and ask "what if" as they are trying to figure out who they are and I think we need to give them the time to figure that out without encouraging them to change genders. Once you switch bathrooms there are expectations from others that may pressure someone who was just asking what if into going down a road they really didn't want to go down.
School bathrooms are for relieving yourself. Go into the bathroom that fits your anatomy, do your business and go about your day. You open a can of worms when you switch bathrooms.
So you think people who are transgendered are the same as tomboys? How many transgendered people have you met? I had one in my class at a college last summer. You never would have known she was born male, and had been living as her gender, which is female since she was child. If she were to use a male bathroom, just because she was born with a penis, it was cause all sorts of issues, because she looks complete female. Why should you get to determine that because of her external genitalia, that she has to use a bathroom that she doesn't want to and which would just cause more issues than her going into the stall in e women's room?
So you think people who are transgendered are the same as tomboys? How many transgendered people have you met? I had one in my class at a college last summer. You never would have known she was born male, and had been living as her gender, which is female since she was child. If she were to use a male bathroom, just because she was born with a penis, it was cause all sorts of issues, because she looks complete female. Why should you get to determine that because of her external genitalia, that she has to use a bathroom that she doesn't want to and which would just cause more issues than her going into the stall in e women's room?
This particular thread is about transgendered students and bathrooms/locker rooms in schools. That is a different situation than adults, who may or may not know each other and who have choices, including the option to leave if they want. Students don't get choices or only limited choices determined by adults.
Schools are not limited to just boy's rooms or girl's rooms, most schools can arrange for the use of a single user facility. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the bothered biological females can take that option, but that becomes a logistical issue when you have a group of 12-15 girls now trying to share that single user facility, instead of one kid. They tried to designate secondary multiple user facilities for the bothered girls in the school in the lawsuit and the transgendered student's parents threatened to sue because they wanted to have their child have access to any facility girls used. And what did said child do when the school gave in? Followed the students who wanted privacy to wherever they tried to go and taunt them. This is not okay.
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