Fast facts:

• Schools will decide on a case-by-case basis which restroom transgender students should use.
• Pine View School changed its bathroom policy in January to allow transgender students to use the restroom that best matches their gender identities.
• School Board may make a district wide transgender bathroom and locker room policy later this year after town hall meetings and public input

After nearly a month of intense debate over which restrooms transgender students should be able to use, the Sarasota County School Board decided to delay making a district wide policy on the issue.

Schools will decide which restrooms transgender and non-binary students should use on a case-by-case basis, said Sarasota Schools Superintendent Lori White.

Three of the county’s five school board members said they wanted to wait so they could collect public opinion and see how pending court cases turn out. One School Board member, Bridget Ziegler, said the Board needed to take action because decisions were already being made about the issue at schools without board input. Frank Kovach, another board member, said the entire notion made him uncomfortable.

“I have four granddaughters I know would be appalled to walk into a girls bathroom and have a boy standing there,” Kovach said. “I’m sure I’ll get emails calling me a bigot. But I personally believe this board is going down the wrong road with this Pine View decision.”

The debate began after Pine View – a grades 2 through 12 gifted magnet schools – changed its policy in January to allow transgender students to use whichever restroom best matches their gender identities. Nate Quinn, a 17-year-old at the school who identifies as a transgender male, had asked if he could use the men’s restroom at the school the year before, but administrators said no.

He asked again this January, but administrators balked again. After Quinn organized a “call-in” protest to flood the school’s phone lines, administrators sought district advice. The school district decided it would be best for the school to change its policy to accommodate students like Quinn.

Nate Quinn, 17, is a transgender student at Pine View. He fought for use of the school’s men’s restroom. Credit Thomas Bender

School District attorney Art Hardy explained why at Tuesday’s meeting.

“What is clear is the position of the Office of Civil Rights with U.S. Department of Education. They have investigated three school districts over allegations rights of transgender students are not being properly met,” Hardy said. “They entered conciliation agreements with those districts, two in California and one in Illinois. Those districts agreed to put in specific policies and procedures so that transgender rights are addressed in a way the Office of Civil Rights sees as appropriate action.”

Hardy said there are two federal court cases in which courts ruled for school districts that required students to use the restroom corresponding to their birth gender. But those cases are being appealed, and judges won’t rule for months.

Other courts have ruled in favor of transgender employees who sued for access to the restroom that matches their gender identities.

Much of the school issue centers on whether actions involving transgender students violates Title IX, the federal law that protects students from gender and sexual discrimination.

“Is discriminating against a transgender individual the same as discriminating against someone because of their sex?” Hardy said. “That’s where there’s not entire clarity.”

Those explanations did not appease some 150 protesters who came to a School Board meeting on Feb. 2. They came in church vans and buses and wore white to protest Pine View’s new policy.

Protesters dressed in white at a Feb. 2 School Board meeting to protest Pine View’s decision to allow trans students the use of whichever restroom best matches their gender identities. Credit Thomas Bender

Quinn and about a dozen transgender people and supporters were also in attendance.

Supporters of the new policy found a surprising ally in School Board Chair Shirley Brown, who had an interesting email exchange with a North Port pastor on the subject.

Pastor Jared Gritton with the First Baptist Church of North Port wrote: “I am appalled that the school has endorsed this immoral behavior and robbed students of their privacy while indoctrinating them in moral perversion. When the Department of Education, or government as a whole, passes resolutions that conflict with God’s laws, you ought to obey God rather than man.”

Brown replied, “As a pastor, I would think that you would have some compassion for a young person that has already suffered an immense amount of discrimination and bullying, not only by other students, but by teachers and other adults in the school,” Brown wrote. “And now the community, including pastors such as yourself, want to continue to punish this student for the circumstances he finds himself in. I am glad that I am part of a more compassionate church. I pray that you can open your heart and love all of God’s children.”