North Cook News

Discussion regarding a new transgender policy for Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South high schools slated to be considered at the Jan. 8 meeting of the board of Glenbrook High School District 225 has been pushed back to Jan. 22 at the request of a group of concerned parents.  

Glenn Farkas of Glenview, the leader of the parents group, told North Cook News that the District 225 board is way ahead of itself with the new policy, which will allow students to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond “to their consistently expressed gender identity.”

 “This Friday, I’ll be sending the board a letter demanding that they postpone any decision on this until it’s settled in the courts,” Farkas said.

Farkas added that current school policies covering transgender students are “fair and reasonable accommodations,” and that the board should at least wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on an appeal of a decision by a federal court in a Wisconsin transgender case.

In that case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on May 30 upheld an injunction against the Kenosha Unified School District requiring school officials to allow a transgender high school student access to the boys bathroom.

The U.S. Supreme Court will likely combine the Wisconsin case and another state-level case and rule on the issue in the spring.

“They (Glenbrook District 225) are doing a pre-emptive strike based on the Wisconsin case when it’s too early to say what the final decision in the case will be,” Farkas said.

Nearby Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 faces action for the second time in two years after reaching a compromise in 2015 with a student who identified as female and wanted full access to the girls locker room. The student was permitted to use a private area within the locker room. Now an 18-year-old student who wants full access to the locker room has filed an action in state court.

In a statement, District 211 Superintendent Dan Cates said that the Illinois Department of Human Rights has already ruled there was no discrimination.

"The allegations in this lawsuit misrepresent the accommodations extended to this student and District 211's approach to working with and supporting transgender students," Cates said. "District 211 has provided caring and responsive supports for transgender students who daily use bathrooms and locker rooms of their gender identity in multiple schools.”

Meanwhile on Dec. 29, a federal judge refused a request by a group of Palatine families for an injunction that would prohibit the transgender student in the 2015 case access to the girls locker room.

U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso wrote in his opinion that he refused the request because the student had graduated and federal transgender guidelines had been lifted by the Trump administration