Clifton Park

Transgender students at Shenendehowa High School can apply to use gender-specific bathrooms of their choice under a policy adopted by the district Tuesday.

The Shenendehowa Board of Education voted 4 to 2 to allow students in grades 9 through 12 to request access to bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity. The new rules also ensure that all students can use single-user bathrooms and alternative areas to change their clothes.

The board approved the measure after 18 people, most of them parents, slammed it as radical and ambiguous. Opponents said high school students could abuse the policy, leading to inappropriate mixing of opposite sexes in bathroom facilities. They blamed Superintendent L. Oliver Robinson and board members for not sharing the proposal prior to late last month.

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"This does not make me, as a parent, feel safe," Katie Adams of Clifton Park told the board.

Jim Waltersdorf, also of Clifton Park, said to loud applause, "This policy has totally taken away the faith and confidence I had in the board all these years."

More than 100 people attended the meeting in the Gowana Middle School library. Shenendehowa board members had said the district created the policy to protect students from harassment and discrimination and the district from lawsuits. Robinson and a designated administrator will decide requests from high school students for alternative bathrooms on a case-by-case basis. Board member Todd Gilbert did not attend the meeting due to a surgery, but he told the board in a letter that he supported the policy.

Five district residents spoke in favor of the initiative on Tuesday. Debbie Vincent of Halfmoon applauded the board "for doing what's right and leading the way in accordance with the law."

Shenendehowa senior Kirstin O'Sullivan, 18, was one of two students who spoke in support of the plan. She said the bathroom policy that accommodates transgender students was much more an issue for parents than students. She called the policy an "amazing step for our whole community."

Board President William Casey said the time had come to face the issue, even if it was unpopular or made some people uncomfortable.

"We just can't kick the can down the road," he said.

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