Marsha Morgan stood on stage, in front of dozens of people, dressed as she felt.

From the waist down, she wore a black pencil skirt, tights and high heels, showing off her femininity. From the waist up, the school bus driver still known by many as Marshall wore a white collared shirt and tie – appropriate for anyone being nominated to be Capistrano Unified School District’s 2011 Employee of the Year.

It was Marsha’s most public moment, to that point in her life, as a transgender woman.

“If I was going to accept an award, I was going to accept it as myself,” Morgan said about her multigender fashion choice.

That was five years ago. Today, Morgan, 53, might be even more secure on the job than she was then.

Last month, Capistrano Unified’s board adopted a new nondiscrimination policy that protects employees and students based on their gender and gender expression, as well as other characteristics such as race, sex and sexual orientation. The district’s non-discrimination policy hadn’t been updated in 15 years.

Capistrano Unified’s new policy is a bit of catch-up with other districts. Over the past 18 months, the Irvine, Tustin and Saddleback Valley school districts, among others, updated their policies to address gender issues.

The new rule brings the district in line with federal and state laws that protect transgender people against discrimination. The policy also is a possible steppingstone that could allow district officials and teachers to construct school-specific rules and procedures, such as training, that might accommodate transgender people.

Danielle Serio, 25, an English teacher at San Juan Hills and adviser for the Queer Alliance student club, worked with the district on the new policy. She hopes it will spark a broader discussion about LGBT issues within the district, something she didn’t think possible when she was a student at Tesoro High School in the mid 2000s.

In addition to protecting employees, like Morgan, the new rules also protect students.

Sid Piravi, a sophomore at San Juan Hills High, says he realized he was transgender in middle school. And with the help of friends and supportive parents, he started living as a male when he entered high school.

He said classmates and teachers were mostly supportive. He was featured in the school’s newspaper in a segment on LGBT students and became a leader in the Queer Alliance.

Still, being trans presents daily hurdles. Every year, Piravi emails his teachers to tell them to call out “Sid” when taking attendance rather than his legal name, Maya. One recurring Spanish substitute refused to comply with Piravi’s preferred pronouns, which come up often when learning a Latin language.

“When I talked to him about it, he said, ‘But you’re not a señor,’” Piravi said. After talking with school administrators, the teacher eventually stopped using pronouns when talking to Piravi.

Other issues also remain unresolved.

Piravi uses the restroom in the administrative building, away from other students. Morgan still uses the men’s restroom when at work, in part because some female co-workers said they weren’t comfortable sharing their space with her.

Previously, the district handled such gender identity issues on a case-by-case basis. But the new policy sets more uniform expectations, for how trans people and other protected groups will be treated and what will happen when the rules are violated.

“This is the first step that should translate into tangible change,” said John Roach, interim assistant superintendent for Capistrano Unified.

Next steps, according to Roach, could include rules and training at each school that might resolve specific questions about things like restroom use and pronouns in Spanish classes.

For Morgan, the district’s new policy is just the latest in years of growing acceptance of the transgender community in South County. Progress is coming, she said, but slowly.

Although her employers at the district have been kind to her, Morgan added that she wished officials had been more proactive than reactive over the past five years.

Still, Morgan is only looking ahead. This month, she legally changed her name and gender – so eager to make the changes that she turned up at the courthouse two hours before it opened. Her bus driver uniform is now embroidered with “Marsha” instead of “Marshall,” and the district’s new insurance plan will cover her hormone treatments and gender reassignment surgery.

“It can’t happen fast enough,” she said. “I never thought this would be a possibility for me.”

Contact the writer: edonnelly@ocregister.com