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Under the new protections, transgender students are able to essentially live as the gender that matches their identity. A child who was born male but identifies as female can choose a new name, dress as a girl, be addressed as “she,” play on girls sports teams and access the girls restroom and locker room.

Some restroom and locker room accommodations are available if transgender students request them – for instance, they could use a single-stall bathroom and change into gym clothes in a private area like a nurse’s office.

An APS question-and-answer sheet on the directive states that kids “who are uncomfortable sharing a bathroom with a transgender student” will also be able to access the single-stall unisex facilities.

Superintendent Raquel Reedy said she approved the new rules because student well-being is her top priority.

“We want children, all children, to feel safe,” Reedy told the Journal on Wednesday. “We want to make sure our children feel comfortable and safe at school because if they are safe, then they can learn.”

APS officials have said they do not track transgender kids, so they can’t be sure how many there are in the 85,000-student district, but they suspect the number is small.

The directive wraps up a divisive debate about transgender rights that brought dozens of supporters and critics to APS board meetings over the past few months. LGBT activists, transgender students and their parents faced off against detractors who feared school restrooms and locker rooms would become uncomfortable places if the directive went forward. A few said sexual predators could potentially take advantage of the policy to get into girls’ facilities and harm children.

Districts across the country are embroiled in similar arguments. Tensions rose in May when President Barack Obama’s administration issued a mandate that all schools provide access to facilities that align with student gender identity or potentially lose federal funding. A number of states vowed to fight back in court. Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia announced that they were suing on May 25.

APS Board President Dave Peercy said he feels some of the concerns are rooted in misinformation.

He stressed that the APS directive won’t let teen boys walk into girls bathrooms as a prank – transgender students must meet with school officials to declare their gender identity, though the details of the process are still being worked out. Anyone who enters a restroom or locker room without authorization faces punishment, according to the question-and-answer sheet.

“We have to make sure we get the right information communicated,” Peercy said. “We are not addressing some of the overarching issues of federal overreach; that is not our role to play. We are looking at equal protection under the Constitution, and that is the main issue for us.”

Peercy and the six other APS board members heard a presentation on the directive during a policy committee meeting in March, though it did not require their vote. Reedy’s leadership team was responsible for reviewing and approving the directive, crafted by the district Title IX office, which works to prevent sex discrimination in accordance with federal law.

APS has listed gender identity as a protected category in its non-discrimination policy since 2005, but didn’t have documents specifying how to shield transgender children from harassment.

Peggy Muller-Aragón was the only board member to speak out against the transgender directive, repeatedly saying that it could set the district up for lawsuits from angry parents and traumatize kids by exposing them to “the body parts of the opposite sex.” During the March 16 board meeting, she related a story about going into a public restroom alone and encountering a transgender person who wouldn’t let her out.

Muller-Aragón could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Sheila Mink, president of LGBT support group PFLAG Albuquerque, celebrated the expanded protections for transgender students, which she hopes will lead to broad discussion of “proper respect and fair treatment.”

“It is difficult enough to be a kid nowadays without all the extra attention people are giving to these situations,” Mink said. “How many people don’t need a bathroom?”

APS TRANSGENDER PROCEDURAL DIRECTIVE OVERVIEW

RESTROOM ACCESS

Students shall have access to the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity at school. Where available, a single stall bathroom may be used by any student who desires increased privacy, regardless of the underlying reason. The use of such a single stall bathroom shall be a matter of choice for a student, and no student shall be compelled to use such bathroom.

LOCKER ROOM ACCESS

Transgender students shall have access to the locker room of their gender identity and shall not be forced to use the locker room corresponding to their sex assigned at birth. In locker rooms that involve undressing in front of others, transgender students who want to use the locker room corresponding to their gender identity shall be provided with the best possible available accommodation. Based on availability and appropriateness to address privacy concerns, such accommodations could include, but are not limited to:

— Use of a private area in the public area (e.g., a bathroom stall with a door, an area separated by a curtain, a PE instructor’s office in the locker room).

— A separate changing schedule (either utilizing the locker room before or after the other students).

— Use of a nearby private area (e.g., a nearby restroom, a nurse’s office).

SPORTS

All students shall be permitted to participate in physical education classes and intramural sports in a manner consistent with their gender identity. Furthermore, unless precluded by state interscholastic association policies, all students shall be permitted to participate in interscholastic athletics in a manner consistent with their gender identity.

NAMES

Students shall have the right to be addressed by a name and pronoun corresponding to their gender identity that is asserted at school. School staff or administrators are required by law to use students’ legal name and gender in state academic records, such as standardized testing, but school staff and administrators shall use students’ preferred name and gender in all internal records, documents and interactions.

DRESS CODE

Students shall have the right to dress in accordance with their gender identity within the constraints of the dress codes adopted by the district and the school.