Video: Local School Officials Weigh In on Transgender Guidelines

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) — The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice released joint guidelines today on how schools should treat transgender students.
It’s an effort to limit discrimination based on sex.

The guidelines say that transgender students should be allowed to use the restroom based on the gender they identify with.

It also says parents do not need to have a mental or physical evaluation for their child to be considered transgender.

These guidelines are not a law, but if not followed they could result in federal funding being pulled from schools that don’t comply.

This is not an issue that has come up in Lowndes County schools before, but the district is preparing to deal with it if it does.
” Very disappointed that our nations leaders are even trying to push something like this. It’s very troubling,” says Lowndes County Schools Superintendent Lynn Wright.

Lowndes County Schools Superintendent Lynn Wright can’t believe the conversation about transgender bathrooms has come about.

“I don’t think we should discriminate against anybody but by the same token , when we’re making decisions based on, we’re afraid we’re going to offend someone, what we end up doing is offending a lot of people,” says Wright.

He says in the over 40 years he’s worked in schools, he’s never had a student come out as transgender and says , if there was, there are alternative bathrooms they can use.

School Board Attorney Jeff Smith says like it or not it’s something the school will have to address.

“Society’s changing and public entities like a school districts are going to have to be prepared for it,” says Smith.

Smith says if it does come up, they will probably take it on a case by case basis.

“We would have to see when the situation arises, actually I guess the facts of it,” he says.

He expects the district will have to make some decisions on transgender students at some point.

“We would have to as a district develop a policy on how we deal with gender and transgender, mixed gender people that want to use a bathroom,” he says.

The guidelines require parents to fill out a form declaring their child as transgender before accommodations are made.

Smith says the district probably could not afford to not comply with the news guidelines because they get millions of dollars in federal funds.