{"id":48281,"date":"2021-04-14T13:09:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T17:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=48281"},"modified":"2021-04-14T13:09:43","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T17:09:43","slug":"lee-schools-bathroom-policy-for-transgender-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/04\/lee-schools-bathroom-policy-for-transgender-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Schools\u2019 bathroom policy for transgender students &#8230;&#8230;.."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dozens of parents spoke during public comment at the Lee County School Board meeting on Tuesday night about a policy that provides bathroom access for transgender students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"738\" height=\"960\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Gender-poster.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-48282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Gender-poster.jpg 738w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Gender-poster-231x300.jpg 231w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 738px) 100vw, 738px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Their comments were brought on because of the district\u2019s Equality Florida Best Practices and Action Steps poster, promoting an inclusive environment for LGBTQ students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hundreds of people came to speak about the policy, but only 60 made the cut. Each had one minute to speak before the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The school board policy was updated with those best practices in June 2020 after multiple public hearings. They were also added to the student code of conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The school board said the practices do not allow male and female students to shower together or use the same bathrooms, like some are saying online. Instead, it allows trans students to use separate, private, gender-neutral bathrooms.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe blanket idea that the district allows boys and girls to shower together, share the same locker-room or restroom is simply wrong. Indeed, it is a violation of the code of conduct,\u201d said the district in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The policy also does not change curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSchools are completely fine,\u201d North Fort Myers High School student Devon Cranford said. \u201cNothing has changed fundamentally, and that these students including me are very supportive of these measures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Community members, like Dan Severson, have said it\u2019s the school board\u2019s job to make parents aware of these changes and clear up any confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey haven\u2019t done a very good job of communicating these things obviously to the public, because when the public heard about it they responded vigorously,\u201d Severson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The school board will meet to discuss the poster and next year\u2019s code of conduct on April 26 at 6 p.m. They encourage all parents to come and discuss their concerns during public comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dozens of parents spoke during public comment at the Lee County School Board meeting on Tuesday night about a policy that provides bathroom access for transgender students. Their comments were&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":48282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}