PORT ANGELES — A group of residents has given a letter of complaint to Port Angeles School District that protests the public school district’s actions in implementing a transgender bathroom and locker room policy to comply with state law.
The complaint — signed by Rich Coulson, Terry Trudel and Bill Yucha and delivered last Monday to Superintendent Mark Jackson — alleges three separate issues.
The first is that the School Board failed to honor promises made to the public during a June 2014 meeting by not establishing a special committee to explore the best way to implement Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 162-32-060 concerning transgender students.
“The School Board hasn’t done what they said they would do,” Yucha said Friday.
The second allegation is that the school district is in violation of the WAC, which allows individuals the use of gender-segregated facilities, such as restrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, and homeless or emergency shelters, that are consistent with that individual’s gender expression or gender identity.
“Instead of following the administrative rule which is law (WAC 162-32-060) you adopted a model policy (3211) and procedure (3211P) which came from the Washington State School Directors’ Association which creates ethical problems,” the complaint reads.
Jackson said that the district’s response is that chapter 162-32-060 in the WAC is now state law, “and it greatly restricts how a public school’s nondiscrimination policy procedure will look if the district is to be in compliance.”
Third allegation
The third allegation is that the district violated its own code of ethics by not seeking systematic communications between the board, students and staff during the policy implementation process.
“Their ethics code says they are responsible to the public, and we don’t feel like they are following through on what they said they would do, and we don’t feel like they are really in tune with the public,” Yucha said.
“We hope that ultimately they would include the students and the public in the process of making the decision that they have adopted. We would hope they would include us in the whole decision making process so that they would have the community standing behind them.”
It boils down to a desire for transparency and inclusion, Yucha said.
“We would just like to be part of the process,” he said.
Jackson said the opponents of the transgender policy have had a voice.
“They have been writing letters and I have been meeting with them off and on” over the past couple of years, he said.
“I think we have been trying to clarify what the district’s position is.
“They are really good people,” he added. “I truly understand what it is they feel.”
Consider alternatives
Yucha said there are alternatives the district should consider, such as having transgender students use faculty restrooms and change in the coach’s office in lieu of the locker room.
A transgender person is one who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that differs from that of the person’s sex at birth.
“The reason we have girls and boys locker rooms is to separate them, to provide safety and privacy,” Yucha said.
“Those are important things, but transgenders are vulnerable too and they need to be protected as well.”
Such alternatives are not feasible, Jackson said.
“We can’t do that,” he said. “They need to understand that school districts and universities really can’t discriminate from this process and procedure.
“They feel that there is a difference and they believe that segregation is by biology . . . and the law says differently,” Jackson continued.
“We really have to follow the statute here. We don’t have a choice.”
However, “if somebody says I really don’t want to go into that restroom, then we can say, well there are other restrooms you can go to on the campus,” Jackson said.
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Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
