Philly schools are trying to protect trans students. Is it enough?
By: Lishele Liyuwork
March 30th, 2023
In the past year there has been a wave of anti-trans legislation brought to congressional floors across the United States. From the bill in Missouri that denies access to gender affirmative care for transgender youth to the bill passed in Idaho that makes it legal to deny access to gender neutral bathrooms.
Within Pennsylvania, Central Bucks School District has gone under fire for its anti lgbtq policies.At the beginning of 2023 Central Bucks School District initiated policy 321, which is meant to ensure political neutrality. However, this policy has been used to repress discussion around gender and sexuality in the classroom. This, along with the district banning books with queer characters, has brought scrutiny to how Pennsylvania schools are run.
A majority of the anti trans bills brought to the congressional floor specifically target trans children. In comparison, Philadelphia has been very progressive. However there are still issues with how administrators deal with issues that concern trans students.
In 2016 the School District of Philadelphia instated Policy 252 to protect transgender and gender-nonconforming students, which would require that all students be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns, and schools must have at least one gender neutral bathroom.
There are no guidelines in policy 252 for how schools should handle transphobic incidents. Nor is there any information in Carver's student handbook. This can create confusion and discourage students from reporting it. Kai, a current ninth grader, experienced a transphobic incident last year and was not sure how to report it.
“I could not find how to report it. I looked everywhere. And there was nowhere that I could find a way to report it.”
At Carver the gender neutral bathroom has been officially opened this year. In order to gain access to the bathroom the student must sign in at the front desk to get the key. Administration made this rule to prevent vandalism.
This opening gives trans students a safe option for the bathrooms, but some students feel there are still some issues with how the gender neutral bathroom is handled, specifically with how students can gain access. Teo, a tenth grade student, talks about how it could be difficult to use the gender neutral bathroom if your teacher has a time limit on how long you can be gone from class.
“You have like five minutes left of time, you can use the bathroom, you're on the third floor going down to the first floor… getting the key, you then have to actually use the bathroom, then repeating the whole process, giving the key back and going back upstairs."
River, a tenth grader who advocated for the opening of the gender neutral bathroom, is not happy about barriers put in place around the bathroom, but feels that it was a necessary sacrifice.
“As someone who actually worked on getting the bathroom open along with my peers. That was a compromise we had to make. And I find it really upsetting that we have to do the whole signing thing and do the whole key thing but it's a step in the right direction.”
