“We didn’t want to wait until they were asking us to go into the opposite gender bathroom and we don’t know what to do.” “We had some transgender students who were just beginning to question what their rights were, and I think that gave us a push to get out in front of ,” Christine Settino, a teacher in the English language learner department, said. But Springfield High School Principal Chuck Rittenhouse said work to accommodate students has been in the process for years.Īccording to Rittenhouse, he and his staff started seriously considering the problem a few years ago after attending Arcadia University’s Safe and Welcoming Schools Conference, which focuses on making schools more comfortable for LGBTQ students, around the same time the issue started coming up with students. Staff members shall not question or disregard a student’s assertion of gender identity unless district staff have a credible basis for believing that the student is asserting a particular gender identity for an improper purpose,” the policy states.Ī letter from the Obama administration guiding schools on to how the Departments of Justice and Education would interpret federal non-discrimination statutes (under Title IX) was released last week, nearly a month after the school district passed its policy.
“The School District of Springfield Township shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity when it is determined to be part of the student’s core identity. The policy recognizes the rights of students to identify as the gender of their choice, to be referred to by staff by the name and pronoun they identify with, to participate in activities in alignment with the gender of their identity and to use the facilities (bathrooms, locker rooms, etc.) corresponding to that gender. But at Springfield Township schools, efforts to understand and accommodate gender-expansive students have been happening for years now, culminating in the passage of the first comprehensive district policy on transgender rights in the state on April 19. SPRINGFIELD > Debate on the rights of people to identify as a gender other than the one they were born with has reached the national stage this year.
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