Jul. 27�State politicians and the American Civil Liberties Union of
Illinois have waded into the ongoing debate over Waterloo District 5's
transgender bathroom policies, which have become the focus of contentious
school board meetings and led to the creation of opposing petitions.

Three Republican politicians attended the most recent board meeting July
17: former state Sen. Darren Bailey, state Rep. David Friess and state
Sen. Terri Bryant. A representative of U.S. Rep. Mike Bost also was in
attendance. Bailey and Bost are facing off in the 2024 Republican primary
for Illinois' 12th Congressional District.

All four officials have expressed their support for the parents and
students who oppose a recently-implemented policy that may allow trans
students to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity as
long as they coordinate a "gender identity plan" with their parents and
the district.

Meanwhile, the ACLU issued a statement on July 21 in support of the
district's leadership for resisting pressure to repeal the policy, which
would lead to violations of Illinois law and potentially open the district
up to legal liability that could cost taxpayer dollars.

The district adopted the new policy at its May board meeting, a couple
months after a group of about 135 students at Waterloo High School engaged
in a protest against trans students using bathrooms aligned with their
gender identity.

The district subsequently investigated the incident as potentially planned
harassment of transgender students. Superintendent Brian Charron said
there were some elements of harassment that occurred that day, which the
district addressed with the involved students.

Before the protest, the district's relevant policy � section 7:10 of the
policy manual � broadly outlined that "equal educational and
extracurricular opportunities shall be available for all students" and
that "no student shall, based on sex, sexual orientation, or gender
identity be denied equal access to programs, activities, services, or
benefits or be limited in the exercise of any right, privilege, advantage,
or denied equal access to educational and extracurricular programs and
activities."

The new policy says "students are prohibited from using restrooms not
associated with their biological sex" unless a student follows an
administrative procedure to develop a gender identity plan with the school
and their parents.

The goals of developing such a plan are to anticipate any issues that may
occur and provide support to the student, the policy says. This includes
identifying a restroom for the student to use, which "could be a gender
neutral restroom or the restroom of the opposite biological sex."

"Our community seems to be torn. There's two sides. Both sides are upset
about the policy, from one angle or another," Charron said. "Some people
argue that it's too restrictive, and others are arguing that it's not
restrictive enough."

Stand-up For Students

The district has said the new policy complies with both state and federal
law that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and allows
transgender students to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender
identity. Therefore, Charron said he doesn't anticipate the board making
any changes to the policy at this point.

Nonetheless, the public participation period of the board meetings has
been consumed by discussion of the topic.

Eight people spoke during the public participation period of the July 17
meeting, including members of the Stand-up For Students and Waterloo
Listens groups, both of which have started petitions since the new policy
was adopted.

The Stand-up For Students petition asks the board to revoke the current
bathroom policy and replace it with one that requires students to use the
bathroom or locker room that aligns with their sex at birth.

The petition has gained just over 1,500 signatures between the offline
version that was started on June 1 and the online version that went live
on July 6, according to Elizabeth Mifflin, who was third to speak at the
meeting.

Mifflin did not want to provide further comment for this article.

Waterloo Listens

Daniel Flaum, a member of Waterloo Listens, also spoke at Monday's board
meeting.

The organization was formed in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd to
promote "education, empathy, mutual accountability, and justice for all."
Flaum said in an interview that Waterloo Listens has members who are trans
or know trans people in the community, and the group supports them "just
as much as we would support anybody else who has a minority voice that
hasn't been able to find a reasonable platform in this community."

Waterloo Listens created a counter petition � beginning in late June with
signatures on paper and launching an online version on July 5 � to the
Stand-up For Students petition. Their petition has garnered more than 300
signatures so far between the online and offline versions.

Their petition requests that the board not adopt policies in violation of
state and federal law, which could subject the district to lawsuits that
would require taxpayer dollars. Instead, their petition requests that the
school use taxpayer money on safety upgrades in restrooms and changing
rooms like floor-to-ceiling stalls, distress buttons and a greater number
of single-occupancy bathrooms.

Flaum said that while Waterloo Listens finds certain aspects of the new
policy problematic, especially for trans students who come from
unsupportive homes, they find the policy acceptable at this time to move
the community and district forward.

"Our hope is that the focus will shift from actual policy on restroom use,
to physical upgrades that will protect all students from harassment of any
kind," he said.

Charron said there are some single-occupancy bathrooms in areas controlled
by staff, like the nurse's office, library and administrative office, and
that the board has planned modifications to provide stalls around urinals
in some of the restrooms. Beyond that, the board has not committed to any
other specific direction at this point, he said.

In the past couple weeks, Flaum said, Waterloo Listens has been focused on
supporting trans students and their parents as they have had to navigate a
hostile environment at the board meetings.

Flaum said the group accomplished that, increasing its turnout eightfold
at the most recent meeting.

"We had lots of people come out and demonstrate that trans people are not
alone in this community. They are here, they belong here and they have
allies," he said.

During his remarks to the school board, Flaum cited two studies.

The first was a study published in an American Medical Association journal
in 2022 that found cisgender youth were just as likely to report
perpetrating sexual violence as gender minority youth, and that gender
minority youth were more likely to report experiencing sexual violence.

The second study Flaum cited was published in 2022 by the Williams
Institute at the UCLA School of Law that found that less than 1.5% of
American children between the ages of 13 and 17 identify as transgender.

The findings of these studies, Flaum said in his remarks, show that the
perpetrators of assaults in school bathrooms or changing rooms are more
likely to be cisgender than trans.

Politicians weigh in, superintendent responds

A spokesman for Bost's office said the congressman has spoken with local
officials and committees of jurisdiction in Congress expressing his
concerns and also cosponsored the Safety and Opportunity for Girls Act of
2023.

The bill � which was introduced in February and is still early in the
legislative process � defines sex under Title IX as a person's biological
sex at birth and specifies that schools will not lose federal funding or
be prohibited from having sex-segregated bathrooms or locker rooms under
Title IX.

In a written statement, Bost said: "It's wrong to force students to share
restrooms with the opposite God-given gender; and it's frustrating that
school districts often feel they have no choice but to accept it. It's an
issue that hits home for parents because they're being told time and again
that their values don't matter. They're being told that their children
need to accept unnerving situations to appease the whims of woke
activists. It's just nonsensical, and it's not right."

Bailey � who gained statewide attention for his opposition to COVID-
related restrictions but lost his November bid to unseat J.B. Pritzker as
governor � said in a written statement that multiple parents and students
had reached out and asked him to attend the meeting.

"I went to pray with and support those parents and students; to let them
know they have a voice, and that voice is being heard as they take a stand
against woke bathroom policies that defy common sense," Bailey said.
"Parents can no longer afford to remain silent or allow their elected
representatives to avoid the fight and deliver no results as the left's
radical agenda infiltrates our children's schools."