Shepard Middle School in Illinois maintains a ‘gender-inclusive’ bathroom policy, in violation of federal policy.
Illinois public school administrators tried to force a 13-year-old girl to change clothes in front of a biological male, in accordance with the district’s “inclusive” bathroom policy that allows transgender students to use whichever locker room corresponds with their chosen gender, the mother of the girl said at a Deerfield School District 109 School Board meeting on Thursday evening.
When Nicole Georgas’s 13-year-old daughter came home from Shepard Middle School on February 5, she was frightened and upset: A boy had been in the girl’s bathroom.
Georgas’s daughter was told by Deerfield administrators that because the male student identified as a female, he could use the girl’s locker room and bathroom, Georgas said. Although Georgas expressed to the school that the district was “in clear violation” of President Donald Trump’s recent executive order that restricts males from participating in female sports and using female changing rooms, her daughter’s teachers and principal reiterated that under direction from the district’s legal counsel, the male student could use whichever bathroom corresponded to his chosen gender.
Then, Georgas said, “the situation went from bad to worse.”
“A few days later, the male student was present in the girls locker room. Feeling violated, the girls made the choice to not change into their PE clothes with the biological male student present,” Georgas said at the meeting.
Administrators then supervised the locker room to ensure that all girls were changing into their physical education clothes without protest, Georgas claimed. District 109 Assistant Superintendent for Student Services Joanna Ford, Assistant Principal Cathy Van Treese, and Director for Student Services Ginger Logemann tried to force the girls to change in front of the male student, Georgas said; when contacted, the district and administrators did not respond to National Review‘s requests for comment.
“The girls just want their privacy and they want their locker room back,” she said. “There are gender neutral options. This is my daughter’s story, and the story of many other young girls who have been forced at the difficult age to do something they know and most adults know is wrong.”
According to Georgas, administrators offered to move her daughter to a different PE unit.
Georgas’s school board testimony was booed on Thursday evening by a large audience of transgender activists who spoke in support of the district’s bathroom policy.
Charlie Friedman, a transgender person and parent of a transgender middle schooler, lauded the Illinois gender-inclusive bathroom policy that “protects trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students from the type of bullying that this parent represents,” Charlie said, pointing to Georgas. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has loudly supported gender inclusive bathroom laws in the state.
“The discomfort or privacy concerns of other students, teachers, or parents are not valid reasons to deny or limit the full and equal use of those facilities based on a student’s gender related identity,” Charlie added. “Instead any student, teacher or other individuals seeking more privacy should be accommodated by providing that individual with a more private option.”
Charlie, the director of operations for Trans Up Front, a non-profit advocacy organization, promised to “dig in to contact our coalition” to pressure the school board to enforce the bathroom policy.
A host of other activists spoke as well. One mother of a transgender student suggested that the board implement more education on transgenderism in schools and said, “A lot of transgender people pass. You wouldn’t know that they’re transgender. And so, what do you want to do? Like, have genital checks of people? Talk about privacy and invasion of privacy! That is a logistical hurdle that you would not want to even try to accomplish.”
Georgas has filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Justice.
Deerfield is “committed to inclusive practices that ensure equitable outcomes across educational environments for all students,” the district says on its website, and places priority on “identity development and equity best practices,” and ensuring “inclusion of diverse populations and perspectives.”
In February, after Trump began to issue a flurry of executive guidance scaling back so-called inclusive gender policies, the district’s superintendent Michael Simeck said that “District 109 is committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and high-quality education for all students.”
Parents across the country have protested transgender bathroom policies, including in Virginia, where a registered male sex offender was allowed to gain access to a public school pool’s female locker room, because he identified himself as female. Jen McDougal, a mother of a nine-year-old girl who was exposed to the man’s penis after swim practice, spoke with National Review in February about the trans bathroom policy that allowed a sex offender to lurk around children
“It’s an abuse of women’s right to feel safe in public spaces,” McDougal said. “I understand there are a lot of people who say you can’t take away a person’s right to use a bathroom that they feel is appropriate for them. But this loophole is what created this situation for us. And he was allowed to enter that restroom, that facility, because he identified as transgender.”