Board of Ed: Transgender students should get to choose bathrooms
A hot topic in the hallways - should transgender students get to choose whether they use the girls or the boys bathroom?
The state board of education believes it should be up to kids and says schools need to do more to make transgender boys and girls feel comfortable in the classroom.
But their proposal is being met with push-back.
"If you're a boy you go into the boys bathroom, if you're a girl you go into the girls bathroom," said one man/
But if you're transgendered in school, which bathroom to use is controversial.
Yet, the State Board of Education, says the transgendered person should make the decision which bathroom to use.
"It's a policy that the adults have to be setting that are reasonable," said Rep. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake).
Meaning, no parent input?
"What transgender people want is a place to feel free," said Julisa Abad, a transgender activist.
But some argue that those students who are questioning their gender identity could use this policy in the wrong way.
"The boys would all be in the girls showers," Runestad said. "It's a preposterous policy,"
Abad understands why some would question the policy.
"I do get that there's going to be people that are going to argue the fact of, there is going to be pervs in the bathroom," Abad said.
FOX 2: "Are you calling boys perverts?"
Runestad: "In terms of high school boys are you going to say high school boys don't do some inappropriate things?"
"We aren't there to look at your sexual organs," Abad said.
It's getting heated - and the policy applies not only to restrooms but locker rooms, the dress code and even sports.
"If a 250-pound male linebacker wants to play lacrosse with the girls and knock the girls down to get scholarships - they have the right to do that if you are questioning," Runestad said.
And according to a national report mentioned by the Board of Education, 26 percent of transgender students were physically assaulted in school last year because of their gender expression.
"We should have a safe place for them in school where they can feel safe where they can be the person that they are and get the education that they need," Abad said.
FOX 2: "If a parent says I'm okay with my transgender child to use the woman’s bathroom if she was born a man?"
"No I'm not," Runestad said. "You should be using the bathroom of your biological gender."
The State Board of Education wants your input by May 10th, before a final policy is made.
GO HERE TO GIVE YOUR INPUT
"There are so many kids who have shared a bathroom with a transgendered person and you aren't honestly aware," Abad said.