SELINSGROVE, Pa. – A central Pennsylvania school district became one of the first in the area to formally announce transgender students will be allowed to use the restroom or locker room that matches their gender identity. A letter has been sent to parents and guardians of students in the district informing them of the practice.

The announcement came the same week as a federal Magistrate judge sided with a transgender girl who is fighting for her right to use the girls’ bathroom and locker room at her Illinois high school, according to The Washington Post. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert said the Constitution doesn’t protect students who do not wish to share these facilities with their transgender peers, the Post reported. 

Superintendent Chad Cohrs said the district has not adopted a specific board policy on the issue, but it has been in practice for about a month.

“We wanted to be as proactive as possible, and we felt we couldn’t wait any longer,” he said.

Federal guidelines have indicated that Title IX protects the rights of transgender students, which Cohrs said in the letter means that the district faces the loss of federal funding if it prohibits “a student from accessing the restroom or locker room that matches their gender identity.”

Parent John J.C. Carlson is outraged by the district’s stance.

“This decision interferes and contradicts my religious beliefs and infringes on the parenting ideologies of which I raise my child,” he said. “The irony is that if the school doesn’t allow this for the minority, (it) will lose money. Yet, if they do allow it, (the district) will lose money when the majority pulls their children out of public schools.”

Cohrs said two people have contacted him “for clarification” about the letter since it was sent out last weekend.

“It’s definitely an uncomfortable conversation for some,” he said. “To me, one of the assumptions that people jump to is that transgender students are looking to cause harm to others.”

According Gilbert’s report on the Illinois case, the transgender student had agreed to use a private stall to change in the girls’ locker room and private changing areas are offered to girls who are uncomfortable with the situation, the Washington Post reported.

“Put simply,” Gilbert wrote in the report, “this case does not involve any forced or involuntary exposure of a student’s body to or by a transgender person assigned a different sex at birth.”

Cohrs said the district has a few transgender high school students, and there have been no disruptions as far as he knows.

“All the students seem to take it in stride,” Cohrs said.

Living as a transgender woman for 16 years, Joanne Carroll, president of TransCentralPa, an advocacy and support group for transgender individuals, said she’s used female restrooms without incident.

“People are dealing with their own perversions,” she said of opponents. “Children really don’t care about this unless parents make a big deal about it. This should be a non-issue.”

Administrators in Selinsgrove have done their “due diligence” to make sure a student is not identifying as transgender on a “whim and that it truly is a difficult decision,” Cohrs said.

He doesn’t know of any neighboring district that has formally taken a similar step to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.

“I’ve talked to several of my colleagues, and they tell me they have (no transgender students) or are waiting to see what happens” with ongoing court cases.

That’s the position taken by the Warrior Run School District.

Superintendent Alan Hack said the administration is “waiting for guidance from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association” before taking any action.

“I don’t know what other guidance they need than Title IX,” Carroll said.

PSBA spokesman Steve Robinson said the organization is waiting for “clearer” case law before taking a position beyond recommending school districts work with students on a case-by-case basis.

“We believe it’s premature. There are so many court cases that have yet to be decided,” he said.

The PSBA does recognize transgender student rights as an issue that needs to be addressed.

“There are a good number of districts with students identifying as transgender, and I don’t think many of them have specific policies,” Robinson said.

Not following federal rules against discrimination could lead to financial ramifications, he added.

“We’re all sort of exploring this uncharted territory,” Cohrs said.

Moore writes for The Daily Item in Sunbury, Pa.