A.G. Gancarski
State Rep. Janet Adkins, a candidate for superintendent of Nassau County schools, has joined the chorus of Northeast Florida Republicans objecting to the Barack Obama administration’s assertion that transgender students should be able to use their “gender identity” to decide which bathroom they feel most comfortable using in public schools.
“It is clear that the Obama Administration is once again circumventing the Congress and even its own federal rule-making process to impose new federal rules and laws on Florida’s public schools. This encroachment on state rights is a clear violation of the prohibition of these acts outlined in the 10th amendment,” Adkins said.
Adkins went on to assert that the “use of threats and intimidation to achieve policy change is unacceptable and must be challenged at every level of state and local government. As Chair of the House K-12 Education Subcommittee, I have asked Florida’s Attorney General Pam Bondi to respond to several questions regarding the legality of the ‘guidance letter.'”
“To craft a special class of rights for certain individuals and to allow people to make decisions based on how they identify their gender creates a chaotic environment for the school administrators. This is illogical and harms the greater need for an orderly learning environment that promotes the safety and well-being of all students,” added Adkins.
What is Adkins objecting to, exactly?
In a nine-page letter, the Obama Administration’s Departments of Justice and Education asserted:
“[H]arassment that targets a student based on gender identity, transgender status, or gender transition is harassment based on sex, and the Departments enforce Title and effective steps to end the harassment, prevent its recurrence, and, as appropriate, remedy its effects. A school’s failure to treat students consistent with their gender identity may create or contribute to a hostile environment in violation of Title IX.”
“As is consistently recognized in civil rights cases, the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students,” the letter adds.
Adkins addressed Title IX and school bathrooms in a letter from the state representative to Attorney General Bondi.
Among the questions Adkins posed:
Does the Obama directive create new federal rules?
Is the letter an encroachment on state and local sovereignty?
Would the Attorney General’s office assist in the defense of a defiant local school district seeking to assert local control?
Has the Attorney General’s office delivered a legal opinion or a response to the “guidance letter” from the Obama administration?
Adkins goes on to assert that “individual states and local school boards” should be permitted to devise a policy on matters related to transgender children and their assertions of gender identity.
She cites “those who may raise objections based on religious beliefs” as a caveat. As well, Adkins says it “seems illogical that a parent or legal guardian would have the power to change the gender identity of a minor student.”
Adkins also posits the possibility of a student devoted to gender fluidity, who could “alter their gender identification multiple times throughout the year,” or could simply claim identification with both genders as a ticket into boys’ and girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms.
