A.G. Gancarski
Republican State Attorney candidate Wes White made news earlier this month, representing a mother challenging the commitment of the Duval County School District to providing bathroom options for transgender students.
The suit was filed in the wake of the Obama administration issuing a letter linking failure to provide such public accommodations with the potential loss of Title IX funds.
White, on Wednesday, sent a letter to the Jacksonville Office of General Counsel, asking for a sunshine-compliant airing of school board positions on this controversial issue.
“The public’s discussion, and the School Board’s discussion, of the ‘bathroom policy’ relating to transgender and non-transgender students, needs the fullest possible airing. Accordingly, my client has authorized me to enter into a stipulation whereby the School Board’s review of the above case can take place in the ‘sunshine’ and not in the ‘shade.’ Succinctly, my client will agree that any such discussions may not be used for any purposes in the pending litigation.”
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti explained the current policy as follows to First Coast News.
“District administrators look at the individual students and their situations. And for some transgender students that means using a gender-neutral bathroom or a private bathroom,” Vitti told First Coast News. “For other students it may mean using the bathroom of the other gender.”
A discussion of school bathroom issues relative to transgender students in the “sunshine” no doubt would be of interest to media that typically avoids the school board beat.
