Transgender Students in Aliquippa School District Benefit From Commitment to Title IX Rules

Parents at the Hopewell School District in Aliquippa turned out in full force at the School Board meeting this week to discuss school policies

Superintendent Jeff Beltz said in the first week of October, a girl at the junior high school told her parents that she thought she saw a boy enter the girl’s bathroom. Her parents called the principal, who verified through a video that the student who entered the bathroom was a girl.

Currently, Hopewell does not have a trans affirming policy, relying on the federal Title IX guidelines.

According to the superintendent, the district is looking into additional alternate bathrooms for all students. Currently, the options are the office bathroom or nurse’s bathroom.

So,it is a reasonable accommodation to provide access to alternate bathrooms for students who do not wish to share a bathroom with a trans students. This protects the typical student population and allows parents who are anti-trans to meet their own needs without infringing on the trans students.

It is really important that trans and queer students feel the support of the school district and all parents. Supportive adults are tied to good outcomes for trans students.