The issue of transgender and non-conforming students in schools is heating up in Williamston
The Williamston School Board is scheduled to vote on a new policy that addresses transgender and non-conforming students in the district at a meeting at the district's middle school on Monday, October 2, 2017 at 7:00 p.m.
The school board recently released a proposed new policy addressing transgender and non-conforming students in the system.
The Board says it will affirm and uphold rights and freedoms for all students protected by the constitution, allowing students to use bathrooms and locker rooms of the they gender they identify with. The policy says the school will accept the gender identity that any student asserts. The policy cites guidelines from the Michigan State Board of Education.
The school plans to provide bathrooms that any student may use if they feel uncomfortable using a gender-segregated facility, for any reason.
A draft of the new policy was posted to a Facebook community group; you can read the draft by clicking here. The policy has sparked heated debate on social media and in the community between supporters of the policy and those who oppose it.
We received a viewer photo of a protestor who was spotted Tuesday night in downtown Williamston holding up signs that read, "stand up to the board," and "say no to shared use of bathrooms and locker rooms."
A meeting organized by the Great Lakes Justice Center to discuss opposition to the policy is scheduled for 7:00-8:30 p.m. on Thursday in the gym at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Williamston.
A description of the event posted on group's web site says the school board should not pass policies that offer special protections to some students while "coercing others to endorse and comply with a social experiment that denies science."
