San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Board of Education President Kevin Beiser affirmed the district’s commitment to compliance with AB 1266, the new law that went into effect Jan. 1, which mandates safe and equal access for California’s transgender students in public, K-12 schools to facilities, such as restrooms, locker rooms and athletic activities whose accessibility is based gender identity.
Beiser and SDUSD school board member, Richard Barerra said in a news conference that the issue is about safe and equal access to education for all students, urging parents and members of the public to avoid making the issue political.
“For many years, educators have been handling (the issue of transgender students) in a delicate, thoughtful and compassionate manner,” said Beiser. “That will continue. We respect all rights and provide accommodations for all our students, including transgender children.”
Some extremist, rightwing and ultraconservative religious groups have claimed that heterosexual teenaged boys will be clamoring to get into girls’ locker rooms and restrooms by claiming that they are transgender as a result of AB1266. Beiser dismissed those assertions.
“The reality is that the idea that students will be able to just go into whatever bathroom they want is not true,” he said. “There is a deliberative and thoughtful process, including counselors, staff, parents and students before anybody can move on to facilities that are appropriate to that (transgender) child.”
Until now, when the issue of access to gender-appropriate restrooms and other facilities (or the lack thereof) for transgender students arose, policies had been considered on a per-school, per-student basis. But Jan. 14, the San Diego Unified school board will meet to review its district-wide policies and how they fit into compliance with the new law.
“This law’s policy’s have been in place at Los Angeles Unified School District for ten years without a single incident or problem, similar policies and practices have been in place in San Diego Unified schools for several years; they come up very infrequently. The reality is, in San Diego schools where these policies have been commonplace for several years, we have never had a problem.”
One reporter from a local television station said that she had been told by a Christian activist that there is a strong belief that AB 1266 will lead to an increase in child molestations in public schools. The reporter asked Beiser to comment on such concerns.
“We’ve had these policies and practices in place without any problems.”
According to school board member Barerra, AB 1266 is about education. In some cases, he said, that includes educating parents and others who fear problems that have no empirical foundation.
“There are people who have concerns based on misinformation,” he said. “And they need to get educated about the facts. There is no evidence to support those fears.”
