Ohio's transgender school bathroom ban begins this week as law takes effect
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A new Ohio law banning transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity takes effect Tuesday.
Ohio lawmakers passed the bathroom ban bill and Gov. Mike DeWine signed it into law in November.
The new law requires people at Ohio K-12 public schools and public and private colleges and universities to use the restroom that matches up with their gender assigned at birth. It also bans students from sharing overnight accommodations with people of the opposite sex from their assigned sex at birth at K-12 schools.
However, the law does not prevent a school from having single-occupancy facilities and does not apply to someone helping a person with a disability or a child younger than 10 years old being helped by a parent, guardian or family member.
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'Any policy that requires faculty to monitor students' bathroom usage is just bizarre and creepy,' said Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio. 'I think that we're going to see schools enforcing and not enforcing to various degrees because many schools are just simply more focused on students' education than monitoring their bathroom use.'
Sam Bates, a transgender high school freshman in Columbus City Schools, is worried about the new law.
'I really hope that the people making these rules are able to put themselves in the shoes of a trans youth trying to just go to the bathroom and think of it that way before they make final decisions,' Bates said.
The American Medical Association officially opposes policies preventing transgender individuals from accessing basic human services and public facilities consistent with gender identity.
Slightly more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth in Ohio considered suicide in 2022, according to the Trevor Project.
Eight Columbus City Schools students spoke out against the new law at a recent school board meeting.
'I go to the restroom to do my business, and then leave,' Austin Tapp, a transgender Columbus City Schools high school student said at the Feb. 18 board meeting. 'I cannot see how I could cause a disruption by using the single-stalled men's restroom at my school, and neither do my teachers or my classmates.'
Several of the students asked how the new law was going to be enforced.
'Teachers can't stand by the bathroom entrance all day, and having surveillance cameras in any restrooms is illegal,' Kaia Aitken, a ColumbusCity Schools student, said during the board meeting.
A couple of the students talked about how the law will be harmful to all students, not just transgender students.
'This does not protect the students,' Mischa Wright, a Columbus City Schools student said. 'It harms them. It creates a circle of hate and judgment and fear for young people in this school system, creating such tension and malice at this age is detrimental to their mental health.'
Enforcing the law will be the biggest issue, said Cleveland attorney Robert Chaloupka.
'It puts the liability on the school, but then doesn't tell the school how to implement that,' he said. 'I think when you're going to create a restriction of this type, then I think it's important to state why this is happening and also how people are supposed to comply with it.'
There is strong potential for litigation once the law takes effect, he said.
'An actual situation is going to happen,' Chaloupka said. 'Maybe somebody is disciplined by a school because the school feels that they violated whatever policy that they put in place due to this law, and then that person possibly challenges the school.'
The ACLU of Ohio has not yet filed a challenge to the new law.
'That doesn't mean that we will not sue,' ACLU of Ohio Spokesperson Celina Coming said in an email. 'We are continuing to closely monitor the implementation of the law.'
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sent a letter offering guidance to Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Director Stephen Dackin.
'The short answer is that Ohio schools must designate and limit the use of single-sex bathrooms to those who share the same male or female biological sex,' Yost wrote in a letter dated Jan. 29. 'Ohio law requires it, and no federal law requires otherwise. No other legal authority interferes with what was once common sense: Boys use the boys' room, and girls use the girls' room.'
Ohio universities are also getting ready for the new law.
'Bowling Green State University is in the process of making minor changes, including adjusted signage, to those restroom facilities that require updates and is evaluating options to provide students access to additional facilities,' according to the university.
Ohio State University's facilities were determined to be in compliance with the law, according to the university.
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