The Evanston Township High School ( ETHS ) District 202 Board of Education, on May 1, passed a comprehensive policy affirming the rights of transgender and gender-expansive students.
The policy passed nearly unanimously, with only one board memberDouglas Holt, who will be leaving the board as it starts a new termvoting against it.
ETHS had previously implemented comparatively liberal, if fragmented, policies in support of transgender students. The issue of locker room access, in particular, was not codified. Transgender students were allowed access to an all-gender locker room space, but the policy surrounding the matter was relatively ad hoc, so some board and administration officials sought a more permanent resolution.
ETHS previously created a policy in late-2015, but efforts to actually implement it stalled in 2016.
Procedures recently shared by ETHS administration directed school officials, when asked, to work alongside individual students in formulating "a Gender Support Plan to help ensure the student's academic, social, and emotional success."
Prior to the vote, the board eliminated a policy requirement that Superintendent Eric Witherspoon convene an advisory committee to help him implement the policy, Evanston Now reported. Witherspoon was in enthusiastic support of the new rules, and said that the board had "made history" by putting such an expansive policy in place.
Evanston Now's article is at BIT.LY/2QPS2DD .