“Locker room #3 doesn’t make me feel normalized,” White said.
But students who have used “locker room #3” have said it is small, inconvenient and “alienating.” The space, once an extension of the men’s locker room, sits farther away from the gym and is much smaller than conventional changing rooms.Ĭampbell said although the current procedure is not ideal, it remains the best way to make everyone feel comfortable and avoid legal ramifications. Transgender students, whose gender identity differs from their biological sex, may use the bathroom of their choice but must request access to a separate locker room dubbed “locker room #3,” Campbell said. ETHS administrators have struggled to come up with a policy addressing transgender students’ use of locker rooms and bathrooms. Recent ETHS graduate Rena Newman, who identifies as genderqueer, says they felt uncomfortable using a third, separate locker room to change for gym classes. “Locker room #3” Courtesy photo from Rena Newman Officials have been crafting a policy for more than a year, but a recent combination of student frustration and legal battles has reignited calls for clarity.
“But given how quickly this is evolving and the amount of students coming in who identify this way, we needed to have some things in place. “Usually you have a policy, then you have procedures,” he said. Instead, principal Marcus Campbell said the school employs a set of “procedures” to guide faculty and staff on the issue. “I was escorted throughout the entire school, downstairs to the dean’s office where I sat in the waiting room for 10 minutes (until) the security guard reappeared and said ‘Ok, you can go,’” the transgender junior said.ĮTHS, which serves more than 3,300 students from Evanston and Skokie, has no official policy on transgender students’ use of locker rooms and bathrooms. But after a “baffled” security guard at Evanston Township High School saw her exit the girls’ facility, she took an unexpected detour.
Asher White just wanted to use the bathroom.
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