NYCLU challenging Massapequa district's transgender bathroom policy
Massapequa High School, Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
The New York Civil Liberties Union announced Friday that it is challenging a new Massapequa school district policy barring transgender students from using restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity, calling it “hateful” and discriminatory.
The civil rights group appealed to state Department of Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa on behalf of a transgender student “who is being prevented from accessing school facilities because of the new policy,” which violates state civil rights, human rights and education laws and regulations, the group said in a news release Friday.
School officials “are abusing their power and authority to target vulnerable students for who they are,” Emma Hulse, education counsel at the civil rights group, said in a statement. “All students have a right to safe, inclusive learning environments, and trans students are no different. Education Commissioner Rosa must reject this hateful resolution and reaffirm the right of all students to use facilities that align with their gender identity.”
The Massapequa school board said in a statement, “Our priority has always been — and will continue to be — the safety, dignity and well-being of all students in our care.” The board said it intends to “follow all applicable laws while also fulfilling our responsibility to provide a safe and respectful learning environment for every student and for our school community as a whole.”
Reached by phone before the board released the statement, board president Kerry Wachter declined to comment.
State law allows people who are “aggrieved” by actions or decisions by school officials to appeal within 30 days for a review by the state education commissioner. The state Education Department received the NYCLU’s appeal on Friday, a spokeswoman said.
Resolution adopted
Massapequa's five-member school board unanimously passed a resolution on Sept. 9, “mandating that all students shall be required to use facilities — including restrooms and locker rooms — that correspond with the students’ sex as defined under Title IX and federal law,” board minutes posted online show.
Any student who requests an alternative arrangement “shall be provided access to a designated gender-neutral facility, but shall not be permitted to use facilities designated for the opposite sex,” the resolution states.
The board noted in the resolution that on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating that a person’s sex “shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female” and “does not include the concept of ‘gender identity.’ ”
The resolution also quoted a federal court opinion stating that “ignoring fundamental biological truths between the two sexes deprives women and girls of meaningful access to educational facilities.”
The board authorized its attorneys, Melville-based Nicholas Rigano and the Washington, D.C., based law firm of Holtzman Vogel, to litigate the matter in federal and state courts. Rigano declined to comment. Holtzman Vogel did not respond to requests for comment.
At a special meeting on Sept. 18, the board voted unanimously to direct the schools superintendent, William Brennan, “to enforce and carry out all of the requirements” of the resolution.
The Massapequa district’s policy could lead to bullying and violence directed at transgender students, said David Kilmnick, president and founder of the Long Island LGBT Network in Hauppauge.
“It's unfortunate, because the only people that are going to really be hurt in this seriously are the trans kids who need that support right now,” he said.
Protections for transgender students have become a flashpoint for educators and advocates across the country.
In April 2024, the federal Department of Education under then-President Joe Biden issued a rule aimed at protecting students from discrimination based on their gender identity and sexual orientation. The rule stated that Title IX, a key civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded schools, applied to those characteristics.
That rule was struck down in early January by a federal judge in Kentucky who wrote that “discrimination on the basis of sex means discrimination on the basis of being a male or female” and that the rule “turns Title IX on its head.”
Conservative groups have pushed for school districts to restrict transgender students’ access to facilities that correspond to their gender identity, with one Moms for Liberty leader in California stripping down to a bikini at a school board meeting last month to protest the Davis school district’s policy allowing transgender students to use the facilities of their choice, saying students feel uncomfortable changing in front of transgender peers.
Groups that advocate for gay and transgender people characterize those efforts as discrimination and fear-mongering, and they say restrictive policies can result in harassment and invasion of privacy for people who are transgender, as well as those who do not conform to traditional ideas about femininity and masculinity.
Maura McDermott covers education. Since joining Newsday in 2012, she also has worked on the investigations team and covered real estate and the business of health care.
