Trans Girl Suspended From High School for Using Bathroom

[smile72]

Two transgender high school students in Fort Collins, Colo., say they have been forbidden to use student restrooms, and one of them, 16-year-old Dionne Malikowski, just got suspended for doing so. Malikowski, a trans girl, and her friend Kurt Peters, also 16 and a trans guy, say they have been told to use the staff bathrooms at Fort Collins High School. But, Malikowski told reporters, “There’s not staff bathrooms all over the school, so when you really got to pee, you got to pee.”

That’s what she says happened about a month ago when she used the women’s restroom, reports W9 News in Colorado. And then she was suspended for three days.

“I cried,” Malikowski said. “I told them that it was really messed up for them to do that to me, and they were like, ‘We’ve warned you before,’ and I was just like, ‘Obviously you don’t understand what it’s like.’”

Bathrooms are the single most common public place where the gender binary is strictly enforced, reports the Transgender Law Center. Since public restrooms are a place where people who are or are perceived to be gender-nonconforming are routinely harassed and often assaulted, the topic of bathroom safety and access is all too common conversation in schools these days. The center has been running a Safe Bathrooms Access Campaign and published the groundbreaking guide called Peeing in Peace.

Another organization, Safe2Pee.org, offers a growing online database of public restrooms that transgender individuals can access safely. There are six listed in Fort Collins, but that doesn’t help campus-bound teens like Malikowski.

A double standard may also be at play in this case. Peters told reporters he had used the men’s restroom but only got a warning, not a suspension. “Since it was a first time offense, they let me go,” Peters said. “But I think it’s really stupid that Dionne got suspended and I didn’t. I should have got suspended if Dionne did.”


School officials refused to comment on the case, and W9 reports that Fort Collins’s Poudre School District has no “across-the-board policy for bathroom use by transgender students.”

Source:Advocate
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/11/10/Trans_Girl_Suspended_from_High_School_for_Using_Bathroom/

Opinions????????????

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Sexism. School likes female over males. Age old elementary school myth come to life.

 

[PolloDiablo]

When I read the title I knew it was you

 

[smile72]

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!

 

[chyyran]

This is stupid. Suspending for using the bathroom?

Just.. I don't even..

You suspend people for waving knives at others. Not going into the bathroom.

 

[deathking]

Use the staff bathrooms problem solved
if your busting soooo bad you got balder problems go and see a doctor you dont instantly need the toilet go 5 minutes before you really need to go
how big is the school anyways for them not to be able to make it to the staff toilets

This is stupid. Suspending for using the bathroom?

Just.. I don't even..

You suspend people for waving knives at others. Not going into the bathroom.

Its not the issue
its the fact that a transgender male is using female bathrooms
and a female is using the male bathrooms

 

[DinohScene]

In an ideal world.

people will treat everyone equally and there is no war over religion etc etc.

Sadly we don't live in that world.
Imo their just 2 human beings that deserve equal rights!

 

[s4mid4re]

Malikowski told reporters, “There’s not staff bathrooms all over the school, so when you really got to pee, you got to pee.”

This is the most beautiful grammar I've seen in my life.
"when you really got to pee, you got to pee"? Don't you have some patience?

As for the suspension, if she can't deal with the school and the Transgender Law Center's policies (whether it is right or wrong), she should go to another school. It's for her fucking safety. And to be honest, I'd be so cool to use a staff restroom.

I'm not trying to be sexist, but she should be a little smarter and acknowledge how much danger she is putting herself in.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

I think the school staff should think something better than just "Use the staff bathroom."

 

[smile72]

So should I. I don't think it's fair that she has to look for a staff bathroom to piss.

 

[Hells Malice]

I sort of see where they're coming from. Due to a likely lack of tolerance in the student body, the rules are enforced that way to ensure comfort for the majority over the minority, which makes sense TBH.

Right or wrong, I have no real opinion on that.

 

[smile72]

But sometimes the majority's opinion shouldn't matter anyone who's had an American History class should know that. Though from your profile it says you live in Canada. Have you ever had an American History class Hells Malice?

 

[Thesolcity]

I think the school staff should think something better than just "Use the staff bathroom."

Port-a-potty?

 

[Hells Malice]

But sometimes the majority's opinion shouldn't matter anyone who's had an American History class should know that. Though from your profile it says you live in Canada. Have you ever had an American History class Hells Malice?

I slept through basically all history classes I had because most of the tests were essay tests, and I rocked at bullshitting them for perfect marks, knowing nothing.

So, nope.

I think SOMETIMES the majorities opinion shouldn't matter, but school and everything that goes on in it are a different matter entirely. If you've got parents of two pissed off trans kids, you can deal with them easier than the possible mob of angry morons you might get for sticking with the minority.
Student parents are insane.
Likewise both trans kids are a lot less likely to get bullied if they just use a staff bathroom instead.

Unfortunately for situations where tolerance is required, school is the worst for not having any such tolerance.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

I think the school staff should think something better than just "Use the staff bathroom."

Port-a-potty?

LOL. So mean.

I believe the school districts have had enough time to realize transgenders are apart of public school life and should already have a solution. It's being lazy on the school districts part.

 

[KingVamp]

I think she should have just went on the floor since see couldn't make it to a staff bathroom...

Seriously tho, where the transgender bathrooms? I think that a better solution then suspending when a student can't make it to a staff bathroom.
Doesn't even need to be that big, just spread around.
Holding it for long isn't even healthy.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

I think she should have just went on the floor since see couldn't make it to a staff bathroom...

Seriously tho, where the transgender bathrooms? I think that a better solution then suspending when a student can't make it to a staff bathroom.
Doesn't even need to be that big, just spread around.
Holding it for long isn't even healthy.

I guess we should bring back the coloured bathrooms while we're at it, eh?

 

[Thesolcity]

I think the school staff should think something better than just "Use the staff bathroom."

Port-a-potty?

LOL. So mean.

I believe the school districts have had enough time to realize transgenders are apart of public school life and should already have a solution. It's being lazy on the school districts part.

Ok....but what if a majority of non-trans students didn't "accept" transgender students? You can't force them to and the liability of what these kids would/could do to them is hell. You can't police the entire school either, that'll get some lawsuits ready. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, telling them to use the staff bathroom is the most efficient way of getting rid of potential problems, unfortunately.

 

[smile72]

Then I guess you never heard of the Little Rock 9. They were nine black students that enrolled in Little Rock Central High School (an all white school) in 1957 who the vast majority of students (possibly all of them) hated because they were black and bullied and harassed them because of it.

 

[deathking]

why are people acting like its so hard to find and use the staff bathrooms
staff would have as accessible bathrooms as the students
i feel sorry for the teachers in that school due to the maze and ladders they need to climb to use the toilet