Detroit Area Superintendent Slams Obama Administration's Transgender Directive To Public Schools
MADISON HEIGHTS (WWJ) - At least one Oakland County superintendent is fired up about the Obama administration's sweeping directive regarding transgender students and school bathrooms.
Randy Speck, superintendent for Madison District Public Schools in Madison Heights, says the president's order that every public school district in the country allow transgender students to use the restroom and locker room that matches their gender identity is a "huge overreach" by the federal government.
"I'm not sure why the Obama administration and the Department of Justice feel the need to completely reach into every local school district throughout the country and provide this directive," Speck told WWJ's Chrystal Knight.
"A directive from the President's office doesn't provide a solution — that provides a command — and that's not what our country's about," he said. "That's not what a collaborative schools community is about, that's not what local school district control is about."
Speck said these sorts of issues should be handled on a case-to-case basis at the local level.
"It's not about whether the federal government should tell us what to do — it's that the school community and the home community need to have a conversation about what is best for that child," he said.
In a statement accompanying the directive sent to school districts across the U.S. on Friday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said there is no room in school for discrimination of any kind — including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex. The document orders that, in general, public schools treat transgender students in a way that matches their gender identity, even if that identity conflicts with what's on the student's education records or I.D.
The move was praised by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay, lesbian and transgender civil rights organization, which called the guidelines "groundbreaking."
Speck, however, believes the White House should have more important things to worry about in reference to schools than this bathroom debate.
"With all the issues that we have in education in trying to reduce the achievement gap in urban communities and rural communities and throughout this entire country, I'm not sure why the Obama administration feels like they need to make this a top priority."
Schools that do not abide by the Obama administration's interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid.
[Obama: Public Schools Must Allow Transgender Students To Use Bathroom Of Choice]