A new Ohio law prohibiting transgender students from using school restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity goes into effect Tuesday.
Ohio lawmakers passed the bathroom ban bill, which Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law in November.
Ohio lawmakers pass a bill prohibiting transgender students from using the bathrooms they identify with.
The new law requires people in Ohio’s K-12 public schools, as well as public and private colleges and universities, to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender at birth.
It also prohibits students from sharing overnight accommodations with people of the opposite sex to their assigned sex at birth in K-12 schools.
However, the law does not prohibit a school from having single-occupancy facilities, nor does it apply to someone assisting a person with a disability or a child under the age of ten who is aided by a parent, guardian, or family member.
“Any policy that requires faculty to monitor students’ bathroom usage is just bizarre and creepy,” said Dara Adkison, TransOhio’s executive director. “I think that we’re going to see schools enforcing and not enforcing to various degrees because many schools are just simply more focused on students’ education than monitoring their bathroom use.”
Sam Bates, a transgender high school freshman at Columbus City Schools, is concerned about the new law.
“I really hope that the people making these rules are able to put themselves in the shoes of a trans youth trying to just go to the bathroom and think of it that way before they make final decisions,” Bates said.
The American Medical Association officially opposes policies that prevent transgender people from accessing basic human services and public facilities based on their gender identity.
The Trevor Project reports that slightly more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth in Ohio considered suicide in 2022.
Eight Columbus City Schools students spoke out against the new law during a recent school board meeting.
“I go to the restroom to do my business, and then leave,” Austin Tapp, a transgender Columbus City Schools high school student, said at the board meeting on February 18. “I cannot see how I could cause a disruption by using the single-stalled men’s restroom at my school, and neither do my teachers or my classmates.”
Several students questioned how the new law would be enforced.
“Teachers can’t stand by the bathroom entrance all day, and having surveillance cameras in any restrooms is illegal,” Kaia Aitken, a Columbus City Schools student, said during the meeting.
A few of the students discussed how the law will harm all students, not just transgender students.
“This does not protect the students,” Mischa Wright, a Columbus City School student, stated. “It hurts them. It creates a circle of hatred, judgment, and fear for young people in this school system; causing such tension and malice at this age is harmful to their mental health.”
According to Cleveland attorney Robert Chaloupka, the most pressing issue will be enforcing the law.
“It puts the liability on the school, but then doesn’t tell the school how to implement that,” according to him. “I think when you’re going to create a restriction of this type, then I think it’s important to state why this is happening and also how people are supposed to comply with it.”
He predicted that once the law goes into effect, there will be a lot of litigation.
“A real situation is going to occur,” Chaloupka stated. “Maybe somebody is disciplined by a school because the school feels that they violated whatever policy that they put in place due to this law, and then that person possibly challenges the school.”
The ACLU of Ohio has yet to file a challenge to the new law.
“That doesn’t mean we won’t sue,” ACLU of Ohio spokeswoman Celina Coming said in an email. “We are continuing to closely monitor the implementation of the law.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost wrote to Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Director Stephen Dackin, offering guidance.
“The short answer is that Ohio schools must designate and limit the use of single-sex bathrooms to those who share the same male or female biological sex,” Yost wrote in a letter dated Jan. 29, 2018. “Ohio law requires it, and there is no federal law that states otherwise.
No other legal authority has interfered with what was once common sense: boys use the boys’ room, and girls use the girls’ room.”
Ohio’s universities are also preparing for the new law.
“Bowling Green State University is in the process of making minor changes, including adjusted signage, to those restroom facilities that require updates and is evaluating options to provide students access to additional facilities,” according to a university spokesperson.
The facilities at Ohio State University were found to be in compliance with the law, according to the university.
