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  • 2015-11-04 (xsd:date)
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  • Locker Gloom (sv)
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  • On Nov. 3, 2015 the web site Breitbart published an article titled High School Girls Forced to Undress Next to Naked Boys, reporting that: Social media shares of that article were frequently appended with the phrase Obama Orders Chicago School to Let 'Transgender' Boy Use Girls' Locker Room, wording that appeared neither in the original article nor in the shares generated automatically by Breitbart. On the same date the Daily Caller published a similar article headlined Feds Order High School to Allow Boys Who Dress as Girls to Use Girls' Shower, Locker Room, which more directly articulated a purported link between the President and the school locker room controversy: Daily Caller cited a Nov. 3, 2015 Chicago Tribune article wherein a more complete (and less editorialized) version of events was described. Noting that the student (whose identity was elided due to her age) had identified as a girl for a number of years, the paper reported that the government investigation began in 2013 after the girl was subjected to locker room segregation involving a special privacy curtain: The paper further reported that the Office for Civil Rights found the student not only received an unequal opportunity to benefit from the District's educational program, but endured an ongoing sense of isolation and ostracism throughout her high school enrollment at the school. Superintendent Daniel Cates was quoted by the outlet as calling the decision a serious overreach with precedent-setting implications: The New York Times concurred about the precedent-setting nature of the Chicago school controversy and reported that the loss of funding was a potential consequence of non-compliance under Title IX (which covers all gender-based discrimination in federally funded educational institutions): Title IX was signed into law in 1972 (though its application to transgender people is a relatively recent development) and applies to all federally funded education programs or activities: In short, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (not President Obama) investigated the situation and held that a preponderance of evidence demonstrated the school's actions were in violation of Title IX. The issue was not whether the student would be allowed to use the girls' locker room (something which had already been agreed to), but whether the student could be forced to use a privacy curtain while doing so. Under federal law, federally funded institutions can lose some or all of their Title IX funding should they fail to comply with the law's provisions, and the Office of Civil Rights found that the high school in question had discriminated against the student under that law. If the school remains out of compliance, it stands to lose Title IX funding (under a 1972 federal law adopted more than 30 years before President Obama was sworn into office). Application of the law's provisions to the school was neither exceptional nor unexpected, as the investigation had begun as early as 2013 following an impasse between the student's parents and the school district. (en)
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