Suburban School District Under Fire For Transgender Student Locker Room Policy
(CBS) -- A suburban school district is defending its decision to separate a female transgender student in one of the high school's locker rooms.
Palatine-Schaumburg District 211 is under fire for refusing to comply with a U.S. Department of Education rule that would allow the student access to the school locker room. The student has filed a federal complaint with the Office of Civil Rights.
The Office Of Civil Rights calls it discrimination but Superintendent Dan Cates says allowing unrestricted access would be compromising other students' privacy.
"What they are asking us to do is to have opposite sex students in the same open area of the locker room and shower and that we do not do," he said. "This is about simply protecting student privacy."
Cates says they've given the student a separate changing room like they do at all five of its high schools.
The ACLU says they will continue to fight for the student's rights.