Trans and other gender issues become heated at a Tucson district

Some 30 people spoke to the Catalina Foothills School District board Tuesday in favor of transgender students being allowed to choose bathrooms, in response to about the same number who spoke out last week against that choice.

A national spotlight in conservative media has become focused recently on the Tucson-area district, as issues about student bathrooms and locker rooms, as well as the handling of the pronouns used by students, have been highlighted by Fox News and the Daily Caller website.

Many who spoke Tuesday night, April 11, were district students, including students who said they are transgender, transitioning or nonbinary, along with other students who said they are cisgender, meaning their gender identities match those they were assigned at birth.

To loud cheers from the audience, they said they know of no problems, safety issues or concerns among fellow students about bathroom or pronoun choices. District parent Allison Wexler said “bathroom hysteria is a mythical problem manufactured by adults.”

"I first want to say thank you to the school board for maintaining an educational environment that supports students like me, and because of that support, allows me to focus on things that really matter … like learning, making friends, getting good grades, preparing for college, and all that other stuff," said Daniel Trujillo, a 15-year-old freshman at Catalina Foothills High School and a transgender male.

Community members, including district parents, filled the meeting room to capacity, many of them wearing blue shirts that read "The Real CFSD, Allies for All," and holding flags that represent the transgender community. 

Parents speaking during call to the public expressed gratitude to the board and district employees for creating safe spaces for students to learn and grow into adults who are inclusive and accepting of others.

“My kids treat other kids and everybody else the way that we would expect them to, and they learned it here. They learned it at home, but they learned it here,” said Peter DeLuca.

Dozens of other community members, including many opposed to the district’s nondiscrimination policy, stood outside, hoping to get into the full room. Some said they live outside the district.

The other side spoke last week

The week before, at the board's April 4 meeting, dozens of individuals also spoke during the call to the public, criticizing the district for allowing transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms associated with the gender they identify with.

Some speakers also said the district instructed female students to use a different restroom or locker room if they felt uncomfortable.

They expressed concerns about the safety of young girls when transgender individuals are allowed into the same locker rooms and restrooms.

"I am told all the time I should just pull my kids out of public schools," said one woman, who identified herself as a CFSD parent at last week's meeting. "Frankly, I shouldn't have to move my kids out of the district because the board is more interested in serving the needs and rights of less than 1% of students, instead of being champions for all our students."

Another woman, who said she is a mother of three CFSD students, told the board, "I wanted to speak to you today to ask you to reconsider allowing male students into our daughters' locker rooms and bathrooms. Single sex spaces are vital, especially for women and girls, for safety, fairness and privacy."

A Daily Caller article, dated March 10, stated that former CFSD governing board candidate Bart Pemberton spoke about an "unwritten policy" that allowed transgender students to use the restrooms and locker rooms of their choice, while other students uncomfortable with that practice were told to request other accommodations. Pemberton lost in the November election. 

For his part, 15-year-old Oliver Cole, who is transgender and a sophomore at Catalina Foothills High School, told the board at the April 11 meeting that the article made him and his transgender friends feel unsafe at school.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

"Me and other transgender people have been afraid to attend school because of this article and because of things that people are saying at school, which isn't something that should be happening since school is supposed to be a safe space," Cole said.

No changes planned to policy

District spokeswoman Julie Farbarik confirmed that Catalina Foothills School District allows students to use the restrooms and locker rooms designated for the gender they identify with.

She added in an email: “Any student who is uncomfortable sharing multiple-occupancy facilities (e.g., restrooms, locker rooms) with others has the ability to request an accommodation. School administrators respond to their needs and find alternatives for those students. In this way, we treat all students in the same manner.”

The governing board adopted the policy in 2015, which states the “district is committed to nondiscrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ethnicity, religion, creed, age or disability."

Farbarik said the board fully supports the nondiscrimination policy and the way it is being carried out in schools, and does not plan to make any changes “to exclude the language referencing gender identity or expression.”

The district had not received any feedback from students or parents regarding that policy in the last eight years, until this “recent uproar," the spokeswoman said.

She said that, in large part, the criticism has come from outside the district, and she called it part of an organized attack on public schools.

Roots of the controversy

District policy became a hot topic last month when Fox News reported that Principal Mark Rubin-Toles of Orange Grove Middle School sent staff a “confidential” list of students who used pronouns and names different than those stated in school records.

In the September 2021 email, Rubin-Toles wrote that some of those students were not comfortable with the names and pronouns they use being shared with their families. He added that it was school employees’ “responsibility to protect student privacy in these matters.”

Farbarik said Rubin-Toles’ instructions did not reflect the district’s policy and that, if a parent inquires, staff do not withhold information about the pronouns and names their children use.

The district stood behind Rubin-Toles, though, calling him a “thoughtful and compassionate administrator,” and said schools and parents need to “work together constructively as partners.”

But some community members were unhappy with the response and have since asked the board to publicly discuss the nondiscrimination policy.

This comes as the Republican-led Arizona Legislature is also focused on schools' handling of students' pronouns. GOP lawmakers have advanced a proposed law to forbid teachers at public and charter schools from honoring requests by students to be addressed by a pronoun different from their gender at birth unless they have parental consent.