Two transgender Fort Collins High School students, one who identifies as male and one who identifies as female, say they are forced to use the staff restrooms instead of the student restrooms.  Dionne Malikowski says she was suspended for trying to use the student women’s restroom.

In an interview with K-USA TV in Colorado Dionne says that the school administrator’s told her that they had warned her before and suspended her for three days when she tried to use the women’s restroom almost one month ago.  Kurt Peters, who identifies as male, says that he was also disciplined for using the men’s restroom, but he received only a warning from administrators.

The school has not commented on the specific incidents, but they did mention that they do not have an official policy toward restroom use for transgender students.  Most school districts and most municipalities likely do not have policies that govern the use of restrooms, and the Transgender Law and Policy Institute has a list that includes only three states and two cities.

This is something states, cities, and school districts are going to have to face eventually.  The Transgender Law Center has three solutions (.pdf):

• Allow use of segregated gender restrooms based on gender identity
• Single use, single gender restrooms so no one shares restroom space at once
• Multi use, non-segregated gender restrooms (best solution)