New York state has blocked another school district from enacting a transgender bathroom ban, the second Long Island district that the state has stepped in to prohibit from enforcing such a restriction, according to officials.
Locust Valley School District had adopted a resolution to prohibit transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that are not consistent with their biological sex, but the ban cannot be enforced under an order issued last month by state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa, according to the New York Post.
The district’s bathroom ban is similar to the first-in-the-state ban passed in Massapequa just weeks earlier that was also blocked.
“In accordance with the Commissioner’s directive, and absent an overriding administrative or judicial determination, the district must now follow the Commissioner’s interpretation of state law, which is that students may use a bathroom or locker room consistent with their gender Identity,” the Locust Valley School Board said in a statement.
The order blocking Locust Valley’s policy comes amid the ongoing legal battle in Massapequa, where the New York Civil Liberties Union challenged that district’s policy on behalf of a transgender student, the New York Post reported.
In Massapequa’s case, Rosa issued an interim stay in October barring it from enforcing its resolution pending an “ultimate determination.”
Locust Valley has now been added as a related party because of the “near identical nature” of the districts’ policies, according to the new order.
Massapequa filed a federal lawsuit against the student’s parents, the commissioner and other state officials after its policy was blocked.
Rosa’s order said the outcome in that case could have implications for Locust Valley’s policy.
The Locust Valley School Board said it is “navigating a complex and evolving legal landscape shaped by federal and state mandates” and “pursuing further legal counsel” following the commissioner’s order.
In justifying the policy, district officials have pointed to Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education, and an executive order signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year, which declared male and female as the only two sexes and warned that federal funds “shall not be used to promote gender ideology.”
But state officials contend that New York’s laws allow transgender students to access restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.
