Why The 14th Amendment Should Be Allowed In Schools

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Protect Transgender Teens Rights in the Chandler School District Introduction: *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* Arlo slams his alarm and rolls out of bed. Groggily, he throws on a chest binder, shirt, and shorts. Looks in the mirror then remembers what is to come, school. He walks onto campus, and feels the anxiety creeping through his body as he enters the premises of the school. He looks around at his peers, jealousy and rage fill his extremities as he watches other guys walk into the men’s bathroom with no fear and legally. He thinks to himself, “I wish I was able to use the men’s bathroom. I wish I didn’t fear how other people would react to me using the restroom. I wish I was seen as a man and not a woman cosplaying as a man. I wish I was normal.” …show more content…
As a result of this legislature, the bathroom policy, while bad for students, is also illegal. Along with Title IX making the bathroom policy illegal, so is the fourteenth amendment. The fourteenth amendment “guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law” (Corbat, 2). Both of these laws create a legal problem for the bathroom policy as well, claiming that one may not use a bathroom based on their sex is discrimination based on sex. Congruently, the fourteenth amendment also protects one’s right to equal protection and not protecting the right to not be discriminated against based on gender is in violation of the fourteenth amendment. There have been many cases amongst the states that have come to the conclusion that the bathroom policy is in violation of Title IX and consequently the fourteenth amendment. Some examples include Maine, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin (Zhang, “Pennylivania School District”, and Pendharkar). Flaws with Current Solution: Currently, the Chandler school district has other options in place to attempt to alleviate the bathroom issue. These options include either using the bathroom that aligns with your gender and being protected by the school from bullying or walking all the way to the gender neutral bathroom. While helpful in some ways, there are many flaws with the present solution. Using a bathroom that aligns with one's sex even while protected makes transgender youth feel very ostrasied and othered as previously stated. Meanwhile, the gender neutral bathroom would be a great solution, if only it did not take 10 minutes on average to walk to it and back, therefore taking valuable time from classes. Solution and Conclusion: There are two ways the Chandler district can help alleviate this issue, they can either create more and closer gender neutral bathrooms, or they can follow the