Highland Park and its schools are known for being leaders in progressive LGBTQ+ action. For example, in May 2016, Highland Park passed a policy allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity. This initiative brought Congressman Frank Pallone to speak in Highland Park to express his support, calling the borough’s policy the "strongest policy statement that is supportive of transgender students of any school district in the state if not in the country.”
Even seven years later, Highland Park High School has important accommodations for its transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) students. The high school has a Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) where both LGBTQ+ students and allies can get together to socialize and discuss LGBTQ+ issues in the school. Highland Park also has a plan where students can meet with administrators to make their social transition smoother at school, including changing their name, gender marker, and email address in the school system. Additionally, Highland Park provides a gender-neutral bathroom on the second floor.
However, the difficulties of the high school experience for TGNC students do not end with bathrooms, alliance groups, or even transition plans. Recently, SAGA brought to the attention of the administration and Board of Education that the lack of a gender-neutral changing space is posing problems for TGNC students in their gym classes.
SAGA’s co-presidents, seniors Adrian Schilling and Grace Budd-Cording, along with junior Roy Crosbie, went to the Board of Education to discuss this issue. They brought up to the Board that there is a locked, unused bathroom just outside the high school gym that could be converted into a gender-neutral changing room. Grace explained during this presentation, “Gender non-conforming students feel uncomfortable and run the risk of being harassed when changing for gym class. It isn’t just an issue of comfort; it’s an issue of our student’s safety.”
Roy Crosbie, a non-binary student and member of SAGA, told the Board about their personal experience with changing in gendered spaces. “When I walked into my gym class on the first day of school and learned that we would actually be asked to change our clothes for workouts and sports this year, I was genuinely terrified,” Crosbie described. They went on to explain that this was born from the fear of being “outed” as TGNC or put in danger because of the way some students may react to changing in the same space as a TGNC student. Crosbie explained that changing in a private, gender-neutral setting would have increased their comfort and sense of safety.
This conversation continued with a meeting between Principal Michael Lassiter and the high school’s Student Congress, the latter of which overlaps with SAGA’s membership. During this meeting, students suggested that the bathroom next to the gymnasium, which currently remains locked except for athletic events, be converted into a gender-neutral changing room. Mr. Lassiter expressed that “this is a very layered request.” Gender-neutral changing rooms are only one aspect of a larger reevaluation of how to accommodate TGNC students at the high school.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were fewer students openly identifying as transgender or non-binary. These students would come forward to their counselors or administrators to state they were transitioning and request a plan so teachers could understand their situation. Now, post-pandemic, many more students are out as TGNC to their peers, and yet fewer go to the school guidance office or administration with these requests. “Some students still know that there’s a policy, I guess, but unfortunately I don’t think every student knows,” Mr. Lassiter expressed his concerns regarding this change. “And maybe they do, but just don’t then know how to navigate that.”
Some TGNC students have conveyed dislike or distrust towards the high school administration and do not see the use in giving them a formal record of their transition. Others who have not come out to their families are concerned that talking to staff would get them outed. Mr. Lassiter maintains that these concerns are exactly why student-administrator communication is so important: “They have to trust that there are people in our building—if not everyone, at least most of us—who are willing to listen and try to assist…If a student has an issue, they should feel comfortable to come talk to somebody so that we can actually begin to empower them and actually resolve those issues effectively.” After all, administrators and Teen Center staff members are specifically trained in how to help TGNC students navigate school in difficult situations, especially when their parents are not supportive.
Beyond issues with communication and outreach, the school administration must also consider how safety and security factor into opening up a currently off-limits space. Mr. Lassiter listed monitoring as the primary hurdle to unlocking the bathroom. It is out of the way of most of the school’s classrooms, making it difficult for teachers to keep track of student activity. Years of smoking and vaping led to the administration’s decision to keep it locked.
About a month after the initial interview with Mr. Lassiter, he decided to do a trial run of opening a gender-neutral changing room to see if its benefits outway the administration’s concerns. All of the gym teachers have a key to the bathroom by the gym, which they informed their students may be used during the first or last few minutes of class to change or use the bathroom in a non-gendered space. This reinforces one of the core ideas Mr. Lassiter emphasized during his interview; students should trust in the school administration and communicate their needs because the school can only grant help when they are asked for it.
As Highland Park continues to support its transgender and gender non-conforming population, towns and states all across the country are moving in the opposite direction. While it is important to recognize and celebrate the effort HPHS’ administration is putting into the fight for transgender rights, SAGA member Roy Crosbie expresses another important theme: “I’d say to the readers keep an eye out for your trans and non-binary friends because they’re probably going through it a little bit right now with all the stuff that’s being thrown at us across the country. So, just keep an eye out for them.”