COEUR d'ALENE - School officials in Coeur d'Alene are developing guidelines they hope will help administrators address potential issues concerning the needs of transgender students.

When the school board met in May, Superintendent Matt Handelman presented the idea of creating guidelines similar to those used in New York public schools. The need for guidelines became apparent during the district's recent review of its non-discrimination policies to determine whether those policies provide adequate protection based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

At Monday's board meeting, Handelman presented draft transgender student guidelines customized to meet the needs of Coeur d'Alene public schools.

"If we leave it to each individual administrator or principal, we're going to have people making decisions based on what they think or feel," Handelman said. "We don't want someone erring either way, either being too permissive or too restrictive."

The guidelines call for school personnel to refrain from disclosing a student's transgender status. They provide direction for dealing with official records listing a student's name and gender, provide guidance on how to address participation in sports and physical education, dress codes, and how to address transgender students when speaking to them.

"School staff should address students by the name and pronoun corresponding to their gender identity that is consistently asserted at school," state the proposed guidelines.

When the issue was discussed by the board in May, Trustee Tom Hamilton said he is concerned that the guidelines open the door for possible shared use of restrooms, locker rooms and hotel rooms while on field trips.

"I don't think the board has the right to make a determination of the morality of homosexuality or transgender status and that's not what I'm saying," Hamilton said at the May board meeting. "But the board absolutely has the responsibility to acknowledge that parents are going to have moral objections, and those are not considered here."

Hamilton echoed those concerns at Monday's board meeting.

He said the draft guidelines need to be tightened further to close those loopholes. He also said he believes this should be a district policy, not a set of administrative guidelines.

"As a guideline, it's easier to ignore than if it's policy," Hamilton said.

Tom Hearn said he feels the suggested guidelines are reasonable.

"It makes clear that the majority of the students are protected, and transgenders are protected," Hearn said.

Christa Hazel said she would be troubled if the board decided to create policy regarding transgender students after declining to add the words sexual orientation and gender identity to the district's non-discrimination policies.

Hamilton said he understands that administrators and principals need guidelines and said he would support them, with some changes to the draft presented Monday.

The board directed the district's administration to continue to work on the proposed guidelines.

Definitions

* "Gender identity" is a person's inner sense of being male or female, regardless of his/her biological gender assigned at birth.

* "Transgender" is a term that describes people whose gender identity or gender expression is different from their assigned sex at birth.

* "Gender expression" refers to the way a person expresses gender to others in ways that are socially defined as either masculine or feminine, such as through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, activities, voice or mannerisms.

- Coeur d'Alene School District's draft "Transgender Student Guidelines for Administrator Reference"