May 21, 2017      9:39 PM
Updated: Paddie bathroom amendment approved 91 to 50
Speaker Straus says “Representative Paddie's amendment will allow schools to continue to handle sensitive issues as they have been handling them."
A
version of the so-called “bathroom bill” was tentatively passed Sunday night in
the form of an amendment to a bill dealing with school safety measures.
The
amendment by Rep. Chris Paddie tacked onto the legislation is not as extensive
as its predecessors Senate Bill 6
and House Bill 2899, excluding all
entities other than public schools and open enrollment charter schools. It does
require school board trustees provide a single occupancy bathroom for students
who don’t want to use the bathroom of their “biological sex.”
The amendment
says “The board of trustees of a school district or the governing body of an
open-enrolment charter school shall ensure that each school or school facility
accommodates the right of each student to access restrooms, locker rooms, and
changing facilities with privacy, dignity, and safety by requiring the
provision of single-occupancy facilities for use by a student who does not wish
to use the facilities designated for use or commonly used by persons of the
student’s biological sex.”
By Eleanor Dearman
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