Navigating Legal Issues Impacting Transgender Students

This CLE program, presented by Collins Saint of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP, will examine the current state of a fast-evolving area of the law: legal issues impacting transgender students. Recent federal guidance and court opinions have broadened protections under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Other laws, including privacy laws, the First Amendment, and state bullying laws, provide additional protections. Questions still remain, though, when teachers, professors, or parents have differing views. Many states have passed or are considering laws that clearly answer these questions, but the constitutionality of some of these laws are being challenged.

In light of this hot-button issue, Saint will discuss:

• Challenges faced by transgender students
• Current legal protections for transgender students
• Specific situations, including:

• • Bullying and Harassment
  • Mental Health and Disabilities
  • Right to Change School Records
  • Access to Sex-Segregated Facilities
  • Dress and Grooming Codes
  • LGBTQ Student Groups
  • Athletics
  • Field Trips and Off-Campus Extracurriculars
  • Potentially conflicting rights
  • Teacher/professor religious rights
  • Parent rights
  • Rights of other students

 

Learning Objectives:

1. Give examples of challenges transgender students face in educational settings

2. Describe the current legal landscape of transgender students' legal protections

3. Identify specific instances when an analysis of transgender students' legal rights should be undergone

4. Assess situations when transgender students' rights and others' rights may be in conflict