Deerfield Public Schools District 109’s board meeting Thursday, which had been moved to the Caruso Middle School auditorium to accommodate the expected large crowd, was quickly filled with hundreds of people.
That followed the announcement earlier this week by American First Legal, a conservative nonprofit, that it had filed a complaint with the criminal section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division urging it to investigate District 109 and its administrators over an alleged incident of female students at Shepard Middle School being forced by staffers to change in front of a transgender girl, an allegation the district has denied.
All 200 seats were filled, and the crowd also lined the back wall and out the front door. Rainbow and trans flags could be seen sprinkled throughout the crowd, along with a dozen or so Moms for Liberty shirts.
Despite it not being an item on the agenda, the controversy was the subject of more than two hours of public comments from residents and nonresidents of the district. There was far more support voiced at the meeting for the school board and the unidentified transgender student than for those on the other side of the controversy. After pro-trans speakers finished talking, cheers could be heard from outside on a slight delay as attendees watched via a livestream.
Several speakers read statements they said had been written by parents who were afraid to speak publicly, such as those with transgender or gender nonconforming children. Parents questioned the authenticity of the allegations, while others criticized what they characterized as bullying against the trans community.
One of the speakers was 14-year-old transgender student Lilu Weisberger, a classmate of the student at the center of the complaint. He said he chose to attend after learning that Moms for Liberty would be in attendance.
“I am here tonight to speak for my friend,” Weisberger said. “I am here tonight to defend dignity for all students and I appear to, unfortunately, have to entertain the idea that my community and my identity is not welcome in our school.”
He emphasized empathy as his friend is at the center of “national scrutiny,” and being used as “an excuse to push a political agenda.” The controversy drew national attention after Nicole Georgas, a mother of one of the students allegedly forced to change in front of a transgender student, went on Fox News with her allegations and criticized the district.
There were also some firebrand anti-trans speakers, such as Wheaton College student Hannah Lape, a member of the Christian conservative group Young Women for America, who railed against what she described as “sexual abuse” and the “adult fantasy” of “transgenderism.”
In a statement signed by Superintendent of Schools Mike Simeck and school board President Sari Montgomery, the district said it “strongly” disputed the “patently false allegations” of students being forced to change in front of administrators or others. It also again insisted the district’s policies and procedures were in full compliance with current local, state and federal laws.
“We recognize the intense reaction by advocates from both within and outside our community, and we are committed to communicating factually and transparently,” the statement said.
Federal Title IX and the Illinois Human Rights Act prohibit all public school districts from discriminating on the basis of sex, including gender identity, the statement said, and current laws mandate that students must be permitted access to the locker room and bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.
“We are following the law,” the district said.
The statement said the district was “sensitive to the privacy needs” of all students. When their two middle schools were renovated in 2017, five private changing rooms were added in each locker room and made available to all students to, “ensure that no student is required to change into a gym uniform for physical education class in front of others.”
“All students also have multiple options to change in a private location separate from the locker room if they wish,” the statement said.
According to the statement, this week the district responded to a data request from federal officials for information regarding the district’s policies, procedures and practices related to student locker room and restroom use.
The district administration and the board “stand united with our building leaders and educators in a shared commitment to upholding all applicable local, state, and federal laws,” the statement said. “We will vigorously support administrators and staff every step of the way.”
The district is pursuing “all avenues to defend against the egregious and false claims being alleged,” and condemned the, “unjustified threats that have been directed at school administrators since the false allegations first surfaced in February. No one should be targeted on social media or elsewhere for obeying the law.”
“The District is committed to serving all of its students and continues to do so with the utmost care and professionalism,” the statement said. “We call upon all of those expressing concerns or perspectives on this issue with our staff and educators to do so in a respectful and civil manner.”
Kristal Larson, executive director of the LGBTQ+ Center Lake County, Avon Township’s clerk and a transgender woman, was happy with the “outpouring of support” she’d seen during the meeting. Deerfield was “in a good place,” she said.
She criticized the allegations being made against the district, calling them a “narrative of falsehoods.”
“(District officials) vehemently deny any of these allegations, and I’m proud of the fact they’re standing up for their students and their school, their community, against what has become a very national platform of hate,” Larson said.”
Moms for Liberty Lake County chair Marsha McClary said there was “a lot of misinformation in the community” about the incident that “needed to be corrected,” and she praised the complaint filed by the AFL.
“There’s obviously a lot of passionate parents here, and we have actually a lot of common goals,” McClary said. “We want the kids to be all treated with respect and have privacy and safety. I think, though, the district and the state can do better.”
