JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Duval County School Board could soon adopt official rules for how a school or facility is named or renamed and a new transgender bathroom policy.
The new proposal for the naming and renaming of schools laid out the whole process, including what cannot be considered for a school name.
Duval County just went through a school renaming process. The 11-month-long process ended with six schools being renamed from their original, Confederacy-inspired titles.
The new proposal was in response to an effort to rename an athletics field at Riverside High, which coincidentally, was one of the six schools that was renamed.
The district didn’t have a set process on the books for what can and can’t be considered for a name, and the police under consideration would create one.
The new section of the policy handbook outlines how a recommendation would be made, how a renaming committee would be formed, and what criteria would be considered when deciding on a name change.
There are provisions. For instance, the rules wouldn’t allow the renaming committee to choose the name of a current employee of the district.
It wouldn’t let them choose the name of someone who is currently serving in elected office, nor would it let the committee choose a name that’s not reasonable in length.
The rule would require that if a school or facility is renamed, the committee would have to wait at least five years before renaming it again.
The subject is of particular interest right now due to the contention over the naming of monuments or facilities -- and how the names we choose reflect the state of the city’s culture.
The policy is set to be voted on by the school board on Tuesday night.
Transgender bathroom policy
The Duval County School Board is also set to vote on a rule Tuesday night that’s effectively already in practice throughout the district. It would require that students only use bathrooms, dressing rooms and locker rooms that correspond with their biological sex at birth.
The rule also provides the option for students to use single-occupancy bathrooms as an accommodation.
On overnight trips, if rooms are not separated by biological sex, students must have individual parental permission.
A change in Tallahassee could make this all a moot point.
The full Senate is expected to vote on a bill that essentially does the same thing statewide in all public places. It would require that public facilities provide restrooms for “exclusive use” by males and females,
The bill defines “female” as “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing eggs.” It defines “male” as “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing sperm.”
The law would apply to all public places including schools and health care facilities.