A new policy in Plymouth-Canton Schools was created to support transgender students.
The Board of Education last night approved a plan whereby students can use bathrooms and locker rooms that agree with their current self-identification, and not the gender they were assigned at birth.
More, the district will allow students to play sports based on their personal gender identification.
Explaining their vote, the majority of the board said it was meant as a safety precaution and to help students struggling with gender identity to feel like they belong.
There were opponents to the vote, and they argued at the meeting that the measure could create confusion for young, impressionable minds.
Parent Eldredge told Hometown Life she holds no ill will against gender-nonconforming students, but she still opposed the vote because she felt some students could be unfairly targeted.
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"The part of the policy that concerns me the most is the safety aspect," Eldredge said. "When a male student can go into the the same restroom or locker room as my daughter, no questions asked, that's a problem."
She acknowledged that putting out that opinion placed her in the crosshairs of public opinion. herself.
"And when someone opposes this policy change, like I do, they're labeled as small-minded or bigoted," she said. "I'm at the point where I don't really care what people who oppose my point of view think of me."