Another Long Island school district has been blocked from enforcing its transgender bathroom ban after the state stepped in to freeze the controversial policy, according to New York and local officials.<\/p>\n
Locust Valley School District\u2019s<\/a> resolution to prohibit transgender students<\/a> from using bathrooms and locker rooms that don\u2019t align with their biological sex cannot be enforced thanks to a new order issued by state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa on Nov. 18.<\/p>\n The district\u2019s bathroom ban \u2014 instituted by Locust Valley\u2019s school board about a month earlier \u2014 is nearly identical to the also-frozen and first-in-the-state ban<\/a> passed in Massapequa <\/a>just weeks before.<\/p>\n Locust Valley schools must allow trans students into bathrooms of their choice, New York state education officials said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn accordance with the Commissioner\u2019s directive, and absent an overriding administrative or judicial determination, the district must now follow the Commissioner\u2019s interpretation of state law, which is that students may use a bathroom or locker room consistent with their gender Identity,\u201d the school board said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rosa\u2019s order effectively ties Locust Valley to the ongoing legal battle already unfolding in Massapequa, where the New York Civil Liberties Union challenged the district\u2019s policy on behalf of a transgender student.\u00a0<\/p>\n In that case, the commissioner issued an interim stay in October preventing Massapequa from enforcing its resolution \u201cpending an ultimate determination\u201d \u2014 now adding Locust Valley as a related party because of the \u201cnear identical nature\u201d of the two policies, the new order said.<\/p>\n The districts\u2019 newly adopted policies had required all students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that matched their sex assigned at birth.<\/p>\n State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa delivered the order last month. AP<\/p>\n The Locust Valley school board said in its statement that it is now \u201cnavigating a complex and evolving legal landscape shaped by federal and state mandates\u201d and \u201cpursuing further legal counsel\u201d as it sorts out the fallout from the commissioner\u2019s order.<\/p>\n