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School In Berwyn Already Accommodating Transgender Students

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A federal directive has ordered school districts across the country to accommodate transgender students.

A suburban school is way ahead of the game, having made the change last year because a 5-year-old student questioned his own gender, CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports.

At Komensky Elementary in Berwyn, a kindergarten student seemed to question his gender last year.

The student's comments prompted the school to establish a transgender policy, much like the guidelines the Obama administration just announced.

It gives students the right to choose a bathroom based on their chosen gender identity.

All eight elementary schools in District 100 offer transgender students the option of a neutral gender bathroom or one of their choosing.

"My school makes me feel included," said Isaiah, a transgender student at Berwyn's middle school.

He was featured in a You Tube video, when the district won an award from the safe schools alliance.

"It's hard for other people to come out in school especially so they make me feel very happy and enjoy school," the student said.

Lawyers with the Thomas Moore society are among those fighting the policies.

"For the [education] department to force biological males access to girls bathroom and locker rooms violates the privacy of both students and their parents," said attorney Jocelyn Floyd.

The new federal guidelines on transgender students announced Friday prompted an immediate challenge in Chicago federal court.

A lawsuit, filed by the groups Alliance Defending Freedom, Students and Parents for Privacy and the Thomas More Society, names both the Education Department and Palatine District 211, which operates Fremd High School, in Palatine, which has provided dressing areas for transgender students since January, subject to a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU is representing a student born male who identifies as female.

According to the Safe Schools Alliance Berwyn is one of only three districts in the state that has a written transgender policy.

The other two are the Chicago Public Schools and a school district near Rockford.

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