Controversial school bathroom proviso is in effect now for K-12 public schools

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WSPA) – A controversial proviso about school bathrooms is officially in effect in South Carolina.

This proviso in the state budget forces students to use the restroom for the gender they were assigned at birth. It will be in effect for one year, but some lawmakers hope to make it permanent.

“The proviso was implemented as like a measure to make sure it was implemented this year, but there is a bill for this, and they just didn’t get to it this year, but I do think it should be passed as law,” said Representative Fawn Pedalino (R – Clarendon).

It mandates public school students use bathrooms and locker rooms based on the gender listed on their birth certificate, even if it differs from their gender identity.

“You don’t want girls having to be seen or see, you know, male parts, but you also don’t want boys, you know, having to deal with promiscuous girls and being accused of anything happening in a locker room,” she said.

“Transgender kids aren’t new, local school leaders have been figuring out how to support transgender kids and their safety at schools for years, decades, but now our state lawmakers have decided that they know better,” said Jace Woodrum with the American Civil Liberties Union.

He said principals and school districts should be in control of their own school’s policies, not the government. He said this policy is using transgender people as political pawns.

“We are not new, and we have been in schools and in workplaces and in communities long before far right politicians decided that we needed to be scapegoats for everything,” Woodrum added.

Pedalino replied, “I don’t believe that at all, because the goal is to protect all children, not to alienate any specific child, but to make them all feel like they have a safe space.”

Representative Pedalino said she thinks the bill will pass in the next legislative session.

A middle school student in the low country and the alliance for full acceptance have filed a lawsuit in the federal court challenging this rule.

The case is still ongoing, but we will provide more details when they arrive.