What Obama's Bathroom Edict Means for Education

With students on summer break, public schools are preparing for fall and grappling with how they'll respond to the Obama administration's edict on school showers, lockers and bathrooms.

Thursday the conservative Heritage Foundation held a panel on the issue.

Watch an archive of the the panel discussion here.

The Department of Education issued the directive in May requiring every school receiving federal funds to treat students according to whichever sex they prefer.

Any school that does not change their bathroom policies would be charged with unlawful sex discrimination and would be starved of federal funds.

Texas and ten other states sued the Department of Education and the Department of Justice for threatening to cut off billions of dollars in federal aid to states that do not comply with the Obama administration's "significant guidance" letter requiring all public schools to treat students according to their stated "gender identity" regardless of their biological sex.

"President Obama thinks sex is the same as gender," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said.

He spoke on the difference between sex and gender and gave a brief history of how courts have ruled in the past. 

"Congress has made it clear that sex and gender are different" he said.

Paxton said schools who refuse to comply with the President's orders are not discriminating, but are trying to protect their students.

"Schools are concerned about the safety of their children, which they have every right to be concerned about," Paxton said.

Regardless, the Department of Justice is now taking the stance of you are what you say you are.

"For purposes of determining whether a person is a man or a woman, gender identity is the critical factor" the DOJ stated.

"Our justice department is telling us what a man is and what a woman is. Something has gone wrong," said Kyle Duncan. He is representing the North Carolina legislature in its fight over the state's bathroom bill.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch compared North Carolina's House Bill Two to "the Jim Crow laws that followed the Emancipation Proclamation," and the "Fierce and widespread resistance to Brown vs. Board of Education."

Many parents feel like their concerns have been glanced over by the federal government.

"It is shocking to me that you are supposed to ignore the very people in your school district," Paxton added.

Many are also concerned  the government's new definition of gender identity will completely change how people communicate with each other through pronouns. Those who call a man a "he" when he identifies as a "she" may be considered bigoted and compared to a racist.

"I find that so profoundly offensive," Duncan said. "The government is not only regulating behavior, but now regulating speech on how teachers and students communicate with each other."

But despite the concerns, Paxton, Duncan and many other attorneys say they will fight this mandate and any others like it. They also tell schools to never give in, but to fight for their children's education and safety.