Independent Living Home Defends Nurse Who Refused To Help Ailing Patient

A nurse's refusal to give CPR to a dying 87-year-old woman at a California independent living home despite desperate pleas from a 911 dispatcher has prompted outrage and spawned a criminal investigation.

The harrowing 7-minute, 16-second call also raised concerns that policies at senior living facilities could prevent staff from intervening in medical emergencies. It prompted calls for legislation Monday to prevent a repeat of what happened Feb. 26 at the Glenwood Gardens in Bakersfield.

Lorraine Bayless collapsed in the dining room of the retirement home that offers many levels of care. She lived in the independent living building, which state officials said is like a senior apartment complex and doesn't operate under licensing oversight.

"This is a wakeup call," said Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, chair of the California Assembly Aging and Long-term Care Committee. "I'm sorry it took a tragedy like this to bring it to our attention."

Yamada cautioned that while it's not yet known whether intervention would have saved the woman's life, "we want to investigate because it has caused a lot of concern and alarm."

Independent living facilities "should not have a policy that says you can stand there and watch somebody die," said Pat McGinnis, founder of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, a consumer advocacy group. "How a nurse can do that is beyond comprehension."

In all her years of advocating for the elderly, McGinnis said: "This was so horrifying. I've never seen this happen before."

State officials did not know Monday whether the woman who talked to the 911 dispatcher actually was a nurse, or just identified herself as one during the call. She said one of the home's policies prevented her from doing CPR, according to an audio recording of the call.

"The consensus is if they are a nurse and if they are at work as a nurse, then they should be offering the appropriate medical care," said Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the California Board of Registered Nursing, the agency that licenses health care providers.

The executive director of Glenwood Gardens, Jeffrey Toomer, defended the nurse in a written statement, saying she followed the facility's policy.

"In the event of a health emergency at this independent living community, our practice is to immediately call emergency medical personnel for assistance and to wait with the individual needing attention until such personnel arrives," Toomer said. "That is the protocol we followed."

Toomer offered condolences to the woman's family and said a thorough internal review would be conducted. He told KGET-TV that residents of the facility are informed of the policy and agree to it when they move in. He said the policy does not apply at the adjacent assisted living and skilled nursing facilities.

Multiple calls to the facility and its parent company seeking more information were not returned.

Unlike nursing homes, which provide medical care, independent living facilities generally do not.

"These are like apartments for seniors. You're basically living on your own. They may have some services provided by basic nursing staff, but it's not their responsibility to care for the individual," said Dr. Susan Leonard, a geriatrics expert at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Residents of independent living communities can still take care of themselves, but may need help getting to doctor's appointments. In skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes, many residents require around-the-clock care.

Staff members are "required to perform and provide CPR" unless there's a do-not-resuscitate order, said Greg Crist, a senior vice president at the American Health Care Association.

Bayless did not have such an order on file at the facility, said Battalion Chief Anthony Galagaza of the Bakersfield Fire Department, which was the first on the scene. That's when firefighters immediately began CPR, continuing until she reached the hospital.

Dr. Patricia Harris, who heads the University of Southern California's geriatrics division, said the survival odds are slim among elderly who receive CPR. Even if they survive, they are never the same. She said she would override the home's policy and risk getting fired "rather than watch somebody die in front of me."

During the call, an unidentified woman called from her cellphone, and asked for paramedics to be sent to help the woman. Later, a woman who identified herself as the nurse got on the phone and told dispatcher Tracey Halvorson she was not permitted to do CPR on the woman.

Halvorson urged the nurse to start CPR, warning the consequences could be dire if no one tried to revive the woman, who had been laid out on the floor on her instructions.

"I understand if your boss is telling you, you can't do it," the dispatcher said. "But ... as a human being ... you know, is there anybody that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?"

"Not at this time," the nurse answered.

Halvorson assured the nurse that Glenwood couldn't be sued if anything went wrong in attempts to resuscitate the resident, saying the local emergency medical system "takes the liability for this call."

Later in the call, Halvorson asked, "Is there a gardener? Any staff, anyone who doesn't work for you? Anywhere? Can we flag someone down in the street and get them to help this lady? Can we flag a stranger down? I bet a stranger would help her."

"I understand if your facility is not willing to do that. Give the phone to a passer-by. This woman is not breathing enough. She is going to die if we don't get this started, do you understand?"

The woman had no pulse and wasn't breathing when fire crews reached her, Galagaza said.

Sgt. Jason Matson of the Bakersfield Police Department said its investigation so far had not revealed criminal wrongdoing, but the probe is continuing.

First responders say often it's hard to find someone willing to provide CPR in an emergency.

"It's not uncommon to have someone refuse to provide CPR if they physically can't do it, or they're so upset they just can't function," Kern County Fire Department Deputy Chief Michael Miller said. "What made this one unique was the way the conversation on the phone went. It was just very frustrating to anyone listening to it, like, why wasn't anyone helping this poor woman, since CPR today is much simpler than it was in the past?"

Epidemic: Euthanasia Deaths Increase 25 Percent in Belgium

Recent studies concerning the Belgian euthanasia law found that: 32% of the assisted deaths are done without request and 47% of the assisted deaths go unreported in the Flanders region of Belgium. Another recent study found that even though nurses are prohibited from doing euthanasia, that in fact nurses are euthanizing their patients in Belgium. There has never been an attempted prosecution for abuses of the Belgian euthanasia law.

Confirming that euthanasia is out-of-control in Belgium the 2012 euthanasia statistics indicate that there was a 25% increase in the number of assisted deaths in Belgium.

Recent government statistics indicate that the number of reported assisted deaths increased from 1133 in 2011 to 1432 in 2012, representing 2% of all deaths in Belgium. The number of reported assisted deaths in 2010 was 954. It is important to note that these statistics do not include the unreported assisted deaths.

The study that found that 32% of the assisted deaths are done without request, indicated that the people who died by euthanasia without request were usually: incompetent, did not have cancer, were over the age of 80, and living in a hospital. The same study indicated that these deaths represented “a vulnerable patient group.”

Further to that doctors who admit to not reporting assisted deaths usually do not follow the guidelines of the Belgian law. A recent study found that 73.1 % of the reported assisted deaths followed the guidelines while only 12.3% of the unreported assisted deaths followed the euthanasia guidelines in the Belgian law.

The response by Belgian legislators to the abuses of the euthanasia law is to widen the definitions of the law to include children with disabilities and people with dementia. By widening the definitions in the law, fewer doctors will be abusing the law. It is also feared that the proposed changes to the euthanasia law may effect the freedom of conscience for health care workers in Belgium.

The proposed changes to the Belgium euthanasia law, combined with the lack of attempted prosecutions for abusing the Belgium euthanasia law, in conjunction with the massive increases in the number of euthanasia deaths, indicates that a slippery slope, also known as incremental extensions, has occurred in Belgium.

If you think that is bad enough, consider the fact that a woman with anorexia nervosa recently died by euthanasia, a man wrote that his depressed mother died by euthanasia, belgian twins who were born deaf were euthanized out of fear of blindness, and Belgium is experimenting witheuthanasia/organ donation.

A recent 10 year report of the Belgian euthanasia law that was done by the European Institute of Bioethics found:

• A written declaration of a desire for euthanasia is required, either by the patient or a surrogate. However, the Commission often waives this obligation.

• Initially patients had to have a life‐threatening and incurable illness. Nowadays, the illness need only be serious and debilitating.

• The pain is supposed to be unbearable, unremitting and unrelievable. However, a patient can refuse medication to relieve the pain. The Commission, says the IEB, has ‘decided not to carry out its mission ‐ so central to the law ‐ of verifying the unbearable and unrelievable nature of the suffering’.

• The ambit of ‘psychological suffering’ is ever-expanding.

• Doctor-assisted suicide is not authorised by 2002 legislation. However, the Commission has ignored this and regularly signs off on such cases.

• If a patient is to be euthanised at home, the doctor himself is supposed to fetch the lethal medications at a pharmacy from a registered pharmacist and to return left-over drugs. In practice, family members often get the drugs; unqualified personnel hand them over; and no checks have ever been made about surplus drugs.’

To learn more about the current practice and abuses of the Belgian and Netherlands euthanasia laws, by ordering the book, by Alex Schadenberg ($20 includes shipping): Exposing Vulnerable People to Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Exposing Vulnerable People will prepare you to oppose the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) hopes that Belgian legislators will open their eyes to the reality of their euthanasia experiment and reverse their direction. If not, we hope that the rest of the world will recognize how dangerous legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide is and how it threatens the lives of their citizens.

Yale hosts workshop teaching sensitivity to bestiality

By Katherine Timpf, on Mar 05, 2013

On Saturday afternoon, Yale hosted a “sensitivity training” in which students were asked to consider topics such as bestiality, incest, and accepting money for sex.

Sexologist Dr. Jill McDevitt.

During the workshop, entitled, "Sex: Am I Normal," students anonymously asked and answered questions about sex using their cell phones, and viewed the responses in real time in the form of bar charts.

The session was hosted by “sexologist” Dr. Jill McDevitt, who owns a sex store called Feminique in West Chester, Pa.

Survey responses revealed that nine percent of attendees had been paid for sex, 3 percent had engaged in bestiality, and 52 percent had participated in "consensual pain" during sex, according to an article published in the Yale Daily News on Monday.

Event director Giuliana Berry ’14 told Campus Reform in an interview on Monday that the workshop was brought to campus to teach students not to automatically judge people who may have engaged in these sorts of activities, but rather to respond with “understanding” and “compassion.”

"People do engage in some of these activities that we believe only for example perverts engage in,” she said. “What the goal is is to increase compassion for people who may engage in activities that are not what you would personally consider normal.”

McDevitt referred to the range of activities discussed in the workshop as “sexual diversity.”

“It tries to get people to be more sensitive … to sexual diversity,” McDevitt told Campus Reform in an interview on Monday. “We’re not all heterosexual, able-bodied folks who have standard missionary sex.”

Several students submitted discussion topics about having incestuous sexual fantasies. Attendee Alex Saeedy '15, told the News that he at first found this surprising, but then "thought it might be more of a psychological thing we all might have.

"I think that's what the point of the workshop was — to bring up things we thought we so taboo and desire or urges we criticize are just regular parts of sexual psychology," he said.  

During the workshop, McDevitt taught the approximately 40 students that just because people think something is deviant does not mean that it is bad.

“It’s sensitivity training,” McDevitt told Campus Reform. “Don't judge other people, because we all have something we are embarrassed about.”

The event was part of Yale’s Sex Weekend, which ran from Feb. 28 through March 3. Sponsors included Yale Women's Center, Undergraduate Organizations Committee, the Sexual Harassment and Assault Response Education Center at Yale, and SeLF: The Sexual Literacy Forum.

Assembly bill introduced in California, would allow students to use any bathroom they desire!

This bill would require that a pupil be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs, activities, and facilities, including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.

see actual bill!

relevant text
(f) A pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs, activities, and facilities, including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.

Six States seek to legalize assisted suicide

Six states – Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, Kansas, Hawaii, and Massachusetts – are looking to pass bills legalizing assisted suicide, which has never made it through a legislature despite 122 attempts in 25 states.

Physician-assisted suicide is legal only in Oregon and Washington state, and in both cases the law passed through ballot measures. After assisted suicide became legal in Oregon in 1997, proponents expected a domino effect among other states, but it wasn’t until 11 years later that Washington joined in passing a similar law.

Proponents say a 2009 court decision in Montana also allows for assisted suicide, but it only gives doctors who assist in a patient’s suicide a potential defense to prosecution for homicide. Yesterday a Montana Senate committee tabled a measure that would have legalized assisted suicide.

According to a 2011 Gallup poll, Americans were almost evenly divided on support for assisted suicide. Forty-eight percent said it was morally acceptable. But in Oregon and Washington, far fewer people actually choose to take an early out, given the chance.

Both states allow for assisted suicide when a patient has six months or less to live. But as with all prognoses, life expectancy for the terminally ill can be difficult to pin down.

Jeanette Hall of King City, Ore., supported assisted suicide, until she had the opportunity to take her own life. In a letter to the editor of Montana’s Ravalli Republic newspaper, Hall said she voted to legalize assisted suicide in her state in 1997. Three years later she was diagnosed with cancer and told she only had six months to a year to live.

“I knew that our law had passed, but I didn’t know exactly how to go about doing it,” she wrote. “I did not want to suffer, and I did not want to do radiation.” She asked her doctor, Ken Stevens, to help her, but he encouraged her to “not give up,” and Hall decided to fight for her life.

“It is now 12 years later,” she wrote. “If Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead. I thank him and all my doctors for helping me choose ‘life with dignity.’ Assisted suicide should not be legal.”

Last year marked the highest number of assisted suicides in Oregon, with 77. The numbers have slowly increased over the years: 71 in 2011, 65 in 2010, and 59 in 2009.

The data found most of the terminally ill patients who took their own lives were 65 or older, white, well-educated, and had private health insurance. Seattle lawyer Margret Dore, the president of Choice is an Illusion, noted that people with these attributes are usually wealthy, which often leads to an increased risk of financial abuse and exploitation. Coupled with assisted suicide’s lack of oversight – healthcare providers were present in only 11 of the 77 deaths – it is possible some of the deaths could be attributed to relatives eager to get their inheritance.

“Oregon’s law is written so as to allow such abuse to occur without anyone knowing,” Dore wrote in her blog. “The new report is statistically consistent with elder abuse.”

Only two of the people who died by assisted suicide were referred for a psychiatric evaluation. Patients who are depressed or feeling hopeless can request an assisted suicide without any questions asked.

Even the Oregonian recommended to Washington state not to pass the assisted-suicide measure in 2008. After 10 years of experience, the newspaper’s editorial board pointed out the physician-assisted suicide program had not been transparent, that “a coterie of insiders run the program, with a handful of doctors and others deciding what the public may know.”

“Our fundamental objection is the same it has always been – that it’s wrong to use physicians and pharmacists to hasten patients’ deaths,” the board said.

7,000 Orthodox Jews flee Rio de Janeiro Brazil after immodest women dance on the street

Family that left

Thousands of Orthodox Jews fled a city in Brazil, after immodest women were dancing on the street, according to press reports in Brazil.

While the Brazilian Carnival attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, in recent years it has been driving away some local residents.

Jewish residents of Rio de Janeiro, one of the main centers of celebration in Brazil, have fled their homes and moved to a city nearby in order not to expose their children to indecent women.

The traditional carnival held in Brazil last week was a hassle for the 7,000 Orthodox Jews living in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Local residents say that passersby on the street were forcing them against their will, to look at dancers in revealing clothing that a religious person can not tolerate.

The Jewish residents told a television news station that they will continue to leave the city every year when the festivals are held, in order not to expose their children to nearly nude female dancers and party goers. 

"Orthodox" gay group holds 1st Shabbat in J'lem

Oy gay!

Havruta, an association of religious homosexuals in Israel, held a communal Shabbat event in Jerusalem for the first time this weekend.

The group organized a Friday night prayer service at the residence of one of the members, followed by a number of separate Shabbat meals hosted by at various locations.

Although the turnout was relatively small, with just 15 men attending, the organizers expressed satisfaction with the initiative, stating it was another step in helping gay religious people feel there are others similar to them and that they are not alone.

The organization now intends to hold a similar event once a month in the capital.

Havruta chairman Daniel Jonas said that it was natural for different communities to coalesce around a synagogue and organized community, which often act as a social hub as well, and that this was one of the goals behind the new program.

He also emphasized that the goal was not to distance themselves from the general religious community, but to provide a regular forum for a Shabbat atmosphere that is more comfortable for members of the gay religious community.

“It’s only once a month, so we’re not cutting ourselves off and we’ll continue to go to our regular synagogues and services as well,” Jonas told The Jerusalem Post.

“We don’t think it is desirable to separate ourselves, but on the other hand Shabbat services can also be sometimes uncomfortable when people come up to you and ask you why you’re not married, or if they can introduce you to a girl, and things like that.”

Jonas noted that about a third of the attendees had not been to a Havruta event before, and some of them had not yet acknowledged to friends and family that they were gay.

“It does require courage to come to an event like this, but because it’s a smaller type of function it makes it easier in some respects, and it is also why we held it at a private residence, because it provides a more anonymous setting and a sense of security too,” he explained.

Gays infiltrating Orthodox Jewish Day Schools and Synagogues

logo of  jewish gays

Read this my friends and weep!
This is directly from their Website:
http://www.jqyouth.org/panels.shtml

JQY Panel programs of LGBT Orthodox Jews at a schools and synagogues can be a life-saving resource for those who may be closeted and feeling isolated and depressed. The value of a panel over a single individual speaker is that a panel sends a message of community and camaraderie, rather than tokenizing or isolating LGBT Orthodox Jews. JQY panels also offer the invaluable opportunity for rigorous interactive Q and A with the Orthodox community. Some of our past panels have included:

JQY Orthodox High school Panels:

Kushner Yeshiva High School – Being LGBT and Orthodox
JQY worked with Rabbis at Kushner High School to create a youth-based panel program for their 12th grade class.
With Rabbi Richard Kirsch

SAR Yeshiva High-School, Bogrim Program – Homosexuality in the Orthodox Community
JQY worked with SAR to create a panel of LGBT Orthodox Jews for the SAR Bogrim Program.
With Rabbi Tully Harcsztark

JQY Yeshiva Panels:

Yeshiva University, YU Gay Panel - Being Gay in Yeshiva
JQY organized the groundbreaking speaker’s panel in Yeshiva College at Yeshiva University. The JQY panelists (consisting of YU students and alumni) talked about what it was like to grow up gay in Yeshiva. The event had almost one thousand attendees and the subsequent online videos of the event have over ten thousand viewers. The program has been credited with inspiring the Statement of Principles, in which over 200 Orthodox Rabbis called for the welcoming and acceptance of gays in the Orthodox community.
With Rabbi Yosef Blau and Dr David Pelcovitz
Press Coverage
Press Coverage

View the videos for this panel.

Yeshiva Chovevei Torah - Hearing from Gay Orthodox Jews
JQY members spoke to the YCT Rabbinical class about the issues facing LGBT Orthodox Jews.
With Rabbi Dov Linzer

JQY Orthodox Community and Synagogue panels:

Lincoln Square Synagogue - Orthodox and Gay: at school, at shul and at home
JQY served as consultant for this program and organized the panel of Orthodox Gays and Lesbians for this landmark event.
With Rabbi Shaul Robinson, Rabbi Chaim Rappaport, Dr Michelle Friedman, and Rabbi Dov Linzer

The Jewish Education Project (formerly BJENY-SAJES) - Bullying in Jewish high schools: "Bully" Screening and Panel
JQY provided the Jewish Education Project with LGBT Orthodox high school students who shared their stories about bullying in Jewish high schools

Chicago West Rogers Community Panel - Tradition and Compassion: Homosexuality and the Orthodox World
JQY organized a panel of LGBT Orthodox Jews and their parents who shared their stories with the West Rogers Orthodox Community in Chicago Illinois.
With Rabbi Asher Lopatin

JCC Manhattan and the United Orthodox Synagogues of the Upper West Side -Tehillim Service & Panel in honor of the Tel - Aviv Shootings of Gay Youth
Following the Tel Aviv tragic shooting of LGBT Youth, JQY organized a community-wide memorial and tehillim service. Rabbis and representatives from NYC Orthodox synagogues spoke publicly in support of gay youth, and renounced homophobia in the Orthodox world.
With Rabbi Yosef Blau, Rabbi Avi Weiss, Rabbi Dov Linzer and Elana Stein Hain

View videos from this event.



JQY College Panels:

Yale University Orthodox community at Hillel (Slifka Center) - LGBT & Orthodox Shabbaton Program
JQY worked with the Orthodox community leaders at Yale Hillel to organize an LGBT & Orthodox Shabbaton consisting of multiple panels on the topics of Orientation, Gender and Orthodoxy.
With Rabbi Noah Cheses

University of Maryland, Kedma Orthodox Community at Hillel - LGBT & Orthodox Shabbaton Program
JQY worked with the Orthodox community leaders at UMD to organize the largest ever Hillel LGBT & Orthodox student event, with over 200 Orthodox students taking part in multiple panels and workshops on the topics of Orientation, Gender, and Orthodoxy.
With Rabbi Eli Kohl
Press Coverage

U of Penn Orthodox Hillel Community - "Being Gay and Orthodox"
JQY collaborated with Rabbi Mordechai Friedman at the Orthodox community
of U Penn Hillel to develop a weekend program of panels, speeches, and learning opportunities. Over the course of the weekend, the campus community explored the issues involving being gay and orthodox. The event has become a template for a nationwide Hillel program.
With Rabbi Mordechai Freedman
Press Coverage

Columbia Orthodox Hillel Community - "Being Gay and Orthodox"
JQY collaborated with the Orthodox community of Columbia University and NUJLS on a panel about the hopes, challenges, and issues facing LGBT Jews in the Orthodox Community.
With Rabbi Yonah Hain

NYU Bronfman Center - "Religion and Sexuality"
JQY speakers discussed their thoughts and feelings about being gay and living in the Orthodox community.
With Rabbi Yehuda Sarna

Dutch Court: Jews Not Exempt From Carrying Their ID Cards On Shabbos

A Dutch appeals court has upheld a $90 fine against an Orthodox Jew who refused to show police an identity card, citing religious reasons.
The Hague Appeals Court ruled that a law which makes it mandatory for all people older than 14 to carry ID cards and show them to police upon request does not have a religious exemption.
The man, whose name was not released due to privacy laws, had argued it was against his religious beliefs to carry anything but his clothing on the Jewish Sabbath.
The ruling didn’t say why police approached the man.
The law was introduced in 2005 amid a wave of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment. Carrying ID cards hadn’t previously been mandatory in the Netherlands since the Nazi occupation in World War II.

Parents of transgender first-grader file discrimination complaint Video

A transgender rights group announced Wednesday that it has filed a discrimination complaint in Colorado on behalf of a first-grader who was born a boy but identifies as a girl. The filing stems from a decision announced last December by officials at Fountain-Fort Carson School District that Coy Mathis could no longer use the girls' bathroom at Eagleside Elementary. Mother Kathryn Mathis said she and her husband were shocked. "We were very confused because everything was going so well, and they had been so accepting, and all of a sudden it changed and it was very confusing and very upsetting because we knew that, by doing that, she was going to go back to being unhappy," she told CNN. "It was going to set her up for a lot of bad things." Coy was born with male sex organs but has identified as female since she could express herself, her mother said. The child had attended classes during her kindergarten year with no problems and no complaints from anyone at the school, Mathis told reporters at the Colorado Capitol in Denver, where she was flanked by her husband, Jeremy, and four other children. Wearing a girl's winter coat, Coy stood behind her mother. Afraid bullies would make fun of her daughter, Kathryn Mathis said she pulled Coy out of school during winter break. "In the end, we just want what is the best for Coy," Mathis said about the complaint. "We want her to be able to go back to school and be treated equally without discrimination and harassment." Attorney Michael Silverman of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is representing Coy, said the complaint -- which was filed with the Colorado Civil Rights Division -- is intended to have an impact beyond a single family or school. "For many transgender people, discrimination is a daily part of life. Unfortunately for Coy, it has started very early," he said, adding that the complaint is a "test of Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act."
"The world is going to be looking at the school," he said, which can "send a message to the world and teach tolerance, fair play and equal rights."
A girl's life
For most of the past year, Coy has dressed as a girl. Coy's passport and state-issued identification recognize her as female. Kathryn Mathis said she got a call "out of the blue" from the school in December saying that Coy could use the boys' bathroom, gender-neutral faculty bathrooms or the nurse's bathroom, but not the girls' facilities. 
The district "took into account not only Coy, but other students in the building, their parents and the future impact a boy with male genitals using a girls' bathroom would have as Coy grew older," a letter the family's attorney received in December said. "However, I'm certain you can appreciate that, as Coy grows older and his male genitals develop along with the rest of his body, at least some parents and students are likely to become uncomfortable with his continued use of the girls' restroom." 

In a statement Tuesday, the district's attorney, W. Kelly Dude, said: "The district firmly believes it has acted reasonably and fairly with respect to this issue. However, the district believes the appropriate and proper forum for discussing the issues identified in the charge is through the Division of Civil Rights process. The district is preparing a response to the charge which it will submit to the division. Therefore, the district will not comment further on this matter out of respect for the process which the parents have initiated." 
"It's sad that the Mathis family had to file a civil rights complaint in order for their daughter to be treated equally," said Herndon Graddick, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, in a statement. "The students clearly aren't the only people at this school who need more education."
A little-studied group
Transgender children experience a disconnect between their sex, which is based on their anatomy, and their gender, which includes behaviors, roles and activities, experts say.
For the general public, transgender identity may be a new concept, though many might recall Chaz Bono, the child of entertainers Sonny and Cher. Born female, Bono underwent a transition in his 40s to become a man. He wrote in his book "Transition" that, even as a child, he had been "aware of a part of me that did not fit." He appeared last year as a man on "Dancing with the Stars," in part, he said, to destigmatize being transgender.


Comprehensive data and studies about transgender children are rare. International studies have estimated that anywhere from 1 in 30,000 to 1 in 1,000 people are transgender. 
Some children as young as age 3 show early signs of gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder, mental health experts who work with transgender children say. These children are not intersex -- they do not have a physical disorder or malformation of their sexual organs. The gender issue exists in the brain, though experts do not agree on whether it's psychologically or physiologically based.
Many transgender people report feeling discomfort with their gender as early as they can remember.



Gender identity is often confused with sexual orientation. The difference is that "gender identity is who you are, and sexual orientation is who you want to have sex with," said Dr. Johanna Olson, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Southern California, who treats transgender children. 
Children around age 3 are probably not interested in sexual orientation, she said. But experts say some children who look like they will be transgender in early childhood turn out to be gay, lesbian or bisexual. 
Differences in schools 

School policies toward transgender students vary across the United States. In New York, for example, the law says students can't be discriminated against on the basis of their gender identity. But in Maine, a court ruled in November that a school district did not violate a transgender student's rights when she was told she couldn't use the girls' bathroom.



Dude, the Colorado school district's attorney, has said there is nothing in that state requiring public schools to permit transgender students to use restrooms intended for the gender with which they identify. He added that the Fountain-Fort Carson School District adheres to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act in all respects: "Coy attends class as all other students, is permitted to wear girls' clothes and is referred to as the parents have requested." She also has easy access to bathrooms other than the girls', Dude said. Coy's case will be the first to challenge a restroom restriction under the state's anti-discrimination act, the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund said. For now, the first-grader is being home-schooled.