Will Kingston High renovation help transgender students?

“I can tell you across the Mid-Hudson Valley what we’re seeing is, yes, high schools need to have these spaces, but in reality most of our transgender students that GLSEN Hudson Valley works with are coming out as transgender in middle school,” he said. “Last year, we actually saw an increase of elementary school students coming forward as transgender. It’s something that really needs to be done districtwide.”

Gender-neutral the best

According to GLSEN’s Model District Policy on Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Students, offering gender-neutral spaces is ideal. “Where available, schools are encouraged to designate facilities designed for use by one person at a time as accessible to all students regardless of gender, and to incorporate such single-user facilities into new construction or renovation,” reads the policy.

With the comprehensive renovation plan underway, Conlon said the KCSD is in a unique position other districts aren’t in trying to create gender-neutral space.

“What this particular district really has is a huge opportunity,” Conlon said. “What we see most of the time is districts trying to make these changes when a trans student comes out, and then they sort of scramble with the locker rooms and the restrooms and try to figure out what to do. Some will move to changing over a faculty restroom to allow the trans students. Some of them unfortunately make them go to the nurses’ office, which not only says you don’t belong in the regular area, but you have a medical condition. That’s challenging in and of itself.”

Conlon said the district is also in a position to set the tone for the rest of Ulster County by expanding on their inclusiveness.

“When I do trainings in the area, one of the things I talk about is if you look at, what, 25 years ago the landscape was so completely different,” Conlon said. “There was no one in Kingston High School comfortable being out. And now we’re at a point where not only do we have students that are out, but they’re proud of it. And our real responsibility as a community is to make sure that we keep pace with them.”

Among the extra-curricular clubs and activities at Kingston High are the KHS Gay/Straight Alliance, and the Diversity/Anti-Bullying Club. But while the landscape is changing, across the country and in the Kingston City School District, Conlon said he understood that it doesn’t always result in a smooth transition.

“What we often forget is that you and I and the people that taught us, and the people that are teaching now didn’t have these discussions at 10, 12, 22,” he said. “We’re having them now as adults. We’re often like, ‘Get with the program, folks,’ but for some educators this is the first time they’ve ever talked about this because they didn’t get taught in their master’s program about sexual orientation or gender identity. Sometimes we have to give them a little room to learn and grow. We’ve just got to do it fast.”

The Second Century renovation project is expected to be completed before the start of the 2018-19 school year; a ceremonial groundbreaking at Kate Walton Field House is scheduled for April 18, 2015, with construction beginning in earnest around two months later at the end of the current academic year.