WEST FRANKFORT (WSIL) -- A developing situation out of West Frankfort is now garnering national attention. A Frankfort Community high school PE teacher is now on administrative leave after taking a stance on a student's admittance into a locker room.
An incident at FCHS last week is causing shock waves across town.
PE teacher, Cody Hiller, chose not to comment, but according to previous interviews Hiller did with a religious channel and on podcasts, he said that last week he was alerted to a female student who requested use of the boys' locker room for changing purposes following class. Hiller said he approached school administration, citing issues with the circumstances, standing firm on his decision, which lead to Hiller being placed on administrative leave.
Frankfort Community Superintendent, Matt Donkin, issued a short press release Friday afternoon which states: "As this situation deals with issues covered by privacy laws regarding personnel and student records issues, we are limited to what we can comment at this time. The district continues to respectfully listen to all feedback as we work to follow federal and state laws."
Local attorney Aaron Hopkins said, according to federal and state law, and findings by the Illinois Human Rights Commission, schools are not allowed to deny access to transgender students to public restrooms or locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity.
"Students must be allowed to use the facilities that correspond with their gender identity," Hopkins explained, citing Illinois law. "And schools cannot impose on transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming students conditions on the use of facilities that are not required of other students."
Jennifer Smith from Franczek P.C., a law firm in Chicago that specializes in equality and education, said if a school were to ignore this law, they could potentially face very serious consequences.
"There's state law that that would violate, and the potential for liability in terms of damages and attorney's fees," Smith said. "There's federal law that it would violate, which would also have attorney's fees and damages. And third, the US Department of education conditions federal funding on schools agreeing on nondiscriminatory practices. So, there would be the risk of loss of federal funding."
Smith also said, school officials or teachers are not allowed to tell parents of a change in facility use if it poses the chance of identifying the student.
Hiller said he is in touch with an attorney and awaiting the next step from school administration.