School District 49 voted 3-2 to suspend its policy not to allow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms aligning with their gender identity during its board meeting on Friday.

The policy was approved by a 3-2 vote in September, and the issue returned to the board after Holly Withers unseated incumbent Jamilynn D’Avola, who previously voted for the policy by 17 votes in November. The issue will return to the board for a final decision to repeal the policy at a meeting on Jan. 27.

“Nobody is going to be happy about which way this rolls down the hill, but I think it really opens us up to a lot of legal ramifications,” Withers said.

The policy, JBAA, established clear guidelines to separate toilet, locker room and shower facilities between students of opposite sexes, regardless of gender identity.

Board President Marie La Vere-Wright prepared the agenda item, which outlined concerns that the policy violates the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and a 2013 ruling by the Colorado Civil Rights Division against Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8.

That ruling allowed then-6-year-old Coy Mathis, a transgender girl, to use the girls’ bathroom at Eagleside Elementary after she was denied access, according to previous reporting by The Gazette. The policy passed in September by D-49 had separated sex-segregated facilities by “biological sex.”

Several board members noted that D-49 has been compliant with the Mathis decision since 2013, and suspending the policy would return the district to what it had done before September. Given its recent passage, D-49 has yet to pass enforcement mechanisms for the policy, so schools may not have made any changes since the policy became active.

“If (the policy) is suspended, literally nothing changes in the schools,” La Vere-Wright said. “What was happening yesterday is exactly what continues to happen today.”

La Vere-Wright cut off the board discussion to call for a vote after each member spoke because it will return to the board again. Director Lori Thompson objected to ending the discussion, describing the action as “dismissive of discussion.”

Director Deb Schmidt and Thompson, who voted against suspending the policy, used their speaking time to advocate for the comfort in the restroom for all students.

“If you were to tell a biological girl and their parents that trans girls that are biologically male will be forced into their private facilities, many of them would not feel comfortable in that facility,” Schmidt said. “I do not believe that would be fair either because now the burden of accommodation is placed solely on biological girls.”

Thompson had also motioned at the beginning of the meeting to table the agenda item but did not receive the required three votes.

Numerous parents of current and former D-49 students spoke against suspending the policy to the board during the public forum, including two former board members.

“If science, which in this case is biology, and truth are considered in this policy, it will not be rescinded,” former D-49 board president John Graham said. “So I got a few questions for you. Have you discussed this with students and parents and staff? Can a man get pregnant?”

One self-proclaimed local women’s rights advocate, Yolanda Edwards, shouted, “You will be getting sued,” at the board moments after they initially approved the suspension as she walked out of the room.

Proponents of suspending the policy compelled the board to consider the harm it has on trans students and the legal issues D-49 may face if it continues to be an active policy.

D-49’s approval of the policy in September came several months after the board prohibited students whose gender did not align with their assigned sex at birth from competing in athletic activities that matched their gender.

The district, along with several others, sued the Colorado High School Activities Association over its policies, but ultimately settled to allow them to enforce them without penalty.

The settlement agreement also allowed for the segregation of locker rooms and overnight travel accommodations by assigned sex at birth for athletic activities. The board’s action on Friday regarding locker rooms only impacts students who use them during school hours or outside of athletic activities.

Furthermore, D-49’s board voted in the spring to acknowledge that there are two biological sexes that are distinct from one’s gender identity and expression, according to previous reporting by The Gazette.

D-49 Superintendent Peter Hilts credited CHSAA for “doing the right thing” to permit the district to uphold the “spirit of Title IX” and “protect girls’ sports,” he stated in a district news release from December.