BISMARCK, North Dakota (LifeSiteNews) — School districts in North Dakota must require men to stay out of women’s bathrooms, according to a new law.
The new law, signed Monday by Republican Governor Doug Burgum, allows teachers to ignore a student’s “preferred pronouns,” requires individuals to use the bathroom of their actual sex and prohibits school employees from hiding a student’s identification as the opposite sex from their parents.
“A board of a school district, public school, or public school teacher may not adopt a policy that requires or prohibits any individual from using a student’s preferred gender pronoun,” the law states. School districts should “establish, with the approval of the parent or legal guardian, a plan for the use of a separate restroom accommodation for a transgender student” while it must also “prohibit a student from using a restroom that does not coincide with the student’s biological sex.”
“House Bill 1522 largely codifies existing practices while reaffirming the First Amendment right to free speech, requiring restroom accommodations, balancing the rights and interests of students, parents and teachers,” Gov. Burgum said.
He previously vetoed a stronger, related law.
Burgum recently signed a similar law that applied to prisons and colleges.
The legislation signed in April makes the state’s college students and prisoners use bathrooms and locker rooms in accordance with their sex, as LifeSiteNews previously reported.
According to the provisions of H.B. 1473, jails, prisons, and public colleges must designate bathrooms, showers, locker rooms in a dormitory or living facility owned by the state board of higher education, as well as penitentiaries and correctional facilities for adults and youths, as “for use exclusively for males or exclusively for females.”
The legislation further requires special accommodations be given to students and prisoners “as deemed appropriate” by prison or college dorm staff, as previously reported by LifeSiteNews. The law passed both houses of the North Dakota legislature with veto-proof majorities.