Restroom and Changing Facility Use

Restroom and Changing Facility Use Based on Biological Sex at Birth

Pursuant to s. 553.865, Florida Statutes, and Rule 6A-14.00612, Florida Administrative Code, all restrooms and changing facilities at Pensacola State College are designated for exclusive use by males or females and shall be limited to individuals based on their biological sex at birth, with the exception of single use restrooms and restrooms specifically designated by signage as unisex.  Single use and unisex restrooms may be used by individuals of either sex.  Any student who willfully enters, for a purpose other than one of the Permitted Exceptions listed below, a restroom or changing facility designated for the opposite sex on College premises and refuses to depart when asked to do so by any administrative personnel, faculty member, security personnel, or law enforcement personnel shall be subject to disciplinary proceedings under the Student Code of Conduct.  Charges may be brought against the student for Failure to Comply and Unauthorized Entry or Use as proscribed by the Student Code of Conduct.  The infraction will be investigated, and action taken under the due process provisions for student misconduct pursuant to the Student Rights section of the Student Handbook.  Investigations, formal hearings and sanctions imposed will be in compliance with existing provisions and procedures for investigations, formal hearings and sanctions in the Student Handbook.

Permitted Exceptions:

(a) To accompany a person of the opposite sex for the purpose of assisting or chaperoning a child under the age of 12, an elderly person as defined in s. 825.101, or a person with a disability as defined in s. 760.22 or a developmental disability as defined in s. 393.063;

(b) For law enforcement or governmental regulatory purposes;

(c) For the purpose of rendering emergency medical assistance or to intervene in any other emergency situation where the health or safety of another person is at risk;

(d) For custodial, maintenance, or inspection purposes, provided that the restroom or changing facility is not in use; or

(e) If the appropriate designated restroom or changing facility is out of order or under repair and the restroom or changing facility designated for the opposite sex contains no person of the opposite sex.

If the College fails to meet the foregoing requirements for use of restrooms and changing facilities, any student has the right to file a complaint with the Florida Attorney General alleging such failure.

This policy does not apply to an individual who is or has been under treatment by a physician who performs procedures upon or provides therapies to a minor born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sexual development, who in the physician’s good faith clinical judgment has any of the following conditions:

(a) External biological sex characteristics that are unresolvably ambiguous.

(b) A disorder of sexual development in which the physician has determined through genetic or biochemical testing that the patient does not have a normal sex chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production, or sex steroid hormone action for a male or female, as applicable.

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