Four months before President Donald Trump declared the federal government would no longer recognize transgender people, the Maui Preparatory Academy board met to discuss a similar question: What would the future be for its transgender students?
Hawaiʻi has traditionally sought to protect transgender students, providing public school students with the same access to bathroom facilities and locker rooms as the rest of their peers. But Maui Prep’s board chair wanted the private school to move in a different direction.
In a proposal Tim Hehemann shared with his fellow board members, the West Maui school would only allow students to dress according to their birth gender. The same guidelines would apply to students’ abilities to use bathrooms and participate on sports teams, he added.
“Maui Prep is a small, nonprofit school that can not meet the needs of every student or family,” Hehemann said in his email to the board.
The school eventually rolled back parts of its original plan following strong backlash from parents and faculty. The policy now states that the school will respect students’ pronouns with the approval of their parents, but it still requires kids to join sports teams and use bathrooms matching the sex they were assigned at birth.
The policy won’t go into effect until next year, but some advocates and educators say they’re concerned more schools may follow Maui Preparatory Academy’s lead amid growing pressure from the federal government to strip away protections for transgender students.
“I’m gravely concerned that this could be a precursor to other schools doing it,” said Michael Golojuch Jr., vice chair of the Hawaiʻi State LGBTQ+ Commission. “I personally will not let this issue die.”
Last month, the Trump administration barred schools from allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports, an order to which the Hawaiʻi Department of Education has yet to respond. Hawaiʻi currently allows transgender students to join the high school sports teams of their choice, following a state law that prevents schools from discriminating against students based on their gender identity.
Hawaiʻi risks losing over $320 million in federal funds each year – roughly 11% of the state education department’s budget – if it doesn’t comply with the executive order.
State law prevents schools from discriminating against students on the basis of gender identity, said Emily Hills, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi. Complying with Trump’s executive order would put Hawaiʻi directly at odds with state law and would likely end up in the courts, she added.
Most private schools don’t receive state or federal funds and have the freedom to create their own guidelines for transgender students. But they aren’t immune to growing debate about transgender students’ access to sports teams or bathroom facilities as both public and private schools enter into the crossfire of national politics.
“There’s going to be, I think, a lot of tension between these state anti-discrimination laws and what the federal government is asking the state to do,” Hills said.
Early Changes On Maui
The backlash against Maui Prep’s policies came quickly, with parents petitioning school leaders to reconsider the plan and taking to social media to air their frustrations with the school.
“I cannot in good conscience re-enroll my kids at this school,” one parent posted on a Facebook page for Maui Prep families shortly after the board’s proposal was publicized. “Please, please start listening to the community. They are screaming out for change and accountability,” another person wrote.
Many parents were unwilling to speak on the record about their opposition, citing concerns that the school could retaliate against them by reducing their child’s financial aid or removing their student from school midyear.
In a December letter to parents, the Board of Trustees apologized for a lack of communication with families but affirmed its plans for the next academic year.
“Maui Prep recognizes biological sex assigned at birth as the basis for determining participation in athletics, overnight stays, and access to facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms,” the board wrote.
Administrators later said transgender students could also use single-stall restrooms in the administrative building, a compromise teachers and parents criticized for singling out those kids from the rest of their peers.
Flo Wiger, who resigned from the Board of Trustees over the proposed policy, said the board president originally cited the costs of building gender-neutral bathrooms as a barrier for the school. But when she proposed converting an existing bathroom into a gender-neutral restroom, the board rejected her suggestion.
The school, which serves roughly 300 students in grades preschool through 12th grade, charges between $9,000 and $26,000 a year in tuition depending on the grade. In its tax filing for 2023, the school reported over $7.5 million in net assets.
While the school will try its best to accommodate requests from families, parents also have the freedom to change schools if they don’t agree with the administration, said Head of School Miguel Solis.
“We are committed to providing accommodations that respect and support transgender students while also considering the comfort and expectations of the majority of families who identify within the traditional male and female gender framework,” Solis said in an email.
Different Schools, Different Protections
Even if transgender students aren’t enrolled at Maui Prep, debates about their access to bathrooms or sports teams undermine kids’ sense of belonging and safety in school, said Golojuch of the LGBTQ+ Commission.
“These anti-policies hurt the self-worth of the students,” Golojuch said. “The message is getting out there that trans kids are different, and therefore they don’t belong.”
Nearly 3% of Hawaiʻi high schoolers identified as transgender in 2023, with an additional 2% reporting they were unsure of their gender identity. A report by the Hawaiʻi Department of Health last year found that nearly 30% of transgender students experienced bullying at school, compared to 17% of their non-transgender peers.
A national study published in 2024 also emphasized the need for creating more supportive and safe environments for transgender teens, who reported significantly higher rates of experiencing violence and attempting suicide. The survey found that roughly a quarter of transgender students attempted suicide or skipped school because they felt unsafe.
Hawaiʻi’s constitution prevents private schools from receiving state funding, exempting them from state anti-discrimination laws, said Philip Bossert, executive director at the Hawaiʻi Association of Independent Schools.
The association previously considered developing a policy around transgender students for member schools to adopt, but ultimately decided against it since every private school has the right to make its own decisions, Bossert added.
Roughly 80% of the 102 private schools in the association are religious. Maui Prep is an independent school with no religious affiliation.
On Oʻahu, Pacific Buddhist Academy allows transgender students to use bathrooms of their choice or a private staff restroom. David Kenney, head of school at St. Anthony School in Wailuku, said the small Catholic school requires students to use bathrooms and participate in sports based on their sex assigned at birth.
Public schools in Hawaiʻi, even those in more socially conservative parts of the state, have to follow much stronger rules aimed at allowing transgender students to express themselves with few requirements.
Those protections are likely to be tested by recent orders from the federal government.
For nearly a decade, the education department has required public schools to let students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity, regardless of the sex they were assigned at birth. If students are uncomfortable using shared bathrooms or locker rooms, schools should find alternatives, like allowing kids to use a single-stall bathroom in the health room, according to the 2016 policy.
Since the policy was adopted, Golojuch said he’s heard about fewer incidents of transgender students being called by the wrong name in schools or being forced to wear a graduation gown matching their sex assigned at birth.
On the mainland, some schools have moved in the opposite direction, with states like Ohio passing laws prohibiting transgender students from using bathrooms that match their gender identities.
An Unclear Future For Sports
A second Trump directive on sports participation raises the stakes on an issue that was already sparking debate in public and private schools.
Fewer than 10 transgender students compete in Hawaiʻi high school sports every year, according to Christopher Chun, who runs the Hawaiʻi High School Athletic Association. The association currently allows students to join sports teams based on their gender identity.
Island-specific sports leagues have taken a similar approach, putting more pressure on private schools to include their transgender students in athletics.
The Interscholastic League of Honolulu, which governs private school athletics on Oʻahu, says in its handbook that transgender students are allowed to participate in sports based on their gender identity, as long as they don’t have unfair physical advantages.
The Maui Interscholastic League also allows high school students to participate in sports based on their gender identity, and member schools — both public and private — are supposed to follow suit.
At Maui Prep, Solis said the school only received clarification on the league’s policies recently and is still considering how to serve its student-athletes moving forward. The school requires high school students to participate in at least one sport every year.
But some parents and lawmakers have strongly opposed these policies, contending that they put female students at a disadvantage.
In 2020, Lahainaluna High School coach and parent Cynthia Monteleone filed a Title IX complaint with the state education department. The complaint argued that Monteleone’s daughter and other female students were facing unfair treatment competing against a transgender athlete from Kamehameha Schools Maui in a girls’ track and field meet.
“Boys and men have dramatic advantages over girls and women in athletics,” Monteleone wrote in her complaint, which she said remains under investigation by the regional U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.
Two bills in the state Legislature this year proposed restricting transgender students’ participation in school athletics. Both bills died in the House and did not receive hearings.
States like Maine that have pushed back against Trump’s executive order barring transgender students from sports have faced an onslaught of investigations threatening their federal funding in recent weeks.
It’s unclear how the recent federal directive will impact local schools. In an emailed statement, Hawaiʻi education department spokesperson Nanea Ching said the agency is currently assessing the impact of executive orders on local schools and transgender students and will recommend policy changes at the state level if necessary.
“Our priority remains ensuring that all students receive uninterrupted educational services in safe, supportive school environments,” Ching said.
Hills of the ACLU said there’s no clear timeline on when the Trump administration may start scrutinizing Hawaiʻi schools’ policies on transgender students in sports. But the process of rescinding funding from schools is lengthy, Hills said, and the ACLU believes the state doesn’t have to make any immediate changes to its policies for transgender students.
When policies limiting access to sports teams and bathrooms do pass, Hills said, they can have serious consequences for transgender students’ sense of belonging and identity.
“It will have a chilling effect on students who feel like they can’t be out at school or at home,” Hills said. “It’s removing support from those students who might still be trying to figure out who they are and where they fit into the world.”
Full article can be found at: https://www.civilbeat.org/2025/03/transgender-students-have-strong-prote...ʻi-that-may-not-last/