BOE discusses all-gender bathrooms, transgender athletes

The CNMI Board of Education discussed sensitive topics, such as all-gender bathrooms and participation of transgender students in Public School System sports during its board meeting last Oct. 17 on Tinian.

Student Issues, Community, and Parental Programs Committee chair Anthony Dela Cruz Barcinas cautioned that PSS potentially can lose federal funding if it continues to construct all-gender bathrooms.

This, after President Donald J. Trump signed several executive orders in 2025 that restricted bathroom and facility access in federal properties and federally funded institutions based on sex assigned at birth.

“I know that our student rep wanted to engage with his peers regarding this issue. But for our next committee meeting, we will have these executive orders presented to us so that we can move forward on them,” Barcinas said.

Board member Maisie Tenorio, meanwhile, clarified that there seems to be a lot of misconceptions about what an all-gender restroom is.

“An all-gender restroom is just a restroom. It's the same as the restroom you have at your house. Anybody can use it. It's the same as a restroom that you would find on an airplane. Anybody can use it. It's not for students who identify and use it in a way. It's for all students.”

She added that it’s just for the safety of PSS’ students that the all-gender bathroom concept came about.

“It's just one restroom that any student can use. And I think most people already have something along these lines, like one restroom where a student can go in and use a standalone restroom. Maybe they just want extra privacy for whatever reason. So, you know, it's also about safety, right, and comfort. And, you know, one of our priorities is safe and caring schools.”

Tenorio also pushed the BOE to come up with a policy for transgender students’ participation in PSS sports.

“There was a child, a 10-year-old child who identifies as a trans female, trans girl, on a team. And the coach, I guess, was protesting this child's participation in PSS athletics in their identified gender group.”

She said before the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Education actually had guidance on elementary students and sports, which was that elementary students should be able to choose whatever gender team they wanted to participate in.

Education Commissioner Dr. Lawrence F. Camacho confirmed that PSS has no current policy with regards to transgender students’ participation in PSS sports.

“What the board did last year in the act of the policy was to allow me to work on it on a case-by-case basis. And that's exactly what I just did with this particular incident when this thing came around, was I got out the executive order, and I said this is what we're going to follow is the executive order, and we'll have an eligibility list, and to determine male, female, all those language, we would go back to just looking at all the birth certificates and go by that,” he said.

Camacho, however, said if the BOE adopts a policy on transgender students’ participation in PSS sports, then he will abide by it.

“And I'm not trying to discount the situation. It's just a very complicated situation. But I am actually working off of what I have, or what I don't have, which is [having] no policy.”

BOE member Andrew Orsini said his concern is that if PSS runs counter to Trump’s executive order on transgender students’ participation in PSS sports, it may lose federal funds.

“I don't know what the impact or how much we're looking at, but it's something to consider whether we should implement a policy, because it's only fair to us if those who don't agree with what our policy says, then take the action of their own to expand that. We need to have a policy so we keep intact the funds that are allocated. Like I said, I don't know the numbers.”