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Residents urge District 128 to protect single-sex spaces and stress survey participation
Summary
Multiple members of the public at the Oct. 14 Program & Personnel meeting pressed District 128 officials to keep males out of girls' locker rooms and bathrooms, asked the board to require higher survey participation rates before acting on results, and described specific locker-room incidents at Libertyville High School.
Several residents used the Program & Personnel Committee's public-comment period to urge the board to preserve single-sex changing spaces and to be cautious about acting on survey data with low participation.
"If only 20% of the student body participated, you know, I don't think I think you should cut the meeting short and not even go through the results," Socrates Veil told the committee, asking the board to treat participation rate as the first metric when staff present survey findings. Veil said the district had been welcoming historically and asked the board to focus on improving outcomes for Hispanic students.
Other speakers recounted personal concerns about student safety in locker rooms and gym spaces. "There is absolute truth that cannot be changed," Kristen Christiansen said. She described an incident she said occurred at Libertyville High School and argued the district should provide separate spaces: "If the population of transgender people is growing in size and being more acknowledged, why can't we give them something of their own, their own space? This keeps everyone safe," she told the committee.
Her daughter, speaking separately, described encountering a male-presenting student in the girls' locker room and said she and classmates were not told by staff that the situation would occur: "Seeing a male where my body goes exposed, where I'm vulnerable scared me, as well as other females that had to go through it." The daughter asked the district to consider policies that reduce what she called risks to students.
A different public commenter, Jake Shulman, spoke at length about alleged misconduct by a coach now employed outside District 128 and linked his remarks to a broader objection to district gender-identity policies: "Protect the students. Stop hiring freaks," he said, using language that reflects his strongly held viewpoint.
The committee chair reminded commentators that public comment is limited to three minutes and said the district would accept comments only on topics relevant to the agenda. Board members and staff did not take formal action during the public-comment period.
Speakers and roles mentioned in the meeting transcript included Socrates Veil (resident), Jake Shulman (resident), Kristen Christiansen (parent), Kelsey Christiansen (student), and Suzanne Newman (resident). Their remarks were heard during the Program & Personnel Committee meeting on Oct. 14, 2025.
