Wrap: Lamar Republican Senator Ed Emery is sponsoring a bill that would require students to use the locker rooms and restrooms assigned to them by biological sex. Schools would be required to create different facilities for students who identify with a gender opposite their biological sex.

Emery said the legislation is designed to protect all students.

Actuality:	EMERYA.WAV
Run Time:	00:12
Description: "What is common is the need to protect our children. And so, now that this issue has been raised, it's important that we look at this and say, 'okay, how can all children be protected?'"

This legislation comes after Missouri made national headlines when a transgender student in a Jefferson County High School wanted to access female facilities in the school.

Reporting from the state Capitol, I'm Jill Ornitz.

Wrap: Lamar Republican Senator Ed Emery is sponsoring the bill, which requires students to use the locker rooms and restrooms assigned to their biological sex.

Emery said the legislation is designed to make sure all students feel comfortable, while taking physiological difference into account.

Actuality:	EMERYB.WAV
Run Time:	00:15
Description: "If you walk into a restroom, I could walk in to virtually any restroom and it would be easy for me to identify whether that was a restroom for males or a restroom for females because there are physiological differences."

The legislation requires school districts to provide accomodations for students who identify as a gender opposite their biological sex, but does not allocate funding for the districts to create those facilities.

Reporting from the state Captiol, I'm Jill Ornitz.

 

Wrap: Lamar Republican Senator Ed Emery said school districts would have to provide separate facilities for students who identify with a gender opposite their biological sex in order to make sure all students feel comfortable.

Actuality:	EMERYC.WAV
Run Time:	00:14
Description: "What we've tried to do is draft something that allows appropriate protections for all children without having to change the world view of the 999 because of one."

The legislation follows a period of national exposure for Missouri after a transgender student at a Jefferson County high school asked to use female facilities instead of unisex facilities.

Students and parents alike protested the request, with students staging a walkout at their school.

Reporting from the state Capitol, I'm Jill Ornitz.