The superintendent of the Harrold Independent School District in Texas says he knows of no transgender students in his district, and that, in his 36 years as an educator, he has never come across a transgender student.

Nevertheless, David Thweatt’s district adopted a policy requiring students to use bathrooms coinciding with the sex stated on their birth certificates.

Thweatt made these statements at a press conference announcing a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s guidance, telling schools to let transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identities.

Thweatt’s district made news in 2008 when it was the first school in the country that allowed teachers and staff to carry guns. Thweatt said then that his “Guardian Plan” would protect students from the anger in society. We would posit that anger is engendered when people feel invisible, ignored, or tormented as many transgender students do. People feel safer when their identity is recognized and acknowledged.

We’re glad we live in New York, a state that 10 months before May’s federal directive, had already provided guidance to schools on accommodating transgender students.

We believe school leaders here in Guilderland are several steps ahead of the superintendent of Harrold because they know transgender students.

In January, two of them — Julia Crooks and Ryka Sweeney — were brave enough to speak to the school board. Ryka Sweeney told us then about the importance of the Alliance — formed in the mid-1990s when some of the members of the school board then opposed the group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning students. Ryka called it “a safe place with people who understood what I was going through.”

Ryka had seen gender-neutral bathrooms at Albany High School, describing them as single rooms, much like a bathroom at home, that are used by members of both genders.

“Instead of being a boys’ room or a girls’ room, it’s a single stall,” Ryka said. “I personally feel uncomfortable using the girls’ restroom. I feel like everyone is looking at me — like, you’re not a girl. I just want to pee, OK.”

This discussion took place before North Carolina passed a law requiring people there to use bathrooms conforming to the gender assigned at birth regardless of their current identity, and before the Obama administration responded with its letter.

Guilderland school leaders voiced their support for transgender students and Clifford Nooney, supervisor of buildings and grounds, went to Alliance meetings to gauge needs and see how best to accommodate them.

This past week, another transgender student, Riley Gohlke-Schermer, co-president of Alliance, spoke to the Guilderland School Board about the need for gender-neutral bathrooms and changing areas.

“It’s hard when you want to go to the bathroom really bad and you’re in the science wing,” Riley said, saying it was a 15-minute walk round-trip to the gender-neutral bathroom in the nurse’s office.

“You end up holding it in all day because it’s not worth it,” Riley told the board. Riley also said, “I don’t change for gym. I don’t feel comfortable…People will mention, ‘You don’t look like this gender. You shouldn’t be here. They should not be picked on.”

Riley had a different idea than Ryka about gender-neutral bathrooms. Riley thought it would be inexpensive to change the signs on the current bathrooms, allowing anyone in, each in a private stall.

The school needs to have frank discussions on what is meant by gender-neutral bathrooms and how they can be set up in a way that will respect the privacy of all students.

Two smaller local districts — Voorheesville and Berne-Knox-Westerlo — have set up gender-neutral bathrooms that, the superintendents say, have cost very little if anything.

The Guilderland School Board’s policy committee is currently looking at several gender-identity policies and is waiting to see how the federal guidelines “come down,” said board member Barbara Fraterrigo. “I think we’re on the right path,” she said, noting a public workshop will be held in the fall “to make the community aware of the transgender community.”

Board member Colleen O’Connell, who is retiring from the board, called it a civil rights issue and said to her colleagues, “I hope you guys take this on and treat it with the respect it deserves…We owe it to not only educate ourselves but to help our community understand this…There is so much ignorance…it’s embarrassing.”

Superintendent Marie Wiles, who notes there are four gender-neutral bathrooms in the high school now, said, “We are working to be very sensitive to this. This board wants to do this right, to respect the needs of all our students.”

The courage of these three Guilderland transgender students — nurtured by the Alliance — has allowed us to see something the Harrold superintendent can’t or won’t see — real people. We’ve profiled them on our pages so our community can know them, too.

Ryka Sweeney at 17 is already a volunteer firefighter, following a family tradition. Ryka’s mother and father are volunteer firefighters and so was Sweeney’s grandfather and uncle. Ryka described their household as free of gender roles and said, “My Mom is my best friend.”

Riley hopes to pursue theater as a career. Riley has helped build sets for Guilderland Players productions. As a child, Riley loved to wear dresses and also relished playing with toys usually reserved for boys. Building stage sets, Riley combines carpentry skills with artistic flourish.

Riley’s parents — “I love them more than anything in the world” — are lesbians. Because of that, Riley was badly bullied in middle school but overcame it with the help of Alliance and stage-crew friends. Her torment was not unique.

LGBT students victimized because of their gender expression were more than three times as likely to have missed school than their less victimized counterparts, according to the 2013 National School Climate Survey. They also had lower grades than students who reported being harassed less often; they were twice as likely not to plan education after high school; and they had higher levels of depression and lower levels of self-esteem.

Both Ryka and Riley have chafed under a language that doesn’t have a pronoun to describe them; each has chosen “they.” Riley admires Daniel McBride, a Guilderland High School English teacher, who includes as part of his lessons on grammar the use of “they” as a singular pronoun.

Riley envisions a world where transgender rights are taught in history class as part of textbooks the way the civil rights movement for African-Americans has been.

These transgender students have been open and honest about the most personal parts of their lives so that we can better understand the needs they have to feel comfortable and accepted — something any school should provide for its students.

“We’re learning with a lot of people in the community,” Guilderland School Board member Judy Slack told Riley. “Thank you for helping us along the path of knowledge.”

The next step on that path must be action.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer