October 6, 2026
CANISTEO, NY – There were dozens of high school girls at the Canisteo-Greenwood BOE meeting last night, as well as several boys and some parents and other adults. The apparent reason for their presence (for most of them) was a topic raised at public comment: Canisteo-Greenwood’s policy about locker rooms. Indicating that the board knew what was coming up in the public comment part of the meeting, School Superintendent Crook explained ahead of time, he did not want to hear student’s names mentioned. “I want to begin by acknowledging that parents every right to advocate for their children, ask questions and express concerns,” Crook said at the opening of public comment. “As a school district we are committed to listening respectfully and treating everyone with dignity. At the same time the board of education and school administration are legally obligated to follow state and federal law, regardless of our own personal viewpoints or political beliefs. Under New York law, gender identity and expression are protected characteristics and discrimination based on those characteristics are prohibited in educational settings and places of public Accommodation. New York State has specifically required students to choose the restroom and changing rooms of their gender that they identify as, as they wish. Because of student privacy laws, including the Ferpa Act (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), we cannot discuss any individual student here tonight. What we can say is that the district does not have the authority to deny student’s rights that are protected under state law. We have checked with our school attorney and they have informed us that an executive order (from Washington) cannot overrule a state law. Our responsibility is to comply with the (state) law while also maintaining a safe, respectful and supportive environment for all of our students. We recognize that some of the students and families may desire additional privacy. The district has addressed the issue of privacy by adding temporary screens for locker bays – just an update this, the screens are new. We recognize the fact that the first ones weren’t ideal, but they were the ones that we could get our hands on the quickest, in Hornell, New York – and we also are having conversations about permanently changing the locker room. We’ve also allowed students to dress elsewhere and we’ve also gotten to the point where we are no longer requiring (students) to change for physical education. So we have addressed the concerns of all students. The district will continue to make reasonable privacy accomodations available to any student who requests them, regardless of their reason for the request, while ensuring that no student is singled out, excluded or treated differently because of a protected characteristic. Tonight I ask that we conduct this discussion respectfully, focus on facts, applicable law and remember that every student in our school is someone’s child and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect,” Superintendent Crook said.
Then the public comment section of the school board meeting began. The questions and statements were made, starting in the first row and moved to the second and third rows, as well as comments from students at a table and people standing in the back. School Board President Mike Nesbit explained that the board wanted to limit the comments to three minutes for each speaker (which the CG Board of Ed did not strictly enforce, some people spoke less than that and some went over the three minutes). The first person who spoke mentioned that some of the staff had the attitude of “you’re a child, I’m an adult, shut your mouths,” when it came to the issue of students complaining about the way things were going at CG. Another person told the school board that the BOE had addressed the permanent solutions but that she believed that with the state laws making serious changes to school systems, that the school should have done more to make this information known to the public ahead of time. “I don’t understand why, if knowing that New York State was going to have this issue, why this wasn’t addressed first,” she stated. One man said that his daughter was a 7th grader and he said he found the situation, “very disheartening” to learn that his daughter was changing in a locker room, “with a boy who believes he’s a girl”. A man standing in the back of the cafeteria did much of the talking. “Several times tonight, I’ve heard the comment that ‘we’re trying to make everybody comfortable. However, it’s painfully clear: only one person is comfortable and that’s the only person who seems to matter.” The same CG parent also stated that there has been the “successful silencing of young women” in the school system. The man also complained that while there were statements from the BOE about keeping the public informed, “Nobody was informed leading up to this.” He also asked what is so important, that a transgender has to be in the girl’s locker room? “100 students have to cater to one person,” he said.
Canisteo-Greenwood School Board President Mike Nesbit stated numerous times that this policy had come down from Albany and that all comments and questions would be passed on to the CG school attorney.
Another topic discussed last night at the Canisteo-Greenwood Board of Education meeting included, how the Regents exams are not going away completely. Also, Superintendent Crook noted that there are talks going on between the state and federal government about how to handle this, as the state gets federal funding based on testing.
