CARSON CITY, Nev. – A bill designed to maintain single-gender restroom and shower facilities in public schools never got a hearing in front of the Nevada State Assembly’s Education Committee.

One prominent supporter thinks that was the result of political pressure from the state’s largest school district.

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But the chairman of the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee has given the legislation new life at the last possible moment.

It will get a hearing on Friday, which is the last day for bills to be considered before the end of the biennial legislative session.

The “Student’s Right to Privacy Act” was introduced last month in the Nevada state Assembly. It was written in response to recently-adopted policies in several school districts, in Nevada and other states, allowing transgender students to use the restrooms or shower facilities of their choice, regardless of their biological gender.

In other words, transgender boys are allowed use girls’ facilities, and the other way around. Critics of such policies say they are a gross violation of privacy for the vast majority of students.

The bill would guarantee that school restrooms, locker rooms and showers designated for use by one biological gender remain that way. It would allow schools to provide various options for transgender students, including access to single stall, unisex or faculty restrooms.

But the bill was sent to the Assembly’s Education Committee, where it was never scheduled for a hearing. The bill must pass out of some committee before Friday to gain consideration by the full Assembly in the current legislative session.

The Nevada legislature will not meet again for two years.

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But the Assembly Judiciary Committee announced on Thursday that it would have a hearing on the bill Friday morning at 8 a.m., before the window of opportunity closes.

Assemblyman Ira Hansen, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, requested that the bill be transferred to his committee, and the chair of the Education Committee apparently agreed.

“I met with Chairman Hansen and he felt it was worthy of a hearing,” said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute, a conservative non-profit that supports the legislation. “He felt it was an important issue. I’m elated. All elected officials should have the ability to have their bills heard.

“I’m glad this will be fully debated so all Nevadans can see where their representatives stand.”

England said she’s cautiously optimistic that there will be enough votes to pass the bill in committee and the full Assembly.

She’s a lot more hopeful than she was a few days ago, when it appeared that state Assemblywoman Melissa Woodbury, the chair of the Education Committee, would allow the legislation to die without a hearing.

England said she met with Woodbury last week and came away with little hope.

“When we ended the meeting, (Woodbury) looked me straight in the face and said as of right now they don’t plan on hearing it,” England said. “She said that the next week was set and it was not on the agenda. She said they have other bills that need to be heard.”

England suspects that paid lobbyists from the Clark County (Las Vegas) school district, the fifth largest in the nation, have been working behind the scenes to keep the bill off the Education Committee’s agenda.

The lobbyists reportedly claim that the district is neutral on the bill, but England said they were inexplicably present during her meeting with Woodbury.

Last year a draft copy of a policy, allowing transgender students access to the restrooms and showers of the opposite biological gender, was distributed among staff in the Clark County district. The draft leaked out to critics, but was never released by the district or discussed in any public manner.

“I get the impression that (Woodbury) is not scheduling it because the Clark County school district is pressuring her,” said England, who noted that Woodbury is a teacher in the Clark County school district. “I’ve had numerous sources tell me to my face that she’s not going to hear it because of them.

“If (Clark County) lobbyists are neutral and not pressuring her, why were they in the meeting with us?”

EAGnews left detailed messages with Woodbury and her media spokesman, seeking comment on the legislation, but neither responded.

Nevada is not the first state where proposed legislation addressing school transgender policy encountered legislative obstacles.

In Kentucky earlier this year, Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo announced that his chamber would not consider a transgender bill very similar to Nevada’s, which had already been approved by the Senate.

Stumbo said the House docket was too full, but also mocked the Senate and its Republican majority for “deciding where kids can go to the bathroom. That’s a heck of a weighty issue for the state of Kentucky.”