The Chicago Tribune's Rex Huppke Has attempted to bring some sanity into the case of the Palatine transgender strudent.

At the center of a suburban school board's dispute over allowing a transgender student access to the girls locker room there is, of course, a human being.

A teenage human being. A female teenage human being who I believe would appreciate it if people would stop trying to tell her who she is and who she is not.

That's the point, Rex.

At bottom, they do not accept that we are human beings.

A settlement was reached last week to allow this girl to use th girls locker room, but that didn't end the disagreement between the Department of Education and the school board, so the school board met again last night and reaffirmed the settlement.

We believe this is the best course of action for this student while balancing the needs of all the teenage students in our district. The district will accommodate gender-identified locker room access for this student predicated on agreement to use the privacy measures provided.

We are installing privacy curtains in our locker rooms, with the assurance that this student will use them.

--school board President Mucia Burke

Huppke sought an interview with Student A. Her ACLU attorneys said she didn't want to speak with the press. So Huppke asked if she would like to write him a note.

She did:

It is interesting that the controversy at District 211 is bringing out both the worst and the best in people. It is frustrating, for example, to read about what people are saying about me as though they know all about me when they've never even met me. I read that people are calling me by male pronouns, when clearly I am female. I am a girl. I am just a girl like every other girl in my school. It is so odd — and pretty offensive — to hear others speaking about me without ever having seen me.

Student A has been frustrated that the district made the issue public. She thanked the people who have supported her fight for equal treatment.

I hope that years from now we will look back on this and see it as a step towards making things better for all kids in school, not just those who are transgender.

--Student A

Huppke responded:

I wish I could call you by your real name, but I understand your need for privacy, particularly when so much of your privacy has already been stripped away. I can't imagine being a teenager and having the superintendent of your school district go on national television and bring up issues of your anatomy, as if body parts pose some inherent threat to young lives.

When Superintendent Daniel Cates was interviewed by Megyn Kelly on Fox News, she pressed him to answer one simple question regarding you getting access to the girls locker room: "What are you worried will happen?"

He couldn't answer that, probably because he and the parents who have stood up at meetings and refused to even acknowledge your gender identity don't know what they're worried about. They're just scared that life might be more complex than they want it to be.

They're afraid of change, afraid of our own scientific and societal enlightenment, and our growing understanding that anatomy and gender identity do not always match. Life is simpler when things are binary, and when people don't want to take the time to understand something complicated, they stick with the simpler explanation.

What they forget, unfortunately, is you. The young person at the heart of all this. The teenager who just wants to be who she is: a person who changes behind a curtain because she chooses to, not because she must; a person given the chance to blend in rather that forced to stand out; a person who, admirably, doesn't want any who follow her to endure this level of scrutiny.

There are many who haven't treated you with respect, and for that I'm sorry. But please know that whatever happens in the weeks and months to come, you are supported and admired by many.

And you know who you are. Which is more than a lot of people, adults and teenagers alike, can say.

--Huppke