Undated (KELO-AM) South Dakota leaders are blasting the White House transgender directive.
The Obama Adminstration is telling all school systems in the nation that they must let students use the bathroom of their gender choice.
A spokesman for U.S. Senator John Thune says the Senator has always believed that issues like this are best handled at the local level, and continues to hold that believe.
U.S. Representative Kristi Noem believes it is another example of overreach by the Obama Administration. Her spokeswoman says Noem believes the federal government has no role in the transgender debate.
"President Obama does not have the legal authority to mandate South Dakota schools and parents to require our children to share locker rooms and bathrooms with children of the opposite sex," says State Attorney General Marty Jackley. But Jackley also says that any harassment that targets a transgender student is not appropriate and is against the law.
Governor Dennis Daugaard's Spokesman Tony Venhuizen tells the Argus News Leader in Sioux Falls that this is another "overreach" by the Obama Administration, and that if the President wants to make this a law then he should go through Congress.
Earlier this year, Daugaard vetoed a bill passed by the 2016 State Legislature that would have mandated South Dakota students use the bathroom based on biology not gender identity.
Jackley says that there are opportunities for state lawmakers and school districts to address the transgender issue, but this Obama Administration mandate, threatening lawsuits and the withholding of federal money, is not the proper approach.