In late August 2025, collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, who is also known for advocating against transgender women participating in women's sports, posted a video on TikTok in which she said that one of her social media followers in California told her that her daughter's school required she fill out a "mental health accommodation form" in order to avoid sharing a bathroom or locker room with transgender classmates.
Gaines began:
I just had a follower in California reach out and let me know that her daughter had to fill out a mental-health accommodation form declaring that she had a mental-health issue for, get this, not wanting to share the restroom, locker room, bathroom with a boy. Let that really, really sink in. In California, if you're a girl who doesn't want to use—a high school, middle school age girl—if you don't want to have to use the restroom next to a boy or forcibly undress next to a boy, that makes you mentally deranged. Not the boy who wants to be in that space. The boy declaring himself to be something that he's not. No, that's totally sane, totally sound in the mind. But you are the one with the mental-health issue.
Gaines' video garnered more than 475,000 views, as of this writing, and the claim spread to other platforms, including Facebook (archived) and X (archived). Dozens of Snopes readers also searched the site for answers. We reached out via phone and email to the Temecula Valley Unified School District, the district named in the claims, for context and will update this story if we receive a response.
In the meantime, all evidence suggests the policy "requiring" students to fill out a mental-health accommodation form in order to access private bathrooms and locker rooms is not, as of this writing, in place in the Temecula Valley district.
On Aug. 26, 2025, the district's school board voted 4-1 to table a policy that would have required students to seek special accommodations if they didn't want to share a locker room or restroom with trans classmates, meaning that the school board had not adopted this policy. The board did, however, move to adopt the policy on Aug. 26.
The policy currently in place for shared facilities reads, "In accordance with California Education Code § 221.5(f) and state nondiscrimination laws, our district provides shared bathrooms and locker rooms that are accessible to students based on their gender identity, regardless of the gender listed on a student's records." It also affords religious accommodation, reading:
Under California Education Code § 51240 and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, parents and guardians may request that their child be excused from specific instructional content or school activities that conflict with sincerely held religious beliefs. This may include parts of the curriculum (such as health or family life education) or activities like the use of shared locker rooms.
In a recording (archived) of the meeting available on the school district's official YouTube account, the school board introduced the motion to additionally allow for mental-health accommodations (at 2:00:17) in an effort to include students who were not religious who wanted segregated bathrooms and locker rooms.
School board President Melinda Anderson introduced the motion, saying:
Not every student belongs to a church or a faith group. That's why we added a mental-health accommodation to give students the same chance to protect their privacy. I have friends and family in this district who aren't religious and this kind of option matters for them, too. What I want is for all students, religious or not, to have a fair way to opt out if they're uncomfortable.
After almost two hours of discussion and public comment, the board decided to postpone a decision and introduced a motion to table the policy instead. Therefore, the option to request mental-health accommodations for the purposes of segregated or private bathroom and locker room facilities is not, as of this writing, in practice in the TVUSD.
School board member Emil Barham, who suggested the board postpone the motion, said that he wanted more time to consider ways to avoid stigmatizing students by requiring them to request mental-health accommodations for the use of private facilities.
The mental-health accommodation form that Gaines displayed on her TikTok was real; as of this writing, it is available on the TVUSD website: