A public school district in Texas passed a new rule requiring students to use the bathroom or locker room matching their biological gender.
The Frisco Independent School District board approved the new policy Monday night, according to a Fox News report. The new policy also allows individual exceptions for the use of private bathrooms at the request of parents or students.
Concerned parents and members of the community spoke out both in favor of and against the policy before the final vote was taken.
Some of those in favor argued the policy is a commonsense reform, with other supporters declaring, “God created only two sexes at birth.”
“We must take emotion out of the issue and use common sense,” argued a speaker identified as Stacy W. “Our kids must know that when they go to change or go to use the restroom, they will not be faced with someone biologically from the other sex.”
Those opposed said the policy unnecessarily targets transgender students.
“According to recent studies, 75% of transgender youth feel unsafe at school. Having to ask for and use a special bathroom requires the trans student to draw attention to themselves and may require them to run across the entire campus to tend to their bodily functions. That is not inclusive, or kind,” concerned parent Ellie Patel told Fox 4.
As reported by The Lion, some serious crimes have been committed when bathroom policies are loosened.
One such case took place in Loudoun County, Virginia, in which a biological male dressed as a girl sexually assaulted a biological female in the girls’ restroom, made possible in part by the district’s bathroom policy.
The male student was ultimately convicted in the assault – as well as a similar assault at a different school only months after the first incident.
That case and others have led school districts around the country to enact policies similar to the one enacted by the Frisco ISD on Monday.
Earlier this month, a Kansas school district voted to ban transgender students from using bathrooms and competing on sports teams that don’t match their birth gender. The Kansas City-area Gardner Edgerton School Board voted 5-2 in favor of the new policy Nov. 7.
Just as in Texas, while some concerned Kansans spoke out against the new policy, others said it was in the best interest of the majority of the district’s students and was not directed specifically at transgender students.
“They have finally listened to the majority of our community and done what is right for the majority of the students,” Brenda Thompson, a parent in the district, told KSHB. “This is not, you know, direct measures at them (transgender students). This is for our school district as a whole and what the majority would like to see.”
The Frisco ISD board, which voted 7-0 to approve the new policy, also approved a separate policy regarding the review of challenged library books.
That new policy comes in response to a Nov. 1 letter from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, in which he asked the state’s association of school boards to “ensure no child is exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content in a Texas public school.”
