Last Friday, hundreds of students from the Perkiomen Valley High School in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, walked out of classes to protest a district policy that allows transgender students, regardless of their biological sex, to use the restroom that they feel more closely aligns with their own gender identity.
Policy 720 would have required students to use the restroom that aligned with their biological sex. The policy failed to pass in a 5-4 vote of the school board on September 11.
Some students felt that the protest was necessary after the Perkiomen Valley School Board refused to pass a common-sense policy that would have required students to use the restroom that aligned with their biological sex. Students and parents of the school are worried that the school could see the same type of trouble that occurred in Loudoun County, Virginia, where a biological male student who “identified” as female sexually assaulted two female students.
“What if a person with the wrong intention decides they want to use the bathroom for the wrong intention?” asked 17-year-old senior Brandon Corner, who participated in the walk-out.
In “protecting” the rights of transgender students, many believed that the rights of other students were sacrificed. “The LGBTQ rights should not infringe on our privacy rights,” Corner added.
Corner’s mother, Melanie, echoed this sentiment.
“Their rights should be addressed but not at the expense of taking away the rights of the non-LGBTQ students,” Melanie Corner said. “They shouldn’t be asked to give up their right to privacy to accommodate 12 students, especially when the school has three designated bathrooms for these students to use.”
Walk-out organizers said they were looking to protect female students.
“Kids were upset. Girls… we wanted to protect them. They were upset. They didn’t want men in their bathroom,” said walk-out organizer John Ott.
Ott’s mother, Stephanie, agreed, telling Fox News that the district was not seeing the whole picture when it comes to the restroom policy.
“The safety of females is so important and these students that stood out, that walked out, they are to be commended. They have courage and they exercise their First Amendment rights. This is about protecting our children and our privacy as boys and girls. It’s simple biology,” she said.
School superintendent Barbara Russell stated that there was no need for a new bathroom policy, as the one currently in place was sanctioned by Title IX. “We have Policy 103, which is non-discrimination in Title IX, it calls out gender identification as a protected class,” Russell said.
School Board president Jason Saylor disagreed with the superintendent, adding that “the same thing is happening in our middle schools.”
“Do we think it’s accurate and fair that students should have access to any bathroom they want, depending on how they identify?” Saylor said at a meeting of the school board. “My personal opinion, I don’t.”
Even though Saylor disagreed with the outcome of the vote, he told Fox News that he “respected” the decision.
“Although I voted differently than the majority of the board, as board president, I respect the outcome of the vote and those who voted against expediting the policy. I also appreciate our student body, those who came to our previous board meeting to vote, and the 300+ students who used their First Amendment right to voice their opinion in favor of the policy during their protest on Friday.”
The school board only chose to discuss the issue after one father, Tim Jagger, posted about the policy on social media.
“The fact of the matter is, my daughter will go to school and not use a restroom here now,” Jagger said.
Jagger noted that the policy has scarred his daughter emotionally. “She is too upset and emotionally disturbed to walk into a restroom,” Jagger added.
The school’s principal, Cythia Moss, suggested another option for female students who are uncomfortable using a restroom where males are also allowed, saying, “we do have a number of single-stall restrooms throughout the building that anyone … can use.”
In the end, the school board’s vote signaled that woke ideology trumps the safety and privacy concerns of students and parents. However, the issue is not completely settled, as the school board is in the process of gathering feedback from students and parents in anticipation of the next school-board meeting scheduled for October 17.
