Hundreds Of Students Protest After School Allows Boys In Girls’ Bathrooms
After a district school board in southeastern Pennsylvania voted in favor of allowing so-called “transgender” students to use whichever restrooms they want, hundreds of high school students walked out of class in protest.
According to the Delaware Valley Journal, the issue came up after a father shared on social media that his daughter was scared to use the girls’ bathroom because she believed that a boy was in there.
“So after a couple of days, I asked her if she noticed anything else, and she said that she just wasn’t using the bathrooms there anymore, so she doesn’t know,” the father, Tim Jagger, told the outlet.
The father then contacted district officials, only to be informed that students were allowed to use whatever restrooms they wanted — and that his 14-year-old daughter was free to use a single-person restroom if she was uncomfortable.
Jagger’s Facebook post about the issue prompted concerns from other parents. He then asked the school board about the issue at a meeting, where board members claimed they had no idea that it was happening, according to the Journal.
Then, on September 11, the school board voted 5-4 against a policy that would have required boys and girls to use the restrooms that correspond to their actual gender, according to the Journal. One supposedly Republican school board member, Don Fountain, joined with his Democrat colleagues in voting against the measure.
In response to the school board’s decision, roughly 400 students walked out of Perkiomen High School on Friday — a school just over an hour northwest of Philadelphia — where they held signs reading: “respect girls’ rights.”
One of the students who joined the protest was senior Brandon Corner, 17 — who told the Journal in an interview that he had approached Superintendent Barbara Russell for answers.
“She didn’t answer any questions,” Corner told the outlet. “For example, when I asked her to define what a transgender person is.”
The outlet also noted that Corner asked the superintendent: “What’s in place to protect the non-transgender people?”
The Journal also spoke with his mother, Melanie Corner, who explained that they aren’t against LGBT students.
“Their rights should be addressed but not at the expense of taking away the rights of the non-LGBTQ students,” she 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.”
Three other students who joined the protest appeared on Fox News for an interview alongside their parents, where they discussed their concerns about girls not being protected.
