One member likened the vote to the abolition of slavery
The new Democrat-controlled school board of a Philadelphia-area district recently overturned a months-old birth-sex school bathroom policy, citing the “marginalization” of transgender and non-binary students.
The Perkiomen Valley School Board (pictured) also claimed that before last October, the district had the same policy — students were allowed to use bathrooms “matching their gender identities” — and it allegedly was “largely without any apparent controversy,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
The vote to overturn the birth-sex restroom policy was six in favor, three against.
Board member Tammy Campli, who voted in favor, said the decision “didn’t mean boys were allowed to go in girls’ bathrooms.”
“Teachers and staff know which students ‘consistently assert themselves’ as boys or girls,” Campli said. “Trans men are men. Trans women are women.”
The previous (Republican-led) board altered the bathroom policy last fall in response to a parental complaint regarding their daughter being “distressed” about a boy using the girls’ bathroom.
In addition, a large number of students participated in a walkout protest in favor of that policy, carrying signs which read “Respect girls’ rights” and “Stay in your bathroom.”
MORE: LGBT activist says girls should change in nurse’s station if they don’t like boy in locker room
The overturn vote angered many parents with one saying he’d now have to explain to his daughters that “there will be guys in the bathroom with them.”
“I hope this school gets sued by every freaking parent out there,” the parent said. “I can’t wait until kids get attacked; it’s going to happen, and then they can hold every single one of you accountable because that’s what going to happen.”
But board member Robert Liggett said Perkiomen needed to “return to normalcy” as the last board’s policy left the district open to “lawsuits [it] would probably lose.”
(Indeed, in 2018 the nearby Boyertown Area School District’s policy of allowing students to use restrooms matching their gender identity was upheld by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But as The College Fix pointed out at the time, not only did that ruling ignore the court’s own precedent, but the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress as well.)
Board member Todd McKinney, who’s black, likened the overturn vote to the abolition of slavery: “When we refuse to see people’s humanity, we have done something wrong as a society […] What I’m hearing tonight, some people are feeling the majority is always right. If that were the case, I’d still be in chains.”
MORE: High school students told to ‘tolerate’ sharing bathrooms with opposite sex
IMAGE: Perkiomen Valley School District
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.