A Texas school district changed its rules to require students to use bathrooms and changing rooms that align with their gender assigned at birth.
However, the policy explicitly states that it would not prohibit the district from making accommodations for students or parents upon request. Trustees said accommodations will be made for students who ask to use private bathrooms.
The Frisco Independent School District school board passed the updated policy at a meeting on Monday night.
Parents and community members spoke for and against the policy during public comment.
Some remarked in support for the updated policy, saying, “God created only two sexes at birth.”
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Advocates for the transgender community disagreed with the move, saying it was unnecessary and unfairly targets a small handful of 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,” parent Ellie Patel told Fox 4.
The board also approved new library book policies in connection to books that are being reviewed or challenged due to their content.
That move comes as Texas Republicans put pressure on schools to get rid of books deemed sexually explicit.
On Nov. 1, newly re-elected Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote in a letter asking the state’s association of school boards to “ensure no child is exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content in a Texas public school.”
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Abbott said that parents have the right to shield their children from certain content in schools and that public schools shouldn’t have “pornographic or obscene material.”
He asked the organization to determine the extent to which such material exists — and remove it.
“A growing number of parents of Texas students are becoming increasingly alarmed about some of the books and other content found in public school libraries that are extremely inappropriate in the public education system,” he wrote. “The most flagrant examples include clearly pornographic images and substance that have no place in the Texas public education system.”
The letter did not provide any specific examples of such content.
