Perkiomen Valley school board proposes a policy to limit bathroom use based on sex

After coming out as transgender while a sophomore at Perkiomen Valley High School, Tarren McDonnell at first didn’t feel confident about entering the girls’ bathroom.

Instead, McDonnell, now 21, used the nurse’s bathroom. But it was farther away from her classes, turning what would normally be a five-minute trip into 10 or 15. And it drew notice from other students; one boy followed her in the hallway and taunted her.

Eventually, she started using the girls’ room, where “nobody ever gave me issues,” she said.

McDonnell is among those speaking out against a possible move by the Perkiomen Valley school board to limit bathrooms and locker rooms to students of the same biological sex — prohibiting transgender students from using rooms aligned with their gender identities.

The board voted last week to add a policy to its agenda for Monday’s meeting — bypassing any committee discussion — after a father posted on Facebook that on his daughter’s first day of high school, she went to the bathroom and believed a boy was in there with her.

The father, Tim Jagger, told the board last week that “we aren’t sure” whether the person was male, but his daughter is now “too upset and emotionally disturbed” to use the bathroom.

“There is zero reason for someone with male genitalia to be in the girls’ facilities,” he said. “It’s a simple matter of biology, safety, personal space.” Students who “choose to identify as something other than your biological anatomy” can use single-user bathrooms, he said.

In his Facebook post, Jagger had included an email he said he received from the high school’s principal, stating that students were able to use the restroom that matches their gender identity.

According to Jagger’s post, the principal, Cynthia Moss, said that “we do have a number of single-stall restrooms throughout the building that anyone, including your daughter, can use.”

The post sparked debate online, with some parents worried about children sharing bathrooms with transgender students. Others pushed back, including questioning whether the incident had happened at all.

Jason Saylor, the school board’s president, said he had heard from students that “the same thing is happening in our middle schools” and in school locker rooms.

“Do we think it’s accurate and fair that students should have access to any bathroom they want, depending on how they identify?” Saylor told the board. “My personal opinion, I don’t.”

“We’re not a restaurant, we’re not Taco Bell, this is not a public bathroom, this is not a public library, this is a school of education,” Saylor said. “And that’s my thought process.”

The idea that the district currently allows students to choose whatever bathroom they want is “very different” from the district’s actual policy, which prohibits discrimination against students based on their gender identity, said Superintendent Barbara Russell.

In an interview, Russell said that school leaders weren’t aware of any issues around transgender students’ use of bathrooms or locker rooms, despite Saylor’s comments. She noted that students aren’t required to change for gym class, and that the athletic director wasn’t aware of any use of the locker rooms by transgender students participating in sports.

As for the incident described in Jagger’s post, Russell said that it should have been handled independently, through a conversation between the school and the family.

“It did not have to come to this social media, ‘Let’s further divide the community and hurt more kids,’ as opposed to support,” Russell told the board last week.

Of the proposed policy, “I don’t know what we’re solving,” Russell said. “There isn’t a problem right now.”

Rather than voting on the policy Monday, Russell called on the board to table the issue and instead discuss it in committee — the usual course for new policies.

Some board members said there was no need to delay. “If we saw naked people running down the hallway ... we have to sit here and wait and discuss whether that is appropriate or not,” said Rowan Keenan.

Others were outraged by the board’s move. One woman, who said her son is transgender, called the debate “ridiculous” and discriminatory.

“My son ... is not going to go into a bathroom and rape anybody’s son or daughter,” she said. “He just needs to go to the bathroom.”

Aspen Bradley, a Perkiomen Valley senior who is nonbinary, told the board it was “scapegoating a minority” and that restricting transgender students’ bathroom rights would promote harassment.

“You’re pointing fingers at the wrong issue: children who are not a problem for existing,” Bradley said.

The details of the proposed policy weren’t clear last week, except that Saylor said the policy would be based on “biological sex.” In an interview, he said he had shared a policy with the board that he wrote “based off a couple policies out there in the state and country.”

The Pennridge School District in May enacted a policy that bars transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms aligned with their gender identities. While a number of states have passed similar laws, advocates for LGTBQ students say Pennsylvania case law is clear, including a federal court ruling that upheld the Boyertown Area School District’s policy allowing transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 declined to hear a challenge to that policy.

“Legal protections for transgender students are strong and getting stronger,” said Sharon Ward, senior policy adviser to the nonprofit Education Law Center, which has opposed districts enacting bathroom policies. She said it was “time for the Pennsylvania Department of Education to weigh in” and tell school districts they need to protect transgender students’ rights.

McDonnell, the former Perkiomen Valley student, told the board she left the district and went to a different school her senior year to escape bullying. When she was in fifth grade, even before she knew about the LGBTQ community, she was called slurs for acting feminine, she said.

By the time she was a sophomore, she had announced that she was transgender. McDonnell said she was mocked on social media, and her car was vandalized. She was depressed, anxious, and suicidal.

Listening to others speak during the meeting, McDonnell said in an interview that she was “saddened to see the hatred and the ignorance” toward transgender people. She noted that some people said the district should be inclusive, but then voiced support for a bathroom policy that was not.

“I’m praying that something does get done that protects us,” she said.