Perkiomen Valley eyes ‘nonbinary’ restrooms ‘used by whoever’ after community divide around transgender policy
The proposal was billed by one board member as a compromise following a student walkout opposed to allowing transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identities.
The Perkiomen Valley School District is considering making some of its high school restrooms open to any gender, while restricting others to students of the same sex, to resolve tensions that have erupted over the use of restrooms by transgender students.
The possible change was billed by one school board member Tuesday as a compromise following debate over restroom access, touched off by a father’s social media post that his daughter was upset after using a restroom at the high school while a male may have been there.
Although it wasn’t clear who had been in the restroom, some parents were outraged to learn that the district has been allowing transgender students to use restrooms aligned with their gender identity. The school board fast-tracked a policy that would have limited all multi-user restrooms to students of the same sex, but narrowly voted it down after pleas from students and families in the LGBTQ community and accusations of discrimination.
That didn’t settle the issue, though: 300 students walked out of Perkiomen Valley High School on Friday, according to administrators, in apparent protest of the board’s action. Photos shared on social media show students held signs that read “Respect Girls rights,” “Keep boys out of women’s restrooms and vice-versa,” and “Stay in your bathroom.”
A social media post circulated before the walkout cited an incident in Virginia, where a boy wearing a skirt sexually assaulted a girl inside a girls’ restroom. (The case drew intense attention amid debate over restroom policies for transgender students; evidence has not found that the perpetrator was transgender.)
“Is my comfort not as important as the comfort of the other students fighting to gain entry into my bathroom and locker rooms?” Brandon Emery, a student involved in the walkout, said during a school board policy committee meeting Tuesday. He said the district should also consider “the different religious backgrounds” of students.
Administrators — who say about 1% of Perkiomen Valley High School’s 1,700 students are transgender — said there hadn’t been any reported issues regarding restroom use until the recent social media uproar.
“We need to think about the safety, upholding the rights and respecting all students,” said Superintendent Barbara Russell, who told policy committee members that the school board had voted in 2018 to update its nondiscrimination policy to include “gender identification” as a protected class. She also made note of the federal court ruling that year upholding the nearby Boyertown Area School District’s policy allowing transgender students to use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity.
Board member Rowan Keenan said the district needed to focus on protecting female students.
“Women are the protected class and they do not feel safe,” he said. “That is who needs to be protected.”
Don Fountain, a school board member who had originally voted to advance the policy restricting bathroom use based on sex, but then voted against it last week, said he wanted to ensure that “every student feels heard” and safe. Calling on the community to find consensus, he proposed making some of the high school’s restrooms “nonbinary” — “used by whoever chooses to use them” — and others restricted based on sex.
Fountain said his approach would address “both of the groups. ... Both have gotten something, not all.”
The committee agreed to direct administrators to examine the proposal and return with recommendations at an October meeting. Russell said she would seek input from students, parents and staff.
Some expressed opposition to the proposal — including Keenan, who said he was “not on board with putting minor boys and girls into the same facilities together.”
He accused administrators of lying to board members previously about its policy on restroom usage by transgender students.
“This is what they’re doing to our kids. And they’re talking about it, like they’re going to, what, moderate how they sexualize your kids? Come on,” he said.
Some public comment at the end of the meeting got heated, including from a man who accused the board of hating transgender children.
“You hate them because you don’t understand them, or you don’t like them, or your pastor tells you to do this,” he said, raising his voice: “You’re liars and cowards.”