Hundreds of angry students from Pennsylvania’s Perkiomen Valley High School District staged a class “walkout” after the school board failed to enact a bathroom policy banning transgender students from using restrooms not assigned to their biological gender.
“Kids were upset. Girls… we wanted to protect them. They were upset. They didn’t want men in their bathroom,” walkout organizer John Ott told FOX News.
His mother, Stephanie, accused the district of protecting transgender students and not looking at the “whole picture.”
“The safety of females is so important, and these students that stood out that walked out, they are to be commended. They have courage, and they exercise their First Amendment rights. This is about protecting our children and our privacy, boys and girls. It’s simple biology,” she said.
Policy 720 came after local father Tim Jagger revealed that his daughter was left “too upset and emotionally disturbed” to use the bathroom at the high school after allegedly having an encounter with a transgender student, Fox News reported.
According to WPVI-TV, neither the father nor his daughter were 100% sure that the student Jagger’s daughter encountered in the restroom was a biological male.
Victoria Rudolph, another Perkiomen Valley student, said allowing biological males to enter women’s restrooms makes her uncomfortable, and changes need to be made to protect girls.
“There needs to be some changes. It’s just uncomfortable seeing 19-year-old men or 18-year-old men in the bathroom,” she said.
A third student, Brandon Emery, said the district failed to explain how they plan to enact the policy,
“It makes me feel as if it’s me and my sister and the rest of us students’ rights are now compromised and not a priority to this school whatsoever,” he said.
Emery’s mother said it is frustrating to see kids handling situations that should be handled by adults.
“They are making these policies without taking into consideration how they affect the students and how uncomfortable it is just to be a teenager in general, but now have to be faced with the invasion of their privacy in those areas where they should feel safe and private,” she said.
READ: CA Passes Law Requiring Parents to Affirm Child’s Gender or Face Punishment for Child Abuse
