Perkiomen Valley School District parent credits students, community members for the change
Pennsylvania school district reverses trans bathroom policy after student walkout, parent outrage
Perkiomen High School parent Tim Jagger discusses the school district's decision to reverse its transgender bathroom policy.
Pennsylvania's Perkiomen Valley School District has passed a policy requiring students to use bathrooms associated with their biological sex, weeks after students walked out of class over the school board's rejection of the proposal.
"I believe it had to do with all the students and the students voicing their opinion," Tim Jagger, a father from the school district, told FOX News Thursday after Monday's vote.
"That was huge, the student walkout that day and the community members coming through and talking at the board meeting, voicing their opinion. I believe that all this came together and worked on the school board members, and I was happy to see that they decided to change their policy."
Pennsylvania's Perkiomen Valley School District reversed its transgender bathroom policy on Monday, weeks after students staged a walkout in protest. (FOX News)
Policy 720 mandating bathroom use based on biological sex came after Jagger posted on social media that his daughter was left "too upset and emotionally disturbed" to walk into school bathrooms after allegedly having an encounter with a transgender student in one of the facilities, according to WPVI-TV in Philadelphia.
The outlet's report, however, clarified that neither Jagger nor his daughter were 100% sure that the student encountered in the restroom was actually a biological male.
According to a separate report from the outlet, the policy also opens single-use bathrooms to students and staff regardless of gender. Only teachers could use them previously.
The Perkiomen Valley School Board initially struck down the sex-based policy with a 4-5 vote, but the numbers flipped Monday when board member Don Fountain voted to approve the policy instead.
DOZENS OF LOUDOUN COUNTY STUDENTS STAGE WALKOUT OVER SEXUAL ASSAULT BY BOY IN GIRLS' BATHROOM
The new policy requires students, regardless of gender identity, to use the bathroom which corresponds with their biological sex. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Jagger said he doesn't know why the policy allowing biological males in females' bathrooms was allowed in the first place, claiming it seemed board members didn't realize the policy was in place.
"They went back to the 2018 Policy 103 where they added gender identity into that as basically a safety thing and nondiscrimination clause, and then nobody was really informed that it actually extended out to bathrooms until my daughter had her experience, and I reached out to the principal where I was told what the policy was, and I made a post online," he explained.
"Several school board members didn't even realize it, so it basically brought it to their eyes and then the community's eyes. And then the kids in the school, obviously they were not happy about it, either."
Transgender students will have to use restrooms which correspond with their biological sex at Perkiomen Valley schools. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
John Ott, who organized the walkout, told FOX News last month that the protest was about protecting girls who are not comfortable having biological males in restrooms with them.
"Kids were upset. Girls… we wanted to protect them. They were upset. They didn't want men in their bathroom," he said.
The Perkiomen Valley School Board president told FOX News last month after the first vote, "Although I voted differently than the majority of the board, as board president, I respect the outcome of the vote and those who voted against expediting the policy. I also appreciate our student body, those who came to our previous board meeting to vote, and the 300+ students who used their First Amendment right to voice their opinion in favor of the policy during their protest on Friday."
Allowing biological men to enter women's restrooms and locker rooms remains a hot topic as the issue becomes increasingly prevalent in schools, athletic spaces and more across the nation.
Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines raised awareness after transgender athlete Lia Thomas allegedly "exposed male genitalia" in a women's locker room after a swim meet. In Loudoun County, Virginia, a male student was convicted of two sexual assault incidents at two separate schools, one taking place in a female restroom.
For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media.
Taylor Penley is an associate editor with Fox News.
