Hundreds of students in Pennsylvania’s Perkiomon Valley School District were expelled Friday after the local school board failed to enact a policy requiring transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex.
“The kids are frustrated. The girls … we want to protect them. They’re frustrated. They don’t want men in their bathrooms,” John Ott, who organized the walkout, told Fox News on Monday.
His mother, Stephanie, accused the district of only protecting transgender students without looking at the “big picture.”
“Women’s safety is so important, and these students who stand out deserve praise. They have the courage and exercise their First Amendment rights. It’s about protecting our children and our privacy and boys and girls. It’s simple biology. “
Local father Tim Jagger posted on social media that his daughter was “very upset and emotionally disturbed” after allegedly encountering a transgender student at one of the facilities, WPVI-TV reported ”, unable to walk into the school bathroom, hence Policy Proposal 720. In Philadelphia.
However, the outlet’s report stated that neither the father nor his daughter were 100 percent certain that the student Jagger’s daughter encountered in the bathroom was biologically male.
Victoria Rudolph, another Perkiomen Valley student, told Fox News that allowing biological males into the girls’ restrooms also makes her uncomfortable and changes need to be made to protect girls.
“Something needs to change. Just seeing a 19-year-old or 18-year-old man in the bathroom makes people uncomfortable,” she said.
A third student, Brandon Emery, said the district has not yet explained how they plan to develop the policy, but students feel as if their voices are not being heard.
“It makes me feel as though my rights and that of my sister and the rest of our students are now being compromised and are simply not a priority for this school,” he said.
Emery’s mother, Melanie Marren, said it’s frustrating to see children deal with situations that should be handled by adults, she told “FOX & Friends First” co-host Todd Piro (Todd Piro), it’s important to hear student voices.
“They didn’t take into account how these policies impact students and how uncomfortable it is to be a teenager in general when they create these policies, but now they have to face privacy violations in areas where they should feel safe and private. ” ,” she says.
When Fox News reached out to the district for comment, the Perkiomen Valley School Board president said: “While my vote differed from that of the majority of the board, as board president I respect the outcome of the vote and those who voted against expediting the policy.
I am also grateful to our student body, those who came to vote at our previous Board of Trustees meetings, and the more than 300 students who used their First Amendment rights to express their opinions in support of this policy at Friday’s protest. “
