Showdown in Cowtown

FORT WORTH, Texas—Alison Kelley, yoga teacher, mother of four, and Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) taxpayer, spent much of this spring firing off emails to board members and district officials, hosting meetings in her home, and organizing others to do the same via social media. She wasn’t alone. Community members opposed to a controversial set of “transgender student guidelines” created Stand for Fort Worth, an organization with a Facebook group now boasting more than 3,500 members.

At an FWISD board meeting on April 26, Superintendent Kent Scribner had unceremoniously announced new transgender student guidelines to ensure that students are protected from bullying and discrimination. According to district procedures, since they were labeled “guidelines” and not “policy,” they could be implemented without debate, discussion, or vote.

The guidelines expand on a 2011 district anti-discrimination statement, adding that students may use restrooms and locker rooms based on their own, self-perceived gender identity, without “medical or mental health diagnosis.” The district also now supports self-designated-gender participation in athletics, and encourages teachers to use inclusive terms like “students” or “scholars” rather than “boys and girls.” Teachers must use the pronoun and name preferred by the student, regardless of the student’s legal name or parents’ permission, and they are not to tell parents about their children’s gender confusion.

“The school’s responsibility is to educate students. It’s not to parent,” Kelley said. “We care deeply about all students, especially vulnerable ones like transgender [students]. But these children don’t deserve to be a political pawn through this process.”

District officials have publicly stated they believe seven to 10 transgender students are in the FWISD, out of about 86,000 students districtwide. The U.S. Department of Education’s Title IX requires that schools provide “separate toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex.” All 146 FWISD schools currently have alternate restrooms available, whether a single-stall restroom or a nurse’s restroom.

Kelley and others created a furor that led to six public forums. Responding to Stand for Fort Worth, supporters of Superintendent Scribner and his transgender provisions created their own Stand with Scribner Facebook page, which gained more than 1,800 members. Advocates for the guidelines repeatedly noted incidences of bullying and suicide among transgender teens.

One FWISD school board trustee, Ann Sutherland, often considered one of the more left-leaning board members, sided with the opposition to Scribner and proposed scrapping the guidelines, saying they were causing huge division within the community. Sutherland said no students had requested the right to use “opposite-gender” restrooms prior to the development of the guidelines.

During the last of the six public forums, Scribner announced the board would form an advisory committee to clarify the transgender guidelines. Opponents to the measures say a committee is not enough: Mom-of-five Julia Keyes said during the public comment period: “The only way to heal the divide you have created in our city is to repeal the policy, start the conversation with parents and taxpayers that never occurred, and put any policy to a board vote. … I’ve changed a few diapers in my time. … When your kid makes a mess … you have to start over with a brand-new diaper.”