(Fox News) Hundreds of students from Pennsylvania’s Perkiomen Valley School District walked out of class Friday after the local school board failed to enact a policy requiring transgender students to use the restroom corresponding with their biological sex.
“Kids were upset. Girls… we wanted to protect them. They were upset. They didn’t want men in their bathroom,” John Ott, who organized the walkout, told FOX News on Monday.
His mother Stephanie accused the district of only 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 and boys and girls. It’s simple biology.”
The proposed policy would require transgender students to use a restroom that corresponds with their biological sex. (Fox News Digital)
Proposed Policy 720 came after local father Tim 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, said 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, told FOX News that allowing biological males to enter women’s restrooms also makes her uncomfortable and changes need to be made to protect girls.
John Ott, Perkiomen Valley student who organized the walkout, and his mother Stephanie Ott. (Fox & Friends First/Screenshot)
“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 has not explained how they plan to enact the policy, but students feel as if their voices are not being heard.
“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.
