Pennsylvania high school students organize walkout over new transgender bathroom policy
Students and parents from Pennsylvania's Perkiomen Valley School District, discuss the organized student walkout in response to a new transgender bathroom policy.
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."
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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.
Hundreds of students from the Perkiomen Valley School District in Pennsylvania walked out of class in protest of the bathroom policy on Friday. (iStock)
Emery's mother, Melanie Marren, said it's frustrating to see kids handling situations that should be handled by adults, telling "FOX & Friends First" co-host Todd Piro that it's important for the students' voices to be heard.
"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.
When FOX News reached out to the district for comment, the Perkiomen Valley School Board's president said: "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."
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