Frisco ISD parents say they want students to use bathrooms assigned to their birth gender
FRISCO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Some parents and school board members in Frisco want to prevent transgender students from choosing which bathrooms to use.
A contentious meeting Monday night had a big crowd of unhappy parents who don't like the district's current practice.
After another North Texas school district recently adopted a policy that forces students to use the bathrooms assigned to their birth genders, others like Frisco are now getting pressure from parents to approve a similar policy.
He's lived in Frisco for 17 years, but Azfar Saeed has never felt the need to address the city's school board until tonight.
"I am a centrist, I am religious at heart, I want to make sure that my girls rights are also protected here," said Saeed, a Frisco ISD parent.
Saeed has a 17-year-old daughter who is a high school student in a district where some parents wanted to turn the focus of a board meeting away from classrooms to bathrooms.
Frisco ISD doesn't have an official policy, but rather a practice that allows transgender students and their parents to work with the school campus staff to designate which bathrooms they will be allowed to use.
"Their parents need to come to campus administration and then campus administration works with a parent and the student to identify a solution," a meeting attendee said.
But that's a solution Saeed and other parents at the meeting don't like.
"I want them to institute a transparent policy that all kinds of kids are aware of, not something that's a secret arrangement between an LBGTQ child and their parent and the rest of the district," Saeed said.
Supporters of the current practice say it complies with federal law and shows compassion for gender fluid students who should not feel uncomfortable in a bathroom.
"I want to make sure that we ensure every student within Frisco ISD feel safe," said Frisco ISD School Board member Dynette Davis.
But a number of parents who spoke are demanding to know when a transgender student has been granted an accommodation and even be told who they are.
There have been 361 documented bathroom incidents recorded in Frisco ISD, none of those were related to anything involving transgender students.