Houston-area student, 18, wins race for his school board

An 18-year-old Houston-area high school student will now join his school district’s board and become one of the youngest elected officials in the United States.

Mike Floyd won a seat Saturday on the Pearland Independent School District board, beating incumbent Rusty DeBorde by almost 500 votes.

Floyd, a senior at Dawson High School, told the Houston Chronicle in March that he ran in part because the district superintendent, John Kelly, questioned whether transgender children should be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice.

Kelly said he thought “legalizing pedophilia and polygamy” might be next.

According to the Houston Chronicle story in March, Floyd cited the case of Kai Shappley, a 6-year-old transgender Pearland ISD student whose mother called for Kai to be able to use the girls restroom.

“I can’t imagine myself in that position, being five years old and having the superintendent of the district say, ‘What’s next, polygamy or pedophilia?” Floyd said. “Meeting her inspired me to take a step forward in running.”

He also says the board needs to be more transparent and responsive to students and teachers.

“I think it’s time for a student representative, someone who can speak for the 22,000 kids in the district who right now have no representation on the board,” Floyd told the Chronicle in March. “In Texas, there’s a law where boards cannot appoint a student position. A student has to run and win, and that’s what I hope to do.”

According to the Chronicle, less than 1 percent of school board members nationwide are under the age of 30.

The Chronicle noted that Archer City elected 18-year-old Kelvin Green as mayor in 2014. Green was re-elected in 2016.

Floyd’s Student Rights proposals

From Mike Floyd’s Facebook page:

As a student rights advocate, I have had my fair share of run-ins with campus administrations. Throughout my time in Pearland ISD, I have fought for and will continue to fight for:

• a free dress code — districts with a free dress code report higher grades and test scores.
• higher quality meals — it is absurd that prison food has higher nutritional value than school food.
• cross-teacher calendars — teachers should be aware of other teacher plans to assign major grades.
• test staggering — while some cases are unavoidable, students should not have multiple test on the same day.
• student support — students should be briefed on their rights in every confrontation with principals or HR officers.

These are just a few examples of how I believe PISD could work better for our students. When our students have the resources they need to succeed, everyone wins.

This story was originally published May 7, 2017 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Houston-area student, 18, wins race for his school board."