Transgender flap defused at Fort Worth school district

In May, just a few months into his first job running a large urban school district, Fort Worth School Superintendent Kent Scribner heard Texas’ second-highest elected official demand his resignation.

He probably won’t want to go through that again.

Nor is he likely to look forward to more school board meetings packed with people, many of them supportive but many more very angry, over an issue like the transgender student guidelines that Scribner announced in April.

But among his career accomplishments he should proudly note that he, the organization he runs and the nine-member school board that hired him last year successfully managed this red-hot controversy.

They de-escalated the conflict with a touch of toughness, a great deal of humility and a boundless capacity to listen.

Scribner is still on the job, he’s learned a lot and both he and the school district are better for the experience. The needs of transgender students — indeed, all Fort Worth district students — are still protected.

The initial guidelines told district personnel to respect and assist transgender students, including with decisions on which restroom they use.

That’s a political hot potato across the nation. It didn’t take long for conservative Texas politicians like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to get wind of it.

Patrick raised the ridiculous specter of “a 15-year-old boy, full of the vim and vigor that every 15-year-old boy has, walking into the girls’ bathroom” to peek at the girls under the guise of being transgender.

Scribner and the school board rejected that scenario, but they recognized the need to redraft the guidelines to address other questions being raised.

They listened to four hours of comments at board meetings, assembled six town hall forums across the city, met with a student advisory committee and invited comments from 45 community and religious leaders, parents, teachers and other district residents.

Last week, Scribner issued a more sharply focused set of guidelines (the original eight pages were reduced to two) that address the same issues but tell school personnel to make key decisions about transgender students in consultation with parents.

Patrick and other political types declared victory.

Scribner turned his attention back to “reading, writing, math and improving our [student] outcomes around college and career preparedness.”

This story was originally published July 22, 2016 at 6:45 PM with the headline "Transgender flap defused at Fort Worth school district."