Gender guidelines

Gender guidelines

I’m a resident of Fort Worth, a graduate of schools in the Fort Worth district, as were my children, and I volunteer with the school district.

I oppose the transgender student guidelines, which were adopted without public input.

How does boys and girls sharing restrooms “foster a productive educational process for all”?

Did it occur to district Superintendent Kent Scribner that this arrangement will be a cesspool for those pretending to be transgender to gain access to the opposite sex to commit crimes against children?

Will the district provide personnel to monitor the restrooms, further infringing on the privacy of others?

It creates a destructive learning environment to have a child fearing the sharing of a bathroom with the opposite sex. It also contributes to the desensitizing of modesty!

We were created male and female, with laws in place to keep us safe from such situations.

Wake up, citizens! Write to your school board! Do not be passive! Remove Kent Scribner from his position. This is an immoral agenda.

I’m writing as one who grew up in Fort Worth and who went to schools in the Fort Worth district (Oakhurst Elementary, Riverside Junior High and Carter-Riverside High) and to Texas Christian University.

I lived in Fort Worth from 1948 to 1966, before going to grad school at Rice University in Houston, and then working in the Houston area.

My mother served on the school board from 1959 to 1971. One thing that I learned from her about the schools was that the school board makes the policies and the administration, from the superintendent on down, implements the policies, not the other way around.

Apparently Superintendent Scribner either does not understand that, or he is willfully ignorant of this in adding new guidelines to the policy on transgender restrooms.

No matter where you stand on that issue, Scribner is ignoring the correct role of the board and the superintendent.

Because the schools are supported by the state, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is correct that Scribner should step down, because he is overstepping the authority of his office.

If he does not, the board should remove him for cause, with no separation package offered.

The Fort Worth school superintendent says he has confidence that the people of Fort Worth will be supportive of his rules.

Bureaucrats impose rules without public input, not because they’re confident of public support, but for the opposite reason — they suspect or expect the public won’t support them.

But in their bureaucratic arrogance, they feel they know best and are determined to impose the rules whether the public supports them or not.

The thousands of people who are forced to support the Fort Worth school district through burdensome property taxes should at least be afforded the courtesy of being allowed public input before rules like this are adopted.

And it’s interesting that, while in most cases it’s required that parents be notified and involved in issues pertaining to their children (medical decisions, giving permission for various school functions, etc.), the exceptions always seem to be the issues most near and dear to the hearts of liberals — like sexual preference, gender identity and abortion.

These are very serious issues with lifelong consequences where parents should certainly be allowed and required to be heavily involved.

I don’t like the idea of going to the bathroom you best identify with.

I’d always have to use the one that was broken.

This story was originally published May 13, 2016 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Gender guidelines."