Katy Independent School District Board of Education has approved a set of gender identity policies that have ignited impassioned debates within the community in a 4-3 vote.
The policies state that all Katy ISD staff members must inform parents if a student requests pronouns different from their assigned birth gender and prohibit discussions about gender fluidity within the classroom.
The board meeting was full of many teachers, students, and parents, expressing various viewpoints. The newly adopted policy mandates transgender students to use restrooms corresponding to their sex at birth, and it necessitates teachers to notify parents if a student chooses to use pronouns that do not align with their birth-assigned gender.
Jared Burton, junior at Tompkins High School testified during the meeting. He said that this policy only creates distrust among students who need the support and will “physically and mentally harm queer children.”
“In the most tender years of their lives, teenagers need a safe space and a trusted adult to confide in. Unfortunately, not every kid has that a home, Burton said. “Sometimes a teacher or a counselor is the closest a student can get to someone who will listen to them without fear or repercussion, isolation, violence.”
One speaker Lynette Alidon, retired Katy ISD librarian argued that the policy “distracts from real issues such as teacher shortages and student performance.”
“As a former educator, I believe that schools must be a safe haven for all students,” she said. “It could foster an environment of bullying, harassment, not only for LGBTQ students, but also for those who may be perceived as part of this community.”
Thomas McKay is a resident of the district who said he was in support of the policy, and that he believes many churches would support it as well.
“But unfortunately, they tend to be silent because they’re more interested in being politically correct than biblically correct,” he said. “If some kid wants to use a different pronoun, then so be it, but forcing kids to call that kid by a pronoun not matching the biological gender will cause confusion when it goes against common sense.”
Ethan Michelle Ganz, a trans-nonbinary activist felt that many people in the community needed a history lesson on where the root of gender binary came from.
“It was European colonization that brought the gender binary here [in the U.S],” Ganz said. “Gender, just like race, is a social construct. It is not connected at all to biology. When you are taking the two and putting them together like this, what you are doing is upholding white supremacy.”
Kia Sebino, senior at Raines Academy, said as a brown trans individual this is a step in the wrong direction.
“I feel like the interest you have is to hold your own political beliefs… which doesn’t belong in a classroom,” Sebino said. “You shouldn’t have to make policies regarding how we decide to express ourselves.”