LGBTQ-Specific Protections Removed From Carroll ISD Rules

The Carroll Independent School District board voted at a meeting on Monday to remove certain protections for LGBTQ students from the district’s code of conduct and handbook.

According to WFAA, the school board approved a change to the district’s code of conduct that removed sexual orientation and gender identity from the district’s statement of nondiscrimination and harassment policy.

The board also approved a policy to require students to use bathrooms according to the gender they were assigned at birth. Another change approved by the board tells district employees not to promote the use of pronouns outside of a person’s biological sex.

That policy says, “District employees, including educators and other district staff, shall not promote, encourage, or require the use of pronouns that are inconsistent with a student’s or other person’s biological sex as it appears on the individual’s birth certificate or other government-issued record.”

According to WFAA, school board members said accommodations could be made for students who wish to use a gender-neutral bathroom.

Cameron Bryan, president of the Carroll ISD school board, said at the meeting Monday night that the proposed changes were not intended to exclude any protected classes.

“We felt like it was pertinent prior to school starting to clarify where this board stands in terms of ensuring the protections of our teacher’s First Amendment rights on pronoun use and the board’s position maintaining separate restrooms,” Bryan said. 

School board trustee Dudley Jordan said during the meeting that the changes would still bar discrimination against all federally and state protected classes, such as race, religion, disability, nation of origin and age. He also said harassment and bullying of any student on any basis is prohibited under the code of conduct, regardless of the proposed changes. He said that includes bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. “So, there’s no change there,” he said … of the changes, which as we said way up in the second paragraph “removed sexual orientation and gender identity from the district’s statement of nondiscrimination and harassment policy.”

Several people turned out to the meeting to speak on the proposed changes.

Pam Francis is a parent of three Carroll ISD graduates and served on the policy review committee that drafted the handbook changes being considered. Francis and one other committee member voted against the changes, but seven others voted in favor, sending it to the full school board for approval on Monday. Francis attended the meeting Monday night to encourage the school board to vote against the proposed changes.

“I’m concerned that the handbook, combined with two other policies you’re considering tonight, will create a hostile environment for our LGBTQ students, and will lead to an atmosphere where even well-meaning teachers and administrators are unable to support these marginalized students,” Francis told the board. Once the changes are adopted, Francis said parents and students won’t know if they are protected from discrimination and harassment based on their gender.

With the other changes, Francis said the board is trying to address problems that don’t exist while ignoring ones that do. “I have never heard from a parent, teacher or a student who complained about the rampant improper pronoun use plaguing our schools,” Francis said. “But I have heard from many, many parents and students who told me stories about how students were bullied or harassed because of their skin color, their religion, or their LGBTQ status.”

She also said she was troubled by the lack of transparency when it came to these proposed changes, pointing out that they were released to the public the Friday before the meeting.

“In the end, school should be a compassionate place where students are accepted and valued and encouraged to be their true selves,” Francis said. “If you pass these measures tonight, you will be sending a message that only some students are valued, and when the gender-based bullying, discrimination and harassment begins, and it will, you will be partially responsible.”

Angie Dawkins, who has lived in the district for six years, said she has six sons, one who graduated from Carroll ISD last year, and one who will be attending middle school in the district starting next month. She said she turned out to voice her support for the proposed changes. “There are those in our district who would have people believe that certain children lack protection in our schools because they believe that these children belong to a protected class,” Dawkins said. “I see no evidence in the 34 pages of the proposed student code of conduct or the 104 pages of the proposed student handbook to support this claim.”

By the end of the night, the Carroll ISD school board unanimously approved the changes. In an emailed statement, the district’s media department said, “[Carroll ISD] prioritizes the safety and well-being of our students with award-winning training protocols and procedures.” It added that the bathroom policy extends to locker rooms and other similar facilities but it doesn’t prohibit the district from providing reasonable accommodations upon request.

Other school districts in North Texas have made similar moves.

Just last month, Keller Independent School District school board passed a policy directing teachers and staff not to “promote, encourage, or require the use of pronouns” that are not consistent with students’ birth certificates, according to KERA. Another policy passed by the Keller ISD board requires people to use restrooms according to their sex assigned at birth.

Last August, the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District board approved similar policies. According to The Texas Tribune, teachers in the district are now not required to use students’ preferred pronouns, transgender students are barred from playing sports and individuals in the district can use only bathrooms aligning with their sex assigned at birth.