Francis Howell School District considers bathroom policy affecting transgender students

The Francis Howell School District’s Board of Education is considering a new bathroom and locker room policy that would require students to use restrooms based on their sex assigned at birth.

At a packed board meeting in O’Fallon, Missouri, on Thursday night, transgender students and their families and allies held signs, waved flags and told the board its proposed policy is discriminatory.

Board member Jane Puszkar introduced the policy Thursday. At the board’s September meeting, she spoke about the need for a policy.

“If you are a parent or guardian of a young lady and think letting a young man in the restroom the same time as your daughter is extremely inappropriate, I know the vast majority of people in the district would agree with this,” Puszkar said.

The policy is called “Privacy in Locker Rooms and Rest Rooms.” It includes multiple rules, including restrictions against taking photos of people in bathrooms and locker rooms. While requiring at least one “single use” facility per school, the policy also requires the district to separate bathrooms by sex and says students can only use those bathrooms based on the marker on their birth certificate, or their sex assigned at birth.