Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for the resignation of Dr. Kent Paredes Scribner, the Fort Worth Independent School District superintendent who unilaterally enacted transgender bathroom and locker room policies without any input or say from school district parents, community members, and taxpayers.
In a formal statement issued late Monday, May 9, Patrick characterized Scribner as unfit to lead based these on “irresponsible” actions driven by “personal political agenda.”
Patrick wrote: “After less than a year as superintendent, Dr. Scribner has lost his focus and thereby his ability to lead the Fort Worth ISD. He has placed his own personal political agenda ahead of the more than 86,000 students attending 146 schools in the district by unilaterally adopting ‘Transgender Student Guidelines.'”
Scribner announced the new “bathroom” guidelines at the Fort Worth ISD April 19 school board meeting. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the action item was not included on the board’s agenda and no discussion followed Scribner’s directive.
“Without any discussion with parents, board members, principals, and other community leaders, Dr. Scribner’s unilateral action, underscores this lack of fitness to hold his position as superintendent,” stated Patrick, who added: “Campus safety should be of paramount concern for anyone in his position. Every parent, especially those of young girls, should be outraged.”
The Lt. Governor then pointed out: “The State of Texas has an affirmative responsibility to provide a safe environment in the schools where attendance is compulsory. While this may be an example of the need for the Legislature to pass a meaningful School Choice Bill, we must not allow the actions of Dr. Scribner to go unnoticed or unanswered.”
Fort Worth ISD Assistant Superintendent for Student Support Services Michael Steinert, Chief Legal Counsel Valerie Carrillo, and Director of Health and Physical Education Georgi Roberts approved Scribner’s new transgender guidelines.
“I’m asking [Scribner] and those three members of his executive team, I’m calling for their resignations,” Patrick later told Dallas’ WFAA 8 (ABC). “We want a 15-year-old boy full of vivid vigor that every 15-year-old boy has walking into the girls’ bathroom?” he posed. “The superintendent is so irresponsible to do this that he needs to step down.”
In his statement, Patrick called “upon the parents within the Fort Worth ISD to take immediate steps to repeal this stealthy scheme and remove Dr. Scribner from his post.”
Breitbart Texas spoke to Texas Values President Jonathan Saenz, who also emphasized “the guidelines were not debated, discussed or voted on at any board meetings. Parents and taxpayers were shut out of the process.”
The district’s Transgender Student Guidelines allow these students to use the bathroom and locker room of the sex with which they identify. If other students feel uncomfortable, the school must provide access to a single stall restroom, a gender neutral restroom, or the student can use the facility when no other students are present. The policy cautions that single-user restrooms must not be the only option provided.
The guidelines also permit transgender students “to participate in athletics in a manner that is consistent and uniform with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student’s records or identification documents,” although UIL regulations may apply.
Fort Worth ISD school board member Dr. Ann Sutherland expressed concerns over a policy component that states school counselors may only discuss issues with a transgender student’s parent on a “need to know basis or as the student directs,” according to WFAA 8.
Last week, Patrick launched the online petition “Say ‘No’ to Men in Women’s Restrooms,” to boycott mixed-sex bathroom retailers such as Target, where transgender policies allow men into women’s restrooms.
North Carolina recently passed H.B. 2, which requires transgender people to use restrooms based on their biological gender. The passage of this bill exploded into a procession of rock’n’rollers and, even, the circus cancelling Tar Heel State concert dates in protest of the traditional styled bathroom law.
In 2015, Houston voters resoundingly said ‘no’ at the ballot box to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (H.E.R.O.), defeating the proposed transgender “bathroom bill.” Conversely, the Dallas City Council began tinkering with its “gender identity” bathroom policies in late November and, last week, the City Council in the Dallas suburb of Rockwall rejected an ordinance similar to the North Carolina law.
Scribner came to Fort Worth ISD in 2015 from Arizona’s Phoenix Union High School District. The Arizona Republic reported that former Democrat Gov. Janet Napolitano appointed him to the state’s School District Redistricting Commission in 2005.
The Fort Worth ISD school board holds its next monthly board meeting tonight, which the Dallas ABC affiliate reported the Texas Lt. Governor intends to attend.
Follow Merrill Hope, a member of the original Breitbart Texas team, on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.
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