KELLER, Texas — Keller ISD’s school board plans to discuss policies targeting transgender and nonbinary students at its Tuesday meeting.
The board will discuss requiring students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender at birth. Another policy would stop teachers and staff from promoting or requiring the use of student pronouns other than their gender at birth.
Laney Hawes has four kids in Keller ISD and has been critical of recent board actions targeting LGBTQ students and book banning.
“There are all these policies coming about that are not written by the administration, that are not requested by the administration,” she said. “We’ve heard from a handful of parents of trans and nonbinary kids who are really scared and devastated.”
The policies mirror those passed by Grapevine-Colleyville and Frisco ISD’s boards last year.
Both districts, as well as Keller, have been a target for the Christian-conservative Patriot Mobile PAC. The PAC has been successful in getting multiple conservative school board members elected across North Texas in roles that are traditionally nonpartisan.
School board president Charles Randklev didn’t respond to an interview request and Keller said no one would be available to speak.
“Both of these policies are political theatrics. Both of these policies are addressing problems that don’t exist,” Hawes said. “As rare as these issues are, they have already been solved.”
The ACLU has already called for a federal civil rights investigation into Frisco’s bathroom rule and Keller’s previous ban on books with transgender or nonbinary characters.
There is no vote scheduled Tuesday, only a discussion, but Hawes expects a good turnout for the Pride Month meeting and says teachers she’s spoken with have been frustrated by the increasingly polarizing policies.
“It just seems exceptionally cruel because it’s not necessary. It’s not a real problem,” Hawes said. “We just want our kids to feel loved and accepted. That’s it.”