KATY, Texas – The board of Katy Independent School District voted Monday evening on a proposed policy for how the district will address transgender students.
The Katy ISD Board of Trustees voted to accept a new policy for how the district will address transgender students. In a 4-3 vote the district will now require teachers to notify parents if their student comes out as transgender or asks to use different pronouns.
“I am very disappointed that this board is in a hurry to push through a policy that has been shown that it has significant problems,” Fox said. “That we will have legal issues. We’re taking money that’s meant for children and we’re going to spend it on legal fees. That’s not what we want to do.”
Trustee Mary Ellen Cuzela disagreed.
“I think there’s legal issues if we don’t do anything,” Cuzela said. “We must do due deliberation on this important policy, put our district in a good position with a policy on the books as soon as possible, to avoid legal challenges as well.”
The meeting, at times, was tensions between trustees.
Trustee Morgan Calhoun said Fox ‘did nothing’ for years “being presented with evidence over evidence and you did nothing. So, now it’s our turn.”
Ash Hall with the ACLU of Texas thinks the board’s decision is “incredibly disappointing.” They added that several options are being considered.
“I know that parents in particular are very eager to see some kind of relief or response to this so we’re just weighing all of our options right now,” they said. “I think there are a couple of things to look into like whether families what ‘know your rights training.’ Maybe there’s a complaint letter that we send up to the federal government. Obviously there is a possibility that maybe we would take on some sort of litigation around this. But that’s something I would need to talk to my legal team about.”