About 100 students walked out of Grapevine High School on Friday to protest new district policies they say target gay and trans kids.
Some who walked out identify as gay or trans, other straight and cisgender students walked out too. But everyone who spoke at the protest felt they were targeted by policies deemed intolerant of those who are LGBTQ
Artem, who gave no last name, was one of the students who spoke out.
鈥淭rans and LGBTQ youth and students do not feel safe in their classrooms. These rules are taking away our rights to feel safe and to express ourselves and to be honest about who we are,鈥� Artem said.
Some new rules, for example, designate multi-stall bathrooms must be used based on a person鈥檚 biological sex. The district could provide accommodations on request
Marceline Temple, out sick the day of the protest, prepared a statement that was read by a friend, Teddy, who didn鈥檛 give a last name.
鈥�I鈥檓 embarrassed to be a part of this transphobic and racist school district," read Temple. 鈥淎s a transgender, bisexual person of color, I鈥檓 deeply ashamed of our school board and the actions they decided to take. How on earth are adults acting more childish than children? It鈥檚 astonishing.鈥�
Occasionally, the group of protesting students broke out in chants.
鈥淧rotect out rights,鈥� they repeated. At other times, 鈥減rotect trans kids.鈥�
Earlier this week, the GCISD school board also approved sports policies saying students could only participate on teams in keeping with their biological sex. Other policies touch on what books will be allowed or not. Many titles in question feature characters who identify as LGBTQ.
Grapevine High School's principal said students who walked out will be marked absent for the classes they missed.
Got a tip? Email Reporter Bill Zeeble at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on Twitter .
