Francis Howell School District to vote on transgender bathroom policy, book bans

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – The Francis Howell School District board will vote on a restroom and locker room policy affecting transgender students on Thursday.

The proposed policy will require students to use the bathroom or locker room that corresponds to the sex identified on their birth certificate. The policy will give students the option to use a single-use bathroom or locker room.

According to the proposal, it “ensures that girls and boys have secure, private spaces, free from concerns about inappropriate access.”

The policy also states it will remain consistent with the “traditional norms” regarding separations of bathrooms and locker rooms by sex, which the policy said has been “widely accepted and understood by generations.”

The proposal stated it will provide alternatives for accommodating transgender students with single-use bathrooms and locker rooms

The board tabled the idea of changing the district’s policy last October when a teacher and parent of a transgender student, Becky Hormuth, threatened to sue the district. Hormuth believed the new policy would target students like her son.

“They either will be late for class, they will have to ask to get out of class, or they will miss instruction. They will be coming back in class, and they will be potentially noticed and targeted for being that one kid that has to go. That’s called forced outing,” Hormuth said.

The board will additionally vote on Thursday regarding measures for banning select books. The proposed policy will ban books that normalize alcohol and drug use, contain repeated profanity, and “excessive or unnecessary” profanity and violence.

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