Parents to Protest School Board Meeting After Praying

Earlier this week a group of about 100 parents in Blue Ridge, Georgia staged a protest opposing the Fannin County school system’s inclusive transgender bathroom policy. Deputy Anthony Walden, a resource officer at Fannin Middle School, organized the group and is planning to address the issue at a school board meeting on Thursday. Parents say they’ll meet first, pray together, then walk the half mile to the school board meeting.

If the policy isn’t changed, parents are threatening to pull their children from the school. One local parent told WSB-TV Atlanta, “We’re going to do everything we can to stop this, and if not, then us moms are going to come home and teach our kids like it used to be.” Another local parent created a Facebook event publicizing Thursday’s school board meeting, with a grossly offensive message:

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Describing the event, organizer Kathy Wolf wrote, “Would you want men and boys to be allowed in your girls bathrooms and locker rooms at school? Well the school board has allowed this.Â As parents and grandparents we need to tell the school board not in our schools and not with oiur [sic] kids.”Â

WSB-TV reporter Rikki Klaus spoke with school Superintendent Mark Henson about the policy, who notes the school is simply following federal law. He said, “We have to allow transgender students to pick the restroom that they identify with, gender-wise.” The Fannin County School System has a document affirming their compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights act on their website.

Parent Anthony Walden told Fox 5,Â â€œWe want kids protected when they go to school, and their Christian values should be allowed to be expressed.â€ He says his grandchildren will be pulled out if the policy is not changed.

This issue has been thrust into the national spotlight recently following the passage of North Carolina law HB2, banning transgender individuals from using bathroom facilities that align with their gender identity. A lawsuit has been filed by North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory in an effort to convince the courts Title VI of the Civil Rights act does not include transgender rights. The Justice Department has countersued in an attempt to block enforcement of the law, and maintains the policy is a clear violation of both the Civil Rights Act and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.

In remarks during a Justice Department press conference Monday, United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch addressed the legality of discriminatory policies restricting transgender access to public facilities, saying that such measures were “in direct opposition to federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex and gender identity.”

Over 130 opponents of the Fannin County school system’s bathroom policy are expected to attend the school board meeting this Thursday, and the event has been moved from the local school board’s office to a larger facility at the local high school in order to accommodate the high attendance expected at the event.

Stay tuned.

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Image: Screenshot via Fox 5