"We may be divided right now, but we do not want to unify at a funeral," states a somber Greg Talbert. "That is not the place you want to be after a young person has committed suicide."
Talbert, the president of the Williamston school board, didn't mince words when he brought up why he thinks the school needs to move forward with this proposed policy:
"If this policy goes a tiny bit towards preventing one kid in our school from taking his or her own life, it is worth every bit of trouble we go through. Worth every bit of anxiety for some of the other kids in the bathrooms. It is worth whatever we have to do to get there."
The proposed policy allows transgender students to use the bathroom and locker rooms of the gender they identify with, and if another student is uncomforatbelw ith it, they can use a private bathroom.
Additionally, transgender students can participate in sports as their identified gender, and the draft includes provisions to protect non-conforming and transgender students from bullying.
But parents think if that's the underlying issue, the policy shouldn't get into bathrooms.
"If bullying is the target of this policy, why don't we simply enforce, why don't you simply enforce the policies already in place which constitute and protect all the students?" asks a parent during community comment.
Some parents argued their kids don't care if they share a bathroom with someone of the opposite sex, others said the school needs to go back to the drawing board.
The board pushed back the vote from October 2nd to October 16th last week.
