Texas Lt. Gov. Demands Fort Worth ISD Superintendent's Ouster For Transgender Guidelines

AUSTIN, TX -- Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday called for the resignation of the superintendent of the Fort Worth ISD after the educator instituted transgender student guidelines throughout the district's schools.

Patrick published a statement on his government website calling for the ouster of Superintendent Kent Scribner, who he said placed his own personal political agenda over those of students and staff by helping to draft protocol guidelines in dealing with transgender students.

“After less than a year as superintendent, Dr. Scribner has lost his focus and thereby his ability to lead the Fort Worth ISD,” Patrick wrote, his statement preceded with a red banner with large-font lettering reading: “Lt. Gov. Patrick Asks Fort Worth ISD Parents To Speak Out Against Unilateral Action of Superintendent.”

Scribner assumed the post of Fort Worth ISD superintendent in September after nearly eight years holding the same position in Arizona

Patrick said the superintendent’s action makes him unfit to continue in the role of superintendent of Fort Worth ISD, the state’s fifth-largest school district.

“He has placed his own personal political agenda ahead of the more than 86,000 students attending 146 schools in the district by unilaterally adopting ‘Transgender Student Guidelines.’ Without any discussion with parents, board members, principals and other community leaders, Dr. Scriber’s unilateral action underscores this [sic] lack of fitness to hold his position as superintendent."

The school district in late April implemented new protocol related to bathroom use among transgender individuals, as reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and various other media outlets. At the core of the new policy is allowing the use of school bathrooms "...with the gender identity that each student consistently and uniformly asserts.”

Additionally, students who feel uncomfortable sharing a restroom or desire heightened privacy must be offered access to a single-stall bathroom or an opportunity to use a restroom without other students present.

Patrick added that the policy potentially puts other students in peril, and parents should share in his umbrage.

“Every parent, especially those of young girls, should be outraged,” Patrick wrote. “The state of Texas has an affirmative responsibility to provide a safe environment in the schools where attendance is compulsory.”

He strongly suggested the superintendent’s action may further prompt Texas to adopt a ban on transgender individuals using bathrooms corresponding to the gender of their personal identity.

The GOP lieutenant governor’s missive condemning the Fort Worth ISD superintendent came on the same day that the U.S. Justice Department sued North Carolina for its own policies barring transgender individuals from using public bathrooms according to the gender with which they personally identify.

On Monday, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch filed a countersuit against the state of North Carolina, which has drafted its own "bathroom bill" related to transgender individuals use of public bathrooms. Lynch framed the need to file a suit against North Carolina as a historic imperative comparable to civil rights struggles of the past seeking to retain protections outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

"This is not the first time that we have seen discriminatory responses to historic moments of progress for our nation," Lynch said in a press conference. "We saw it in the Jim Crow laws that followed the Emancipation Proclamation. We saw it in fierce and widespread resistance to Brown v. Board of Education. And we saw it in the proliferation of state bans on same-sex unions intended to stifle any hope that gay and lesbian Americans might one day be afforded the right to marry."

But in Texas, Lt. Gov. Patrick views the issue from a decidedly different prism: “While this may be an example of the need for the Legislature to pass a meaningful School Choice Bill, we must not allow the actions of Dr. Scribner to go unnoticed or unanswered,” Patrick wrote. “I call upon the parents within the Fort Worth ISD to take immediate steps to repeal this stealthy scheme and remove Dr. Scribner from his post.”

This is the second time in as many weeks that a top Texas Republican official has inserted himself in the growing debate over transgender individuals’ use of public bathrooms.

Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton -- the state’s highest law enforcement official -- wrote a letter to the chief executive of the Target retail chain to provide its safety plan as it allows shoppers and store employees to use bathrooms matching their gender identities.

Paxton, a Tea Party Republican who identifies himself as an evangelical Christian, has said Target’s bathroom policy could put girls and women at risk by putting them into contact with voyeurs or sexual predators into public facilities.