Orange County School Board Member Alicia Farrant: ‘School Bathrooms Should Be Separated by Biological Sex’

ORANGE COUNTY (FLV) – Newly-elected school board member Alicia Farrant did not receive enough support during a Tuesday meeting to prompt a workshop to change the rules surrounding separating bathrooms by biological sex in schools.

During this week’s school board meeting, Farrant said over the holiday break she was inundated with concerned parents writing in and calling her to discuss the bathroom policy.

“Their daughter has walked in [the bathroom] and they see a male student who is dressed as a female, a trans, when they see the male student, it makes them feel uncomfortable, and they turn around and hold their pee the rest of the day,” she said.

“From what I’m hearing from the community, and what I’m feeling, is that we have to go back to any group, multi-stall, bathrooms should be separated by biological sex. And then there are single stall bathrooms sprinkled throughout the school that any child can use.”

While other school districts around Florida chose to only separate their multi-stall bathrooms by biological sex at birth and offer single stall bathrooms as the co-ed option, Farrant said Orange County Public Schools chose to designate specific multi-stall bathrooms to be co-ed and some to be based on biological sex.

“I believe this is a direct violation of the protection our sons and daughter should have while in school. Many parents have lost so much trust in our public schools and creating these new bathroom assignments only causes further distrust,” Farrant previously said on Twitter.

Farrant said that she’s hearing that the bathroom rules are “basically a joke now” from students.

“Kids are talking about okay, so now we’re going to have boyfriend and girlfriend going in and you know, smoking in the bathrooms, which everyone says ‘no,’ but on the ground… boots on the ground, we have kids, so then what then you get questioned and that’s all they have to say is, ‘I identify as..’ That is what I’m hearing from students, parents,” she explained.

She urged the board to switch over to separating bathrooms by biological sex, saying there are single stall bathrooms for any child who doesn’t feel comfortable in a group bathroom.

While School Board Chair Teresa Jacobs did not push for a workshop, she did agree that the rule may backfire.

“I’m concerned about the people who might abuse this who are not transgender students but look for an opportunity to abuse it because now they think they can,” Jacobs said.

In response, Jacobs suggested the idea to provide some sort of messaging to students.

“I think it’s up to the superintendent to think through whether thats a good idea or not to make more of this than we have, but messaging that we will strictly enforce our code of conduct, it’s a thought, but it may backfire,” Jacobs said.

Vice Chair Angie Gallo said they have had instances with non-transgender students, but not transgender students. Gallo said they want every child to feel safe and included.

“I’m good with the decision, or the directive that was sent out by the district,” Gallo said.

The district previously sent out letters to parents after the Florida Board of Education approved rule 6A-10.086 to provide parents and students “full knowledge” of how the school’s bathrooms and locker rooms are designated by gender.

“I just want to thank the principals who did such a great job communicating with all of our families, we put them in a bind forcing them to send out this letter to all of our students and families, say that they were following the law while also explaining our policy of inclusion and fairness and while recognizing the humanity of all our our students,” said board member Karen Castor Dentel.

During the meeting, Farrant attempted to gain support, but Chair Teresa Jacobs said there was not enough to workshop the rule.

At the end of December, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit reportedly ruled that the St. Johns County School Board did not violate a transgender student’s rights when separating bathroom use based on biological sex.

“This debunked the entire basis of the argument for OCPS to have co-ed bathrooms,” Farrant said.

In response to the ruling, Pasco County Schools Superintendent Kurt Browning said students in that district will be required to use restroom facilities that correspond with their biological sex at birth.

“As the board is aware, the 11th issued a ruling in the case of Drew Adams vs the school board of St. Johns County. The full appeals court overturned the trial courts decision, which has been the controlling law until this newest decision was rendered. As I’ve stated on many occasions with this board and publicly, I was going to do what I said I was going to do – and that is follow the law,” Browning said.

Florida’s Voice reached out to the school board members for comment on the rule and did not receive any responses.