Perkiomen Valley school board passes controversial bathroom policy

PERKIOMEN TWP., Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- The Perkiomen Valley school board passed a controversial bathroom policy on Monday night just weeks after voting it down.

The board for the district in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania voted 5-4 in favor of the measure. Board member Don Fountain, who voted against the policy back in September, voted to approve it Monday.

Policy 720 mandates that students must use restrooms that correlate with their sex assigned at birth. It will prohibit transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identities.

The policy opens single-use bathrooms, previously only available to teachers, to all students and staff regardless of gender.

The proposal was sparked by a social media post by a dad who says his daughter encountered someone she thought may have been a boy in the girl's bathroom.

The Perkiomen Valley policy is similar to one enacted in the Pennridge School District in Bucks County recently enacted its own bathroom policy after a 7-1 vote.