After a seven hour meeting Monday night, the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD school board adopted guidelines for teachers and to review books available at school libraries. The measures include a ban on teaching "critical race theory" and a requirement that people use the bathroom according to the gender on their birth certificate.
Almost 200 people signed up to speak during the meeting. Supporters of the rules held a tailgate party before the meeting.
Each person was given one minute to speak.
"This policy's legal. It's the law. It says we're going to follow the law," one parent said.
"These policies reflect the values of the people who elected them, which is the majority of GCISD," the mother of a current student said.
Opponents said the majority of those who signed up opposed the changes. A father said the rules would drive away the district's best teachers and school librarians.
"When you tell librarians they're in charge of policing prohibited materials with broad definitions, it puts them in the position of being fearful they're doing something wrong and end up leaving the profession," he said.
"I appreciate having a voice in an education that belongs to me, not an agenda," a junior at Grapevine High School said.
The board voted 4-3 in favor of the changes.
"This policy is going to harm students in the classroom and overburden our teachers for a political agenda alone," Trustee Becky St. John said.
Superintendent Robin Ryan said the guidelines are the "product of input from several groups," including the board's policy committee, administrators, principals, district lawyers and, "most importantly, community members who have approached us at grocery stores, soccer fields, softball fields, wherever, really, we go in the community."
But Ryan said the state legislature had the greatest influence.
"The policies under review tonight are overwhelmingly based in state law," he said. "Many are taken directly from the education code, and these policies are a reflection of Texas law and community values."
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