Gender switch for all-girls school

Columnist Chris Freind has some thoughts on the decision of an all-girls school to bend the rules.

So there I was, minding my own business, when I overheard a conversation between an eighth-grade boy and his mother’s friend about what high schools the boy was considering.

Maybe Malvern, St. Joe’s Prep, and Devon, he answered. But he hedged, stating that he also liked co-ed schools. So he rattled off Episcopal and the archdiocesan schools.

Lending a helping hand, I suggested Agnes Irwin, an elite private co-ed school on the Main Line.

The boy and his mother turned and just stared. Was a large chunk of food wedged in my teeth — again? Not this time. After a minute, they informed me that I had it completely wrong: Agnes Irwin was, and always had been, an all-girls school.

Au contraire, I shot back! I am often wrong, but not on this. Accordingly, I proceeded to enlighten them to the fact that Agnes Irwin had indeed become co-ed last year when it allowed a female student to “switch” genders and “identify” as male.

The choice to allow a transgender student to remain — thus upending everything the school had stood for — continues, as Irwin now has a bona fide, albeit irrational, policy on transgender students.

It’s one thing to be “progressive,” but this is beyond the boundaries of common sense — and good business. Not only has Agnes Irwin’s decision made it a laughingstock to many, but it constitutes a betrayal to those who chose the school because it was single-sex. In fact, numerous families have already parted ways as a result.

Here’s a look at why such politically correct polices have a detrimental effect on everyone: School, parents, and most of all, students.

1) To be very clear, in no way is this column critical of the student, or the student’s family. “Freindly Fire” has always espoused a “live and let live” philosophy, so long as people’s behavior and decisions do not adversely affect others.

If the student in question feels more like a male than female, fine. Hopefully, “he” finds happiness in that decision.

2) The issue has nothing to do with being transgender, and everything to do with Agnes Irwin breaking its own protocols, yet coyly trying to play both sides. You cannot emphatically state that you were, and remain, an all-girls school, while allowing “male” students to be a part of that environment. It doesn’t work.

3) One wonders how adept the school’s board of directors is at reading the tea leaves. Sure, a few unplacatable loudmouths may have complained if the school had exited the student, but that dissent would have mustered little credibility and been short-lived.

4) Some parents feel that the school falsely advertised. An all-girls environment is a huge reason why parents and students pick such a school. Girls can “let their hair down” rather than “looking good,” and, more important, don’t have to dumb themselves down so as to not intimidate the boys.

Girls are taught differently; are prepared for careers beyond those stereotypically associated with women; often test higher than co-ed counterparts; and frequently emerge with vastly boosted self-confidence.

5) Adopting these policies opens Pandora’s Box. Is it fair to allow males identifying as females to compete on female sports teams? Can these folks walk into the bathroom of their choice with no ramifications? Would it be legal to apply as a “female” (even though one is biologically male) to a university that gives preference to women, since doing so would take a slot away from a biological female?

The ultimate result is that these policies breed resentment and cause the gulf between Americans to widen.

Agnes Irwin, as a private institution, can certainly choose to continue its policies, but the cost will be high: Imbuing students with the sense of entitlement that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want; teaching that there are two sets of rules — one for those who invoke the magic words “diversity” and “I’m offended,” and another for everyone else; and learning that the uniquely American concept of “equal rights for all, special treatment for none” is nothing more than an ancient platitude now relegated to the dust heap of history.

Hopefully, Agnes Irwin will remember that the most valuable lesson in life is being courageous enough to admit a mistake, and fixing it.