Pearland pledges ‘diversity,’ but activist mom not buying it
The Pearland Independent School District offices are a long way, geographically and culturally, from the South Beach nightclub, where patrons enjoy “So You Think You Can Drag” contests on Friday nights.
Last week, though, politics and happenstance briefly linked the two venues.
On Nov. 16, the Montrose-area nightclub hosted the sixth annual “F.A.C.E.” Awards honoring leaders and supporters of the LGBT community. The award for best activist went to Kimberly Shappley, the mother of a 6-year-old transgender daughter who attends a public elementary school in Pearland. At noon the following day, the Pearland ISD board assembled for a special meeting. Trustees emerged from a lengthy executive session and unanimously approved a resolution affirming their support for Superintendent John Kelly “in light of current events.”
These events involve Facebook posts by Kelly’s adult son that expressed hateful attitudes toward African-American and Jewish people. The son’s Facebook page has been taken down, but screenshots of the racist posts continue to circulate, with commenters suggesting that the son was expressing ideas he had learned at home as a child.
The school board apparently felt the need to distance itself from Kelly’s son’s opinions.
“Our diversity is our strength, and we look forward to continuing to offer world-class education that develops every child’s unique gifts and talents,” the board’s statement said.
Kelly, for his part, disavowed the posts by his 28-year-old son. In a letter to district staff obtained by Chronicle reporter Jacob Carpenter, Kelly called the statements “devastating to me, my wife, his siblings, and others.”
All of this rings a bit hollow to Shappley. Her daughter Kai, 6, still has to go to the school nurse’s office to use the restroom.
I met Shappley on the evening of Aug. 9, 2016, when she pleaded with the Pearland school board to allow Kai and other transgender children to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Shappley submitted to several interviews after the meeting, taking her first steps toward
a role as a public advocate for equitable treatment of transgender people.
Since then, Shappley has posted countless messages on social media supporting LGBT rights. In interviews and a video produced by the advocacy group Equality Texas, she has publicly recounted her own struggle to understand and embrace Kai’s gender identity.
“I can’t fix her,” Shappley told me this week, recalling her earlier thinking about Kai’s insistence on being treated as a girl. “What’s wrong with her? I’m praying and she’s not changing.”
Bathroom bill fight
Shappley traveled repeatedly to Austin to lobby and testify against the “bathroom bill,” which would have required transgender people to use bathrooms in public schools, government buildings and public universities based on “biological sex.”
The bill, which was championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and became a top priority for social conservatives, died in the Legislature’s special session in June.
“If it had not been for all the activists, the bathroom bill would have passed,” Shappley said.
The defeat of the bill was encouraging to Shappley, but she’s had less success in her personal battle. Pearland ISD’s policy hasn’t changed. Shappley said Kai has twice had accidents while waiting for someone to unlock the nurse’s office.
When Shappley spoke to the Pearland school board last year, districts across the country were struggling with guidance from then-President Barack Obama’s administration that students should be permitted to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Kelly responded with a public statement suggesting such policies could lead to legalizing pedophilia and polygamy.
President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded the guidance this year, essentially endorsing policies like Pearland’s. But Kelly’s comments have not been forgotten, and the lingering controversy played a role in the board’s decision to respond to his son’s Facebook posts, Trustee Mike Floyd told me.
Floyd, who was a high-school senior when he defeated an incumbent to win a seat on the school board in May, has befriended Shappley and Kai. He appears to be the only trustee who supports a more inclusive bathroom policy.
‘Right side of history’
Floyd said he voted for the pro-Kelly resolution because Kelly is a competent educator and administrator.
“This is hard for me to say, but he has done a good job,” Floyd said.
In the absence of any federal pressure, there’s no reason to think Pearland’s policy — which is observed, officially or otherwise, in many school districts — will change. Shappley said she is still considering finding a more welcoming school for Kai to attend. She’s trying to take the long view.
“We know that we are on the right side of history,” she said, “and that’s what encourages me to keep going.”