Sen. Cruz Issues Statement on the Obama School Bathroom Decree
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released the following statement Friday in response to the Obama administration’s threat to withhold federal funds from any public school district that does not abide by its transgender bathroom policy:
“America has woken up to yet another example of President Barack Obama doing through executive fiat what he cannot get done through our democratic process. Today, he decreed that schools across the country must allow men and boys to use the restrooms, locker rooms, and shower facilities previously reserved for girls. Not only is this decree contrary to law, but it makes no sense. There is a reason that we give girls access to their own changing rooms: It is for their privacy, safety, and security. The administration’s dangerous departure from that common-sense norm must not stand.
“Having spent many years in law enforcement, I've handled far too many cases of child molesters, of pedophiles, of people who abused little kids. The threats of predators are serious, and we should not facilitate allowing grown men or boys to be in bathrooms with little girls.
“While the administration’s decree has no force of law in our constitutional system of government, the “implicit threat,” as the New York Times reported, is that public school districts who fail to toe the line will face lawsuits and the loss of federal aid. This is both legally improper and harmful to the most vulnerable among us—for what the Times failed to report is that the money the federal government sends to local school districts provides lunches for economically disadvantaged children and vital services for those most in need. So the Obama White House, for the sake of political correctness, is holding hostage the poorest, most disadvantaged children across the nation.
“What we’ve now seen across the country, from the administration’s lawsuit against North Carolina to the superintendent of the Fort Worth Independent School District in Texas, is that common-sense needs for safety and privacy are being trumped by leftist notions of faux egalitarianism.
“I encourage every school superintendent, school board, and parent across this nation to disregard this barely veiled threat from the White House aimed at overturning the utterly reasonable practice of preventing men and boys from entering girls’ restrooms and changing rooms.
“As a father of young girls, I wouldn't want my daughters being forced to change in the same room as men and boys. It’s that simple. And parents across this country shouldn’t have to tolerate it either.”
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