A high school student is suing a Pennsylvania school district after claiming his privacy was violated by a transgender male student using the boys’ locker room.
The complainant and his parents, all of whom are identified anonymously in the complaint, alleged that the Boyertown Area School District violated the student’s rights during an incident occurring on or about Oct. 31. The district is located in Berks County, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
According to the complaint, the student began changing in the locker room for gym class and while standing in his underwear, realized there was another student in the room who was wearing shorts and a bra.
The student, along with classmates, went to speak with Assistant Principal Dr. E. Wayne Foley about the trans student’s use of the boys’ locker room. According to the complaint, Foley responded that there was nothing he could do and that students have a right to use the facilities corresponding with their gender identity.
Following this conversation, the student’s parents scheduled an appointment with Foley and Principal Dr. Brett Cooper. According to the suit, Foley indicated the school was “all-inclusive,” while Cooper suggested the student could change in the nurse’s office instead. Meanwhile, Superintendent Dr. Richard Faidley said the student could withdraw from school and be homeschooled, according to the complaint.
The suit claims the district’s actions forced the student to stop changing during gym class and that he has received disciplinary action and poor grades because of only receiving a half day’s credit for not changing into gym clothes. The suit claims he is distracted from instructional time and experiences “anxiety, stress, intimidation, fear, apprehension and loss of dignity.”
The student and his family also suggests the school should be regulating facilities based on sex, not gender identity.
“By adopting gender identity theory as the basis for regulating access to private facilities, defendants are violating sex-discrimination law by not protecting students based on sex but instead imposing an individual’s subjective perception of their gender on other students who value their privacy based on anatomical differences between the sexes,” the complaint states.
The plaintiff also claims he experienced embarrassment and humiliation as he was viewed by a member of the “opposite sex” and fears future embarrassment of possibly meeting students of the “opposite sex” in the restrooms. He now avoids using the bathroom during the school day.
The student is seeking a jury trial.
“We are very appreciative of the Boyertown Area School District for its continuing inclusion and support of trans students,” Pennsylvania Youth Congress Executive Director Jason Landau Goodman told PGN. “This is a position that many schools are in right now. They may not have a formal policy but in practice are linking case-by-case decisions that are essential to the full inclusion and inequity of trans students. We are very concerned with the filing of this lawsuit — the chilling effect even by just filing it on districts — but we will continue to reach out to districts across the Commonwealth to make sure that they know they should be striving for the safety and inclusion of transgender students in their school. In Boyertown, we are hopeful they will fight with all of their resources to defend some of the most vulnerable students in their school.”
Goodman noted that issues of transgender inclusion are occurring across the state. He said now that transgender students’ rights are starting to become fully recognized, “there should be zero issues.”
“There is a mutual accommodation for anyone who wants more privacy but to continue to shoulder that burden on the trans student is unacceptable, isolating and demoralizing and it separates the trans student to make them think there is something wrong with them,” Goodman said.