Missouri Teenagers Protest a Transgender Students Use of the Girls Bathroom
A transgender high school student in Missouri is facing backlash from her peers after requesting to use the girls bathrooms and locker room.
More than 100 students at Hillsboro High School, about an hour south of St Louis, walked out of class on Monday in protest.
Im hoping this dies down, said Lila Perry, the 17-year-old who began identifying as a girl publicly in February. I dont want my entire senior year to be like this.
Ms. Perry, who began feeling more like a girl than a boy when she was 13, said school officials gave her permission to use the girls facilities as the new school year began.
The districts superintendent, Aaron D. Cornman, issued a statement saying the district accepts all students no matter race, nationality/ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
The student protest came on the heels of a school board meeting on Thursday attended by so many parents it had to be moved to a bigger location.
My goal is for the district and parents to have a policy discussion, said Derrick Good, a lawyer who has two daughters in the district and wants students to use either facilities based on their biological sex or other gender-neutral facilities.
He worked with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian advocacy group, to draft a student physical privacy policy and submit it to the district, which has about 3,500 students.
Ms. Perry previously used a unisex faculty bathroom, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Mr. Good said he got involved after hearing about a female student who encountered an intact male in the girls locker room.
Its a violation of my daughters rights to privacy to not have a policy, he said.
The protesting students assembled outside the school for about two hours. Mr. Cornman said he did not believe any of them were penalized.
Ms. Perry, who dropped out of the physical education class that prompted her use of the girls locker room, spent the two hours in her guidance counselors office.
I was concerned about my own safety, she said.