A female Pennsylvania high school student said that her privacy was violated and she was subjected to sexual harassment after a male student who identifies as female looked at her while she was changing in the girl’s locker room.
Neither student is identified by name in a civil rights complaint filed on March 13 with the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Division.
A number of schools around the nation have allowed male students who claim they’re a different sex than their biological one, to intermix with females in locker rooms and bathrooms. The opposite is happening to transgender females.
Lawyers for the female Honesdale High School student posted a video alongside the announcement of the complaint in which the girl talks about what happened.
The high schooler said that she was in her locker room in September 2018 before gym class undressing when she saw the male student there undressing as well.
“While I was putting on my pants, I heard a man’s voice,” the girl said. “So I turned around and he is standing there on the opposite aisle, looking at me.”
“I glanced down and could tell that he was wearing women’s underwear and what was underneath it,” the girl added. “When I knew that a man was looking at me I felt very violated and very scared—especially looking at me while I’m getting dressed.”
“Opening up restrooms and locker room facilities to members of the opposite sex is sexual harassment, and like many forms of sexual harassment the girls in this school have little power over their situation,” added Andrea Shaw, an attorney representing the female student, in a statement.
A Pennsylvania female high school student has filed a complaint with the United States Department of Education Office of…
“The reason we have separate bathroom and locker room facilities is to provide an area for individuals to dress and undress outside of the presence of somebody of the opposite sex,” Shaw added in the video.
The school’s response was to tell the female student that she could wait outside of the locker room while the male student changed, according to the attorney. “The school’s offered solution made it clear that they believed that my client is the problem. … The privacy rights of these girls don’t change based on what a male believes about their gender.”
The girl’s father also spoke, saying, “I think any father wouldn’t want their child to be exposed to anything, especially at such a young age.”
“My daughter does not consent to being seen by or to see someone of the opposite sex in her locker room,” the girl’s mother added.
Neither Honesdale High School nor the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Division has responded to the lawsuit publicly. The high school’s handbook (pdf) states that harassment of a student relating to an individual’s gender “is not tolerated” and that sexual harassment includes “inappropriate … physical conduct of a sexual nature” and “any conduct that has the effect of unreasonably interfering with a student’s ability to work or learn or creates an intimidating hostile or offensive learning or working environment.”
There is no mention in the handbook of persons of the opposite sex being allowed in locker rooms or bathrooms.
Transgender
Claiming to be a gender different from the one you were born as, or being transgender, was until June 2018 classified as a mental illness by the World Health Organization.
Some 41 percent of those who believe they’re transgender attempt suicide, a much higher rate than the general population (4.6 percent), according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Williams Institute (pdf).
“Since 2001, over a dozen separate surveys of transgender adults in the United States and other countries have found lifetime suicide attempts to be reported by 25-43 percent of respondents,” the researchers wrote.
