Male student sues school district over privacy rights for allowing girl to undress in boys' locker room

Reuters

A high school student in Pennsylvania was shocked when he saw a girl inside the boy's locker room taking off her clothes sometime in October last year.

Even though he knew that the girl identifies herself as a boy, the male student still felt that the local school district violated his privacy rights by allowing transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms of their preferred gender, The Christian Post reported.

The student—anonymously referred to in court documents as "Joel Doe"—and his parents then decided to file a federal lawsuit against the Boyertown Area School District.

The lawsuit states that the school district's bathroom policy "needlessly subjects Doe to the risk that his partially unclothed body will be exposed to the opposite sex and that he will be exposed to a partially clothed person of the opposite-sex, as actually occurred when the policy was first implemented."

"Plaintiff has experienced embarrassment and humiliation, both in terms of being viewed and viewing a student of the opposite sex in a state of undress and because of the stigmatization and criticism he received from other students and adults, fueled by the administration's policy and actions," the lawsuit reads.

"He also fears the future embarrassment of meeting students of the opposite sex in the bathroom when simply relieving himself," it adds.

Because of the situation, the plaintiff "now avoids using the restroom during the school day because of the ongoing risk of having his privacy violated."

The student and his parents are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Pennsylvania-based firm Independence Law Center.

"No school should rob any student of his legally protected personal privacy," ILC Chief Counsel Randall Wenger said in a statement. "We trust that our children won't be forced into emotionally vulnerable situations like this when they are in the care of our schools because it's a school's duty to protect and respect the bodily privacy and dignity of all students. In this case, school officials are clearly ignoring that duty."

The lawsuit was filed after the Trump administration issued a directive last February revoking federal guidelines issued by former President Barack Obama that allowed public school students to use restrooms and other facilities corresponding to their gender identity, Fox News reported.