BOYERTOWN >> In response to a lawsuit challenging the Boyertown Area School District’s transgender policy, the superintendent said the district “contests the claims and will appropriately respond and defend its actions that we believe were consistent and compliant with the law.”
In a written response posted on the district’s website Wednesday, Superintendent Richard H. Faidley revealed that the plaintiffs, an 11th-grade student and his guardians, are seeking monetary damages from the school district.
Attorney Randall Wenger of the Independence Law Center, which helped file the lawsuit on behalf of junior “Joel Doe,” says the litigation is about protecting students’ personal privacy.
The lawsuit claims the school district violated Joel Doe’s right to privacy late last year by failing to restrict the use of its bathrooms and locker rooms to either male or female students. According to the lawsuit, the district could not by law permit a transgender student to use any facility, such as a bath or locker room, designated for males or females.
Joel Doe was changing in a locker room when he realized that a female student, who was also getting dressed, was in the locker room, the suit says. The second student had recently begun transitioning from female to male, and was wearing shorts and a bra when the first student noticed the other student, according to lawsuit.
The suit claims “because of the privacy violation, as well as the District’s subsequent actions, Joel Doe also experiences anxiety, stress, intimidation, fear, apprehension and loss of dignity.”
Faidley said the district first learned of the lawsuit after the plaintiff’s attorneys held a news conference on Tuesday.
The district is “firmly committed through our words and actions to treating every student, and member of our community with respect, dignity, and sensitivity in accordance with all applicable laws,” Faidley said in the statement.
The district stated it had received a Demand Letter along with a copy of the lawsuit, which has been filed in federal court but not yet served. The documents were presented to the district’s solicitor by the lawyers representing the plaintiff and his guardians.
Faidley states in his letter that, contrary to the lawsuit claims, the administration and staff offered “reasonable and appropriate” alternatives when the student voiced opposition to changing in a designated locker room being used by a transgender student.
“We also discussed those options with his guardians, explaining that at the time we were following the law of the land, Faidley wrote. “Even though the Federal government’s position has changed since then, we are now guided by a recent Federal court ruling in a Pennsylvania case, and await additional guidance from the State of Pennsylvania.”
Wenger insists the school district did not do enough to protect students’ privacy.
“Students shouldn’t be forced into situations where their personal privacy is violated,” Wenger said. “We, in society, have long recognized that we have a right to our bodily privacy when it comes to a person of the opposite sex.”
The goal of the lawsuit is to remedy the situation, Wenger said.
“My hope is, through the filing, the school district will realize there is a better way to respect the rights of every single child in their care and that they’ll reverse this policy,” Wenger said. “It’s one of those situations where there’s such a power differential between adults overseeing our kids and kids just being told ‘this is the new way we’re doing it and make it natural.'”
He said the Boyertown district does not have a written policy of this issue.
“That’s sort of just the way that it is. That was part of the problem here, it came as a shock. It was not something that was discussed with the school community or with the boys in the locker room – it just happened, and then kids needed to figure it out.”
The school district has until April 4 to respond to the lawsuit.
“As our nation struggles to balance the rights of individuals and groups regarding this challenging but very real issue, we ask all students, parents and community members to treat each other with the same degree of respect, dignity, and sensitivity,” Faidley said. “We are committed and confident that working together we can reach a satisfactory resolution that is consistent with our mission ‘to enable all students to succeed in a changing world.'”
