BOYERTOWN >> By a 6-3 vote, the Boyertown Area School Board has decided to reject the terms of the demand letter in the lawsuit by a student who objects to the district’s transgender policy.
The plaintiff’s demand letter, dated March 21 and posted the district website on March 24, outlines four courses of action in the form of statements to be issued by school officials to parents and students.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of an 11th-grade student identified only as “Joel Doe” who was changing in the boys locker room at the high school when he saw another student dressed in shorts and a bra also changing in the same room. That student is transitioning from female to male.
Joel Doe’s lawyers offered not to serve the federal seeking monetary damages if the school district agreed to the four demands.
The first two statements in the demand letter declare that all bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing areas accessible to multiple people at the same time are to be designated for use based on biological/anatomical sex only. And that no person, unless they are a member of that sex, may enter those multi-user areas. Any single-use facility such as a bathroom may be used by persons of either sex.
The letter also asked for a statement be issued that the policy protects the expectation of privacy those facilities are designed to protect and that the preceding will not affect maintenance, custodial or medical assistance needs.
If the district does not undertake these actions, the plaintiff will move forward with serving the complaint that was filed in federal district court last week. The letter listed April 4 as the deadline for a response.
With 200 people in attendance on Tuesday, March 28, the Boyertown Area School Board heard feedback from community members on this issue and also met in executive session. The board then made the decision to reject the demands of the letter.
The school district issued an announcement on Wednesday, March 29, recognizing the audience for listening to one another and sharing their opinions with the board.
“Our community demonstrated that we can have disagreements – even sharp disagreements – over a highly controversial subject, but, hopefully, we can also agree that no single issue is so great that it will ever divide us, and distract us from our mission of providing the very best education to every one of our students,” Superintendent Richard Faidley wrote in the district’s announcement.
The district will continue to provide updates regarding this lawsuit through its website and at future meetings.
Attorney Randall Wenger of the Independence Law Center, which helped file the lawsuit on behalf of 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.”
President Trump recently signed an executive order overturning the Obama administration’s transgender policies involving public schools.
