The plaintiffs in Joel Doe vs. Boyertown Area School District have appealed a judge’s ruling to uphold the district’s controversial bathroom and locker room policy that allows transgender students to choose the facility of the gender to which they identify.
The case involves four Boyertown High School students and one recent graduate. The students claim the district’s unwritten bathroom and locker room policy violated their constitutional right to privacy.
The students want the school district to return to its previous practice of permitting students to only use the bathroom and locker room facilities corresponding to their biological gender.
Jeremy Samek, senior counsel at Independence Law Center, is serving as co-counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom in the lawsuit again the Boyertown Area School District. He says the case is about privacy for students and confirmed the decision to appeal on Monday, Sept. 25.
The case will now make its way through the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd District. Attorneys say that process could take a couple of months.
“We’re disappointed because we think all children deserve to be able to go to school and know their privacy and safety is protected when they use bathrooms and locker rooms,” said Samek in August following the court’s decision not to grant an injunction on behalf of the students. “We think that beliefs about our gender shouldn’t be a license to violate privacy inside boys’ and girls’ locker rooms and restrooms, that really defeats the purpose of having sex separated facilities in the first place.”
The school district has not released a statement regarding the motion to appeal.
To address concerns surrounding privacy and safety, and to better accommodate the needs of students, Boyertown Area School District is currently exploring potential facility modifications.
A presentation regarding the KCBA Architects’ plan of addressing these issues was made at the Aug. 22 school board meeting. The school board decided to move forward with the proposed plan of gathering information and sending out a community survey.
