The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty has filed a civil rights complaint against the school
When two high-school girls in Wisconsin were changing clothes in the girls locker room last year, they were surprised to find a male classmate sharing what they believed was a female-only space.
When the girls’ parents expressed their daughters’ concerns to administrators, the school refused to take action, the parents claim. Instead, a gym teacher told the girls “not to worry about it” and said that opposing the boy’s presence in the girls’ locker room would be considered “bullying.”
The girls then attempted to use a private changing stall. But, when they were force to wait for the stall, they received tardy notices; one of the girls received “multiple unexcused absences attempting to avoid the leering gaze of a male student in the locker room,” Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), the law firm representing the families, said in a federal civil rights complaint filed on Friday.
The problems didn’t end in gym class. When one girl “attempted to go sit in the general girl’s bathroom outside the locker room during her gym class to avoid the male student watching her change,” a Westosha teacher admonished her for trying to skip class.
“I was scared to say the reason I wasn’t going [to gym class was] because [the teacher] kept yelling and saying he was gonna put us on the no pass list so I just said okay and walked in and now I’m scared to move because someone’s gonna catch me,” the girl wrote in a text message to her mother shared with NR.
Another girl received an “F” grade in gym class due to repeated absences, all owing to the fact that being in a locker room with a biological male caused “heightened anxiety,” WILL added.
“When schools like Westosha force girls into an inadequate choice between exposing themselves to a male student or academic penalties, they abandon all common-sense and their core mission. The law requires protections for girls to have the same educational opportunities as their male peers,” WILL Associate Counsel and education law legal expert Lauren Greuel said. “The decision to punish these girls for protecting themselves must be promptly investigated by the Department of Education. We ask the department to consider the allegations in our complaint and quickly remedy these unlawful policies and practices.”
Westosha principal Kevin Kitslaar said in response to families’ concerns in a December email that “I am aware of the situation and working to find a resolution that is in the best interest of all students involved.” Days later, the school sent an email to all parents, saying that “the district has investigated all comments, and no school safety concerns have been reported. In short, there is not and has not been a credible threat to the students and staff at our school.”
“Although the district’s investigation has not yielded evidence of misconduct in the locker rooms, the district has taken steps to ensure all students feel safe and comfortable in the locker rooms,” the email, sent by District Administrator John Gendron and Board of Education President Steve Richter said.
In January, the school changed course, informing students that the male student would no longer be using the girls’ facilities.
“The student is not using the locker room and will not be in the future. This began on January 2 and is in place for the future,” Gendron said, as reported by local media. “It was a district decision and will be our practice going forward with this student and any other students.”
The district’s “decision,” however, is not a binding policy.
“We believe Westosha violated Title IX by failing to take meaningful action to accommodate, or even speak to, affected students, despite multiple parental and student complaints and reports,” WILL said in a press release.
Westosha did not respond to a request for comment from National Review.
The complaint comes days after Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies and the Liberty Justice Center filed a civil rights complaint against the Illinois Board of Education and Chicago Public Schools, over their so-called “gender-inclusive” bathroom and locker room policies.
Deerfield School District 109 in Illinois made headlines last week when mother Nicole Georgas demanded that the Board of Education designate bathrooms and locker rooms sex-specific. School administrators tried to force Georgas’s 13-year-old daughter to change clothes for physical education class in front a biological boy who identifies as a female.
“The girls just want their privacy and they want their locker room back,” she said. “There are gender neutral options. This is my daughter’s story, and the story of many other young girls who have been forced at the difficult age to do something they know and most adults know is wrong.”