High Schoolers’ Resistance to Trans Bathroom Policies Grow as Walkouts Multiply

It was May 28, 2021 when a 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in a Virginia public school restroom. Details revealed the girl was attacked by a boy wearing a skirt who was legally allowed to use the girls’ restroom at Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County because it “matched his gender identity.”

Under the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” the girl and her parents filed a lawsuit after the school allegedly covered up her assault. Incredibly, the boy went on to attack another girl in a different school. But because he considered himself “gender-fluid,” the violence was denied by both his mother and teachers.

In response to incidents like these, which resulted from school policies allowing boys into girls’ restrooms and locker rooms, a growing tide of high school across the country are walking out of class in protest. On Wednesday, Loudoun County students held a second walkout protesting Policy 8040, which allows biological males to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. The first walkout occurred after the sexual assault incident in 2021.

In Pennsylvania, hundreds of students from Perkiomen Valley School District ditched class to protest the failed enactment of a policy requiring students to use the bathroom that matched their biological sex. “[It feels] as if it’s me and my sister and the rest of us students’ rights are now compromised and not a priority to this school whatsoever,” Pennsylvania student Brandon Emery said. His mother, Melanie Marren, added, “They are making these policies without taking into consideration how they affect the students and how uncomfortable it is … to be faced with the invasion of their privacy in those areas where they should feel safe and private.”

In Baltimore, Maryland, a group of parents involved with “Parental Alliance for Safer Schools in Baltimore County” (PASS) planned a protest of the county and its policy that allows trans-identifying students to use whichever bathroom or locker room they please. However, the October 10 protest faced opposition when parents supporting transgenderism also showed up.

In Canada, groups have also gathered to protest policies that allow biological males in female-specific spaces. Students from Longfields-Davidson Heights High School formed a group called “LDHSS Students for Change” to push back against the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board by hosting their own walkouts. One of the students from the group told Newsweek, “The main thing we protested for was for us to be able to say what we want and to keep gay teachings out of our schools.” As a way to fight the policies, these students want their school board to establish gender neutral bathrooms, a compromise some states have put in motion.

“American adults and parents should be ashamed of the fact that students are forced to protest for the right to not undress in front of someone of the opposite sex,” Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand. “The students and staff are protesting because the Left is forcing progressive adult sexual priorities on children as a way of justifying their own adult actions, and it’s not acceptable.”

Kilgannon acknowledged that “when students leave school in protest for gun control or climate change,” it may be that “kids [are] taking an opportunity to leave class,” adding that “some may have the same attitude towards these examples.” However, she emphasized that “when the cause of the protest is something as intimate as access to bathrooms or locker rooms, or is in protest of compelled speech, we should pay attention.”

Kilgannon concluded, “[I]f these kinds of protests continue, it’s going to make the release of the Biden administration’s redefinition of Title IX and sex itself much more charged.”