Students at California school stage walkout to protest dangerous gender policy
Students at James L. Day Middle School in Temecula, California, staged a walkout on Tuesday to protest a policy proposal that would force girls to seek mental health accommodations if they object to boys in their locker rooms.
The Temecula Valley school board has been considering a policy that allows transgender-identifying boys to access girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms, in line with California law that grants students “access to facilities consistent with their gender identity.” Girls who object would need to apply either for a religious accommodation or a mental health accommodation, obtained by completing a form and providing proof of anxiety or other mental health condition.
On August 26th, the school board voted 4-1 to shelve the policy, though it is expected to reconsider it at a meeting on September 9th. But the California Family Council says that since the start of the new school year, at least one transgender-identifying boy has been using the girls’ locker room.
‘Nobody’s doing anything about it’
At 7:45 AM on Tuesday, 40 male and female James Day Middle School students walked out en masse to protest the proposed policy. They were joined by up to 20 parents. Some demonstrators held signs demanding “safety” and “privacy” for girls, while others wore white bows or pink bracelets that said “Save Girls’ Sports.”
“I feel disrespected thinking that . . . we’re biological females, and any guy can just say he’s a female and get into a [girls’] locker room,” one student said during the protest. “And you never know what can happen—molestation . . . or rape is very common, and you don’t know who you’re in there with when you’re taking off your pants.”
"Nobody’s doing anything about it, so I guess we have to fight for it,” she added.
Many parents are furious that the proposed policy would stigmatize their daughters as having a mental health condition simply because they want privacy from boys.
“They don’t want to stigmatize their daughters with a mental-health label simply for wanting privacy, nor do they want to be forced to claim a religious exemption to avoid mixed-sex changing areas,” the California Family Council reported. “As one mom summarized to CFC staff on scene: ‘My daughter’s not anxious or sick, she just deserves a girls’ locker room.’”
