Roughly 150 high school students walked out of classes over allowing a male student to use the girl’s locker room. The students and the school are trying to accommodate the confused young man who feels more comfortable wearing women’s clothing and asking people to refer to him as a female.
Schools are facing the conundrum of finding a way to satisfy the various lifestyles advocated by powerful groups while still dealing with teenagers and all of the insecurities and passions that come with them. Most young girls do not want to share a bathroom or changing room with someone who they know to be a guy. No matter how politically correct they may be, they want privacy.
Hillsboro High School in Hillsboro, Missouri is trying to accommodate senior Lila Perry, Perry who is male, has dressed and referred to himself as female since he was 13. He asked his school if he could start using the ladies’ room and that is when the trouble began. There was a fierce backlash from the student body as they asked for a third restroom to allow Perry to use.
About 100 students walked out of class on Monday in protest to Perry’s use of the girl’s facilities while another 30 or 40 walked out in favor of allowing the student to use them.
Perry is opposed to being asked to use a gender-neutral bathroom because he animatedly believes himself to be a girl, even though he is not. “I am [a] girl. I shouldn’t be pushed off to another bathroom,” he told KMOV.
Administrators at the high school referred the Post Dispatch’s questions to Superintendent Aaron Cornman who told the paper that the district “respects the rights of all students and appreciates the fact that the students we are educating are willing to stand on their belief system and to support their cause/beliefs through their expression of free speech.”
