Ruling in bathroom policy case appealed
BOYERTOWN » In the wake of a May decision in favor of the Boyertown Area School District’s controversial bathroom/ locker room policy regarding transgender students, lawyers from legal advocacy groups representing students have filed an appeal in federal court.
The appeal, which was announced in a press release Monday, July 2, is to the full Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which has 12 members. The decision in May was made by a three-judge panel of that court.
Contacted Monday afternoon, David Krem, the interim superintendent for the Boyertown Area School District, said he could not yet comment on this latest development in the long-running case.
The appeal was filed by lawyers from two conservative non-
profits — the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian organization with the stated goal of advocating, training and funding on the issues of “religious freedom, sanctity of life, and marriage and family,” and Harrisburg-based Independence Law Center, which is “a non-profit organization funded through tax-deductible contributions that works to preserve religious liberty, promote marriage and the family, and protect human life.”
From the beginning, the basis of their case has been the argument that the school district’s policy, enacted in the 2016-2017 school year, violates students’ rights of bodily privacy. The original plaintiffs complained after one male student saw “an undressed girl in his locker room,” and a female student “encountered a boy in her restroom with the approval of her school.”
“No student should be put into an intimate setting — like a locker room or shower — with someone of the opposite sex,” said Randall Wenger, chief counsel of the Independence Law Center.
In the appeal, the lawyers argue the May decision “rejects the Supreme Court, the Third Circuit’s an Congress’s definition of sex, which is grounded in the bodily differences between men and women.”
Because it is at odds with previous decisions, the lawyers argued, “consideration by the full court is necessary to secure and maintain uniformity of decisions in this court.”
“The panel’s decision is out of step with long-standing legal protection for privacy,” said Christiana Holcomb, legal counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom. “That’s why we are asking the full Third Circuit to weigh in on the valid concerns of these students.”
By contrast, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the school district have argued the policy protects against discrimination against transgender students by allowing them to use the facilities of the gender with which they identify.
In May, the American Civil Liberties Union hailed the decision.
“The decision by the appeals court in this case reaffirms the legal rights and dignity of transgender students in schools,” said Anti-Defamation League Regional Director Nancy K. Baron-Baer. “It marks a significant victory, not just for the students at Boyertown, but for all students who seek safe and inclusive learning environments.”
Immediately after the ruling in May, Alexis Lightcap, now a former student at Boyertown Area Senior High School who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit commented, “today’s ruling was very disappointing, and made me feel — again— like my voice was not heard. Every student’s privacy should be protected,” according to quotes included in the press release.
Lightcap graduated in June.
However, Wenger informed Digital First Media that “two students who will be in the high school next year have been joined into the case, one boy and one girl. This is an important case not only to our existing clients but other students, because no student should be put in a setting like a locker room with the opposite sex. There are solutions that respect all students.”
No hearing date has been set by the appeals court.