Lila Perry HILLSBORO, Mo. (CBS St. Louis) – Over 150 Missouri high school students voiced their displeasure about a transgender teen using the girls’ locker room by walking out of class.
Students at Hillsboro High School staged a two-hour walkout Monday over 17-year-old Lila Perry, a student who has identified as a female since she was 13, using the girls’ locker room during gym class.
The school offered Perry a gender-neutral bathroom, which she turned down. St. Louis attorney Timm Schowalter says, “All students have a right, under Title 9, to access the bathroom of their choice.”
Family members of high school students were also holding a protest.
“Boys need to have their own locker room. Girls need to have their own locker room, and if somebody has mixed feelings where they are, they need to have their own also,” protester Jeff Childs told KMOV. Childs was holding a “Girls Rights Matter” sign.
Tammy Sorden, whose son goes to Hillsboro High School, believes it’s not right to give Lila special treatment “while the girls just have to suck it up.”
“The girls have rights, and they shouldn’t have to share a bathroom with a boy,” she told the Post-Dispatch.
Schowalter has worked with many corporations in gender equality and transgender issues. On KMOX Wednesday morning, the attorney was asked where he thought the situation would end up.
“It’s going to end up in court. And that’s where most of these issues are decided,” Schowalter says. “You have the administrative agencies – OSHA, EEOC, and the Department of Education clashing with the courts. Most of the times … the court, when the issue gets there, will not enforce those guidelines.”
Lila has dropped out of gym class for safety concerns, but she still plans on using the girl’s bathroom.