The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) is demanding answers and action in a letter to a Wisconsin school district, arguing it failed to appropriately address an incident where a transgender-identifying student who is biologically male showered in the girls' locker room alongside four freshman girls, exposing them to male genitalia.
The incident allegedly took place on March 3 when four freshman girls from Sun Prairie East High School (EHS) went to use the girls' locker room following a physical education class. When the students entered the locker room, they reportedly noticed the trans individual changing near the lockers, but paid little attention to it, as the student was known to use girls' facilities.
But the situation allegedly took a drastic turn when the transgender student, a senior who WILL says was 18 at the time, joined the girls in the shower and exposed them to male genitalia.
The girls were showering in their bathing suits to rinse off the chlorine from their P.E. class when the student allegedly came into the shower and announced, "I'm trans, by the way," before fully undressing and showering naked in front of the freshman-aged girls.
The transgender student spent time facing the wall, but when turned around, the student's penis was completely exposed to the underage girls, according to WILL.
School staff were not notified of the incident until one of the girls' friends, who had been told what happened, decided to say something. The girls who were victims of the incident were uncomfortable and unsure how to handle it, according to WILL.
After the student who was not involved in the incident approached school officials, no proactive action was taken to remedy the situation, such as contacting a Title IX officer to provide an opportunity for the girls to file a sexual harassment complaint or offering the girls other supportive measures, according to WILL.
"No one from the District contacted any of the girls' parents at that time, and no one investigated," WILL wrote in a letter to theSun Prairie Area School District's Board of Education. "To be clear, that means that the District's initial response to this incident violated Title IX."
Parents began taking the initiative to inquire with the school themselves about its policy regarding transgender students.
After a month, EHS's principal got back to one of the parents but "did not identify any applicable policy, the Title IX procedures, or what EHS has done to address the situation," according to WILL.
It wasn't until April 10, over a month since the incident took place, that anyone from the high school or its district identified a policy regarding transgender students' use of female-only facilities, WILL says.
But WILL contests there is no proof this policy was even in effect on March 3, the date of the incident, or that it was ever approved by the school board. The same day Sun Prairie shared its policy with parents, EHS's principal apologized to a parent via email, acknowledging the incident never should have occurred, according to WILL.
"It's unclear where this new guidance about transgenderism in the bathroom and in the locker rooms came from,"WILL Deputy Counsel Dan Lennington told The National Desk (TND). "It actually is backwards. It says that if a girl is upset about what is going on in a bathroom, or requires more privacy, it's the girl that needs to get the separate facility and will be provided separate accommodations. It's very focused on the transgender student and the transgender student's rights, and there's little to no regard for Title IX, which is a basic federal law that protects girls and women in educational settings."
WILL's letter to the Sun Prairie Area School District's board is seeking copies of communications, including emails, texts and voicemails, to help aid in their investigation into the matter.
Lennington told TND that, at the very, least the district needs to retrain their employees.
"All employees of all school districts should know how to deal with complaints of sexual harassment and that was an abject failure in this case and it's very sad,"Lennington said.
"The people involved on both sides of this did not know the rules, even the student who exposed himself did not know the rules about the shower and the girls who were the victims of this also did not know the rules," Lennington noted. "So, it's not really about the kids in this case, it's about the failure of the school district, and the school district's failure to abide by just basic common sense and legal protections afforded by federal law."
Lennington expressed fears about injecting "transgender ideology" into Title IX, noting it "may have the unintended consequences of watering down protections for females."
"We should never water down the protections of one group in order to accommodate some transgender policy or some ideology on the other side. That's dangerous for everyone involved," he said.
When reached for comment, theSun Prairie Area School District directed TND to a letter sent by the superintended to all high school families following the incident.
The letter said the district would not be commenting on the details of the incident, but blamed Fox News for failing to accurately report the circumstances surrounding the matter.
The message added that the school did address the incident when it was brought to their attention, and "steps have been taken to ensure that it does not recur."