Between 50 and 100 students walked out of classes to protest a controversial transgender bathroom policy at a school in Virginia.
Students at Woodgrove High School, a Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) school, walked out of classes over "inclusive" policies that allow people who consider themselves transgender, gender fluid or non-binary to use a bathroom that does not correspond to their biological sex.
Students believe that this policy affects not only their privacy in the locker rooms but also their safety.
"In the locker rooms in the morning it's an invasion of privacy, as I said because when men and natural-born males are in our locker rooms and they are showering in the morning, natural-born females can walk in there as they please," one high school student told the local news outlet ABC 7News. "And that is not OK. And it goes against what we believe in."
The district's policy of allowing gender-neutral bathrooms, known as Policy 8040, was approved in 2021 by the Loudoun County School Board. Students are calling for the policy to be reversed.
"I would like to be able when I get off football practice and go put my pads away and change not feel uncomfortable with other genders in there watching me," another student told 7News. "I feel that girls feel the same way about the situation. How would you feel if you were a female changing with a male?"
Indeed, many girls feel insecure and stopped using the bathrooms in said school as a result of fear of sharing a locker room with biological men.
The students blame LCPS for not taking action on the matter, ignoring the requests of dozens of disgruntled students.
"It's a massive safety risk, and they [LCPS] don't do anything about it," one student told 7News. "And we express these concerns and they ignore us and write us off as right-wing crazies. We're not crazy. We just don't want to be in danger on a daily basis in this building. I think it's people finally stepping up and just being sick of it. We're sick of being here and just being completely ignored. I stopped using them [the bathrooms]because I don't know what's going to happen to me in there. And people can be like, 'Oh, well, that's paranoid'. I'm telling you right now half the women in this building feel the same way. We don't use the bathrooms. We hold our pee until we can't. I mean, there are girls in PE [Physical Education class] who still get changed in the bathroom stalls in there because they're afraid of who might waltz in."
