Philadelphia high school student, Alexis Lightcap told to ‘tolerate’ boy in girls’ bathroom
A Philadelphia high school student has joined a lawsuit against her school district after being told by school officials to “tolerate” having to use the girls’ bathroom … with boys.
In a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed, Alexis Lightcap details her ordeal, noting “It’s amazing to think that one quick trip to the bathroom can change your life.”
“I was a junior in high school when I ducked into the girls’ room at school one day to find … a boy. I froze. Three years at this particular school, and that had never happened to me before. The girls’ bathroom had always been the girls’ getaway place — a place for privacy, mostly, but also a little refuge — a place to get away from boys, maybe talk about boys, but not meet boys.”
Lightcap joined the Doe v. Boyertown Area School District lawsuit which concerns a situation similar to her own — a “male student who involuntarily encountered an undressed female student while changing in the boys’ locker room.”
She notes the plaintiff in that case did just what she did, informed a school official, but, like Lightcap, was told to “tolerate it” and to “make it as natural as possible.”
photo courtesy of LC.org
A federal judge sided with the district last month, but Lightcap and her co-plaintiffs are considering their options: “As one of my attorneys said after that decision, ‘The Supreme Court has already spoken: The real differences between men and women mean that privacy must be protected where it really counts, and that certainly includes high school locker rooms and restrooms.’”
