(The National Pulse) Serious Violation of Girls’ Privacy Rights in Sun Prairie East Locker Room” is the subject line of a letter from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty which alleges that high school girls were exposed to the male genitalia of an 18-year-old student who identifies as “trans” as they showered at their school. Parents, the legal letter alleges, were not informed at the time of the incident.
“Our attorneys at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) recently became aware of an alarming incident involving a violation of freshman girls privacy while in a Sun Prairie East High School (EHS) locker room.
Although the parent who reached out to WILL attempted to resolve this issue with Sun Prairie Area School District (SPASD or “District”) administrators, the response by the District to date has been completely inadequate. We are calling on you to address this immediately and put policies in place that will protect the safety and privacy of all students (and provide public notice of what those policies are).
“In the interests of privacy, we will not share student or parent names in this letter, but your employees at EHS are well-aware of all persons involved and your District’s refusal to act.”
The letter goes on to detail the March 3rd 2023 incident, where in “four freshman girls at EHS participated in a swim unit as part of their first-hour physical-education class.
After the class, the girls entered the girls’ athletic locker room to shower and change for class. Upon entering, they noticed a senior male student in the area containing lockers and benches. It is our understanding this male was 18 years old at the time of the incident.
According to the girls, this student was not in the first-hour PE class they were participating in. While the girls were surprised to see him in the locker room, they had a general idea that this student identifies as transgender and has used girls’ bathrooms before. While they were uncomfortable, they proceeded to the shower area without interacting with the student.
“The girls entered the shower area with their swimsuits on, which was their common practice as they rinsed off. As they began to shower, the male student approached them, entered the shower area, announced “I’m trans, by the way,” and then undressed fully and showered completely naked right next to one of the girls. He was initially turned towards the wall but eventually turned and fully exposed his male genitalia to the four girls. Understandably, the girls were caught off guard and shocked, closed their eyes, and tried to hurry up and leave the showers as quickly as possible.”
The letter goes on to allege a disturbing and “inadequate” response by the district:
“Rather than informing the Title IX coordinator about this report of alleged sexual harassment, Associate Principal Heidi Walter asked for the names of the students involved, but the other student wanted to get permission from the girls first. There is no indication anyone at EHS took any action at that time.
On Friday, March 10, the other student attended a meeting and was ready to provide the girls’ names, but Assistant Principal Walter told her that instead the girls can approach her if they wanted. Assistant Principal Walter later admitted during a meeting with parents that she should have “dug deeper” at that time. Under federal law, the incident should have been reported to the Title IX coordinator, who should have then contacted the girls, offered supportive measures, and provided them an opportunity to file a complaint. Supportive measures might have included accommodations to maintain their access to education and adequate privacy in the locker room at least while a Title IX investigation was pending. No one from the District contacted any of the girls’ parents at that time, and no one investigated. To be clear, that means that the District’s initial response to this incident violated Title IX.”
