FIRST ON FOX– Two Wisconsin parents have filed a civil rights complaint after they claimed their daughters were forced to share a locker room with a biological male transgender student and faced academic penalties for attempting to avoid undressing in front of the student.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed a Title IX complaint on behalf of the parents with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi against Westosha Central High School for “endangering the safety and privacy of multiple female students.”
The complaint, shared first with Fox News Digital, claims that Westosha Central High allowed a male student to share a locker room for gym class with female students and allegedly punished students who attempted to avoid changing in front of the male student.
The complaint was brought by two parents of female students in the class. One of the parents said he ended up pulling his daughter out of the school because of the situation.
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“Parents send their kids to school so they can learn in a safe environment, but that’s not what happened here. My daughter was punished for standing up for her own privacy and safety. The district’s misplaced priorities left us no choice but to leave the school,” former Westosha parent Nicholas Puchter said.
The complaint states that at the beginning of the second semester last December, two female students, “Jane Doe 1” and “Jane Doe 2,” began a new physical education class where they became aware that a male transgender student would be allowed to change in the girls’ locker room.
“While some girls could use the few available toilet stalls to change in privacy and away from the gaze of the male student, others could not because of the limited time offered for changing. The result was a crowded and uncomfortable environment where many girls felt pressured into an inadequate choice between exposure and tardiness,” the complaint states.
After Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 expressed “discomfort and embarrassment” at being required to undress in front of a male student to their gym teacher, the complaint claims they were told “not to worry about it” and that it would be considered “bullying,” to not allow the transgender student to use the girls’ locker room.
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The complaint says the parents of the two girls also called the school’s administration office to demand they address the issue. However, the transgender student was still allowed to change in the same locker room, the complaint claims.
During the winter break, Westosha also sent a letter to families, claiming that “no reports of inappropriate locker room behaviors were made to school personnel or law enforcement” but regardless, the school said it had “taken steps to ensure all students feel safe and comfortable in the locker room.”
The complaint says that Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 faced academic penalties when they attempted to avoid changing in front of the transgender student.
Jane Doe 1 allegedly “received multiple unexcused absences attempting to avoid the leering gaze of a male student in the locker room.”
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In one instance, Jane Doe 1 tried to sit in the girls’ bathroom outside the locker room to avoid the male student when a teacher “yelled” at her for skipping class and forced her to return to PE class, the complaint says.
Jane Doe 2 was also marked absent on multiple occasions because she would wait for an empty stall to change clothes for class. Although her absences were excused after her father called the school, she still received a failing grade in the class, the complaint says. Her family ultimately chose to pull her out of Westosha, which is located in Paddock Lake, a village in Kenosha County bordering Illinois.
WILL accuses the school of violating Title IX protections by failing to “take meaningful action to accommodate” or address the students’ concerns and creating an environment where female students’ participation in gym class was hindered.
WILL is asking the Department of Justice and Department of Education to investigate these claims and “act swiftly to remedy unlawful policies and practices, and order appropriate relief.”
WILL Associate Counsel Lauren Greuel provided the following statement:
“When schools like Westosha force girls into an inadequate choice between exposing themselves to a male student or academic penalties, they abandon all common-sense and their core mission. The law requires protections for girls to have the same educational opportunities as their male peers. The decision to punish these girls for protecting themselves must be promptly investigated by the Department of Education. We ask the department to consider the allegations in our complaint and quickly remedy these unlawful policies and practices.”
In response to the complaint, the Department of Justice told Fox News Digital, “Forcing girls to compete against and share locker rooms with boys is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous. The Department of Justice will protect women and continue to vigorously defend President Trump’s executive actions, including the Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order.”
Wetosha Central High and the Department of Education did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
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