Dallas School District (Dallas SD 2) is a public school district in
Dallas, Oregon. The district consists of eight schools that serve Dallas and surrounding areas.
Locker Room Controversy
Background
In November 2015,
Dallas High School installed a Student Safety Plan titled "Transgender Student Access to Locker Rooms"; a plan that was a response to a
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
student's request that he be allowed to use the restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to the
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
he identifies as.
[United States District Court For The District Of Oregon. ''Parents For Privacy V. Dallas School District NO. 2''. 24 July 2018. ''Aclu-Or.org'', aclu-or.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/07252018_parents_for_privacy_opinion_order.pdf.] The student requested permission to change with the other boys due to a PE class he was taking, and the difficulty and ostracization he felt for needing to walk a great distance to use the bathroom the school offered him to change in.
This allegedly caused other students to feel "embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety, intimidation, fear, apprehension, and stress." for having to share a bathroom or locker room with a person who was assigned a different sex at birth.
School Administration and PE teachers met with the other students in the PE class to discuss the policy being put in place and answer any question or concerns.
Many students and parents understood the policy being put in place, but six parents called the school to raise concerns. School board meetings about the Student Safety Plan were held in the following months on December 4, 2015, January 19, 2016, and February 11, 2016.
The district decided to proceed with the Safety Plan despite the concerned students and parents.
Individual parents and groups such as Parents for Privacy and Parents' Rights in Education sued the Dallas School District and various other government departments and officials of Oregon in November 2017.
[United States, Congress, 9th Circuit, and A. Wallace Tashima. ''Parents For Privacy V. Barr'', 12 Feb. 2020. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2020/02/12/18-35708.pdf.]
Court Case Outcome
On July 24, 2018,
The United States District Court for the District of Oregon granted the defendants request to dismiss the case and found that the plaintiffs could not prove that the defendants were violating
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...
or
The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary injunction but was denied as
moot.
After the case was dismissed by the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, the plaintiffs filed an appeal to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts:
* District ...
who, on July 11, 2019, affirmed the judgement of the District Court.
The Parents For Privacy and other groups tried to bring the case to the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
, but the Supreme Court declined their challenge.
See also
*
Dallas High School
References
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Education in Polk County, Oregon
Dallas, Oregon
School districts in Oregon