High School Students Protest Transgender Girl Using Locker Room

Hillsboro High School senior and transgender student Lila Perry speaks with reporters after a student protest over Perry's request to use the girls bathrooms and locker rooms rather than a unisex faculty bathroom. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

By    |   Tuesday, 01 September 2015 01:54 PM EDT ET

Students at a Missouri high school walked out of their classes Monday to protest a transgender girl using the girls locker room.

The protest involving 200 students at Hillsboro High school lasted about two hours, according to Fox 2 Now.

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The student, Lila Perry, 17, publicly came out as a transgender girl last February and was granted the right to use the girl's locker room this school year. Last school year, she used gender-neutral facilities to change.

"I feel these girls have a right to their own privacy," said Jeff Childs, a parent at the school. "Without the privacy they have nothing."

The protest followed a school board meeting last week where parents voiced their concern over Lila being given special treatment, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"The girls have rights, and they shouldn't have to share a bathroom with a boy," parent Tammy Sorden said.

While much of the school backed the protest, there was a small group that supported Lila.

"I wasn't hurting anyone. I didn't want to be in something gender-neutral," Lila told the Dispatch-Post. "I am a girl. I am not going to be pushed away to another bathroom."

Since the protests, she dropped out of PE and will have no need to use the girl's locker room now, Fox 2 Now reports. She will continue to use the girl's bathroom, however.

"I think this is pure and simple bigotry. I think they are using their claim they are uncomfortable to target me a transgender woman," she said.

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Students at a Missouri high school walked out of their classes Monday to protest a transgender girl using the girls locker room.
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2015-54-01
Tuesday, 01 September 2015 01:54 PM
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