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.
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.