A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by parents in Dallas, Oregon that challenged state and federal policies allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.
The lawsuit stemmed from a safety plan Dallas High School put in place that allowed a transgender freshman, Elliot Yoder, to use the boys locker room, consistent with his gender identity.
Elliot Yoder is a transgender student from the Dallas School District where parents have filed a federal lawsuit challenging guidelines meant to accommodate transgender students at schools.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra / OPB
A small group of parents and students from Dallas High School filed the complaint last year.
They alleged the policy violated their right to privacy, their right to direct the education and upbringing of their children and their right to religious freedom, among other legal issues.
The complaint alleged that Yoder’s presence in the boys locker room caused some students at the school to feel embarrassed and conflicted with Christian teachings regarding modesty.
A federal judge dismissed those claims and found that the school district had properly followed Oregon’s anti-discrimination law.
That law requires schools to allow transgender students access to facilities that align with their gender identity, not their biological sex.
A parent and student in Sutherlin, Oregon, have filed a similar lawsuit.
The ACLU of Oregon and Basic Rights Oregon, which filed motions to intervene to defend the Dallas School District’s policy, said they intend to intervene in that case too.
Yoder, the student at the center of the lawsuit, spoke to OPB about it last year.
Yoder said that he faced bullying and that he was called "an it" by other students. He said that he did not wish to enter the girls locker room.
"The biggest problem that these parents in town seem to have is with boys going into the girls locker room," he said.
