'People just don't feel safe.' Gender neutral bathrooms causing uproar for Clarkstown HS school students
One month after the Clarkstown school district adopted a New York state law that allowed students to use the restroom that fits their identity, opponents say they are not giving up the fight.
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One month after the Clarkstown school district adopted a New York state law that allowed students to use the restroom that fits their identity, opponents say they are not giving up the fight.
River Traitz is a junior at Clarkstown South High School. He says this change in policy has caused an uproar.
"I have many friends, specifically girls, who tell me all the time how uncomfortable they are that biological men are allowed to use the women's locker room, the women's bathroom," he said.
Brooke Malloy, of the Rockland Pride Center, strongly disagrees with this narrative.
"The fear is that boys, our sons, are going to take the time to pretend to be transgender women in order to access women's bathrooms in order to sexually assault them or spy on them? If that's the case, we have a problem with our sons and men in general, not with trans people," she told News 12.
Traitz says its a matter of safety and cited an incident at a Virginia High School in 2021 where a female student was assaulted by a male student in a skirt in a women's bathroom. The victim went on to sue the school district.
"People just don't feel safe and all students have the right to feel safe when they're in school," said Traitz.
"Transgender people using the bathroom of their gender identity does not pose a threat to anybody. In fact, it poses a threat to transgender people being forced to use a bathroom that is not in the line with their gender identity. More assaults happen on transgender identified in bathrooms that don't match their gender identity," said Malloy.
The school district says that the Board of Education voted to implement these laws that came directly from the state.
Traitz says he and his peers will be at the next board meeting on Feb. 8 to protest.
