Court allows Pennsylvania school district to continue violating student privacy
Friday, Aug 25, 2017
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb regarding a federal court’s decision Friday that allows a Pennsylvania school district to continue violating the bodily privacy rights of students while their lawsuit, Doe v. Boyertown Area School District, proceeds:
“School officials should protect the bodily privacy of all students. Because the Boyertown District has failed to respect the privacy rights that all students have under the U.S. Constitution and Pennsylvania law, we are consulting with our clients about appealing this decision so that their rights may be protected while the lawsuit proceeds. This is important not only for our clients, but for all students within the Boyertown Area School District, as every student deserves to have their privacy and dignity respected by school officials.”
The following quote may be attributed to Independence Law Center Legal Counsel Jeremy Samek, who argued before the court on Aug. 11:
“The district’s new policy permits a student to unilaterally eliminate the privacy rights of other students based simply on that student’s beliefs about gender. A person’s privacy rights are theirs and theirs alone. Beliefs about gender shouldn’t be a license to violate privacy inside boys’ or girls’ locker rooms and restrooms. That defeats the very purpose of sex-separated facilities.”
“School officials should protect the bodily privacy of all students. Because the Boyertown District has failed to respect the privacy rights that all students have under the U.S. Constitution and Pennsylvania law, we are consulting with our clients about appealing this decision so that their rights may be protected while the lawsuit proceeds. This is important not only for our clients, but for all students within the Boyertown Area School District, as every student deserves to have their privacy and dignity respected by school officials.”
The following quote may be attributed to Independence Law Center Legal Counsel Jeremy Samek, who argued before the court on Aug. 11:
“The district’s new policy permits a student to unilaterally eliminate the privacy rights of other students based simply on that student’s beliefs about gender. A person’s privacy rights are theirs and theirs alone. Beliefs about gender shouldn’t be a license to violate privacy inside boys’ or girls’ locker rooms and restrooms. That defeats the very purpose of sex-separated facilities.”
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Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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