Madison Reporter

The Sun Prairie, Wisc. school district is facing criticism following an incident in which an 18-year-old male student, claiming he is "transgender," allegedly showered with and exposed his genitalia to female students.

"Transgender students are not above the law and those that participate in these type of antics perform a certain type of sexual assault on these young women," Brian Burch, president of Madison-based Catholic Vote, told Madison Reporter. "Claiming you are transgender does not insulate you from obeying laws that protect young women."

On April 19, 2023, legal group Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) sent a letter to the Sun Prairie School District Board of Education about the alleged incident, writing of "an alarming incident involving a violation of freshman girls’ privacy while in a Sun Prairie East High School (EHS) locker room."

"On Friday, March 3, 2023, four freshman girls at EHS participated in a swim unit as part of their first-hour physical-education class. After the class, the girls entered the girls’ athletic locker room to shower and change for class. Upon entering, they noticed a senior male student in the area containing lockers and benches," said the letter. "It is our understanding this male was 18 years old at the time of the incident. According to the girls, this student was not in the first-hour PE class they were participating in. While the girls were surprised to see him in the locker room, they had a general idea that this student identifies as transgender and has used girls’ bathrooms before. While they were uncomfortable, they proceeded to the shower area without interacting with the student."

The letter continued, "The girls entered the shower area with their swimsuits on, which was their common practice as they rinsed off. As they began to shower, the male student approached them, entered the shower area, announced 'I’m trans, by the way,' and then undressed fully and showered completely naked right next to one of the girls. He was initially turned towards the wall but eventually turned and fully exposed his male genitalia to the four girls. Understandably, the girls were caught off guard and shocked, closed their eyes, and tried to hurry up and leave the showers as quickly as possible."

The letter says the Sun Prairie Area School District violated Title IX by failing to report the incident to the school's Title IX coordinator, who is responsible for investigating gender- or sex-based harassment and providing assistance to victims. 

More than seventy people attended the first Sun Prairie School Board meeting since reports emerged about the incident. Ahead of the meeting, over 20 people submitted written comments to the board and several spoke in person. Some parents called for the creation of separate locker room facilities for transgender students, while others criticized the district's communication about the incident, according to WKOW. 

"Based on the facts as we know them, this principal has an obligation to protect the innocence and privacy of these young women. He needs to be held responsible for recklessly endangering these young women," said Burch. "We fully support holding him and the district accountable."

Burch said the school district should have policies in place to protect young women from bad actors seeking to sexually exploit women "under the guise of transgenderism."

"This is a dangerous and reckless experiment that schools are engaged in and there needs to be a strict policy that establishes biological males never be allowed in shower areas reserved for women," he said. "This is a common understanding that until recently was understood by all."