This Teenage Girl Did Not Feel Safe Sharing a Changing Room With a Boy — And Her School Punished Her

Fourteen-year-old Blake Allen of Vermont has more guts than most adults.

The high school volleyball player filed a lawsuit against her school after administrators suspended her for complaining about a boy in the girls’ locker room. In an op-ed published on Fox News, Blake wrote (emphasis added):

“As a girl, I was taught to respect the privacy of my body, and to speak up if I felt unsafe or if something made me feel uncomfortable. Now I’m 14 and shocked to learn not all adults take you seriously when you say you don’t feel safe or comfortable. In fact, they may even punish you for speaking out.”

Blake’s school allows boys pretending to be girls to use restrooms and changing rooms designated for girls. Blake said she was uncomfortable undressing in front a boy and asked him to leave. He wouldn’t, and she said she left the locker room in a panic.

The school didn’t care that the girls felt distressed about this invasion of their privacy and suspended Blake for complaining.

“The co-principals notified me that I was found guilty of harassment and bullying of ‘a student on the basis of the targeted student’s gender identity,'” Blake wrote.

If Blake apologized and submitted to a Communist re-education-camp style session, the school said, they’d lift her suspension. But the 14-year-old said she’d rather serve the suspension and won’t apologize, because she wasn’t sorry. After she filed a lawsuit, the school dropped the suspension.

“Shouldn’t every girl be taught to speak out to protect herself from situations where she hasn’t given consent — and be listened to by those in a position to help?” Blake wrote. “If something feels off, trust your gut? Not at my high school. If you don’t comply with the school’s preferred gender identity policy, you’re the bad guy. For expressing true, commonsense, biological facts — boys and girls are different and must respect each other’s bodily privacy — I was punished.”

Blake’s father, Travis, was suspended as soccer coach at a middle school after he complained about the boy on social media and refused to refer to him as “she.”

“The school must respect my dad’s and my free speech rights to express a commonsense view that this student is male and shouldn’t be allowed in the girls’ locker room.”

The girls’ safety, privacy, and sense of modesty means nothing to these adults. The only thing they hear is legal action. But not every girls is as brave as Blake Allen or as supportive as her parents. Read Blake’s full op-ed here.

Photo credit: Alliance Defending Freedom

Stand up for freedom! Sign up for the newsletter and help spread the word.