FFS Friday: Anonymous Female Student at Spanish Springs High School

September 6, 2024

FFS (Female Free Speech) Friday honors women and girls who are speaking out about the harms that “gender identity” poses to women and girls as a sex class. FFS Friday posts are free and shareable. If you would like access to content that delves deeper into the movement to protect the sex-based rights of women and girls and to stop the abolition of sex, please consider a paid subscription.

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On September 3, an X user posted a video of a female student speaking at a school board meeting in her district. The student was identified only as a female student at Spanish Springs High School. The discussion concerned a district policy allowing male students to access the girls’ locker room and bathrooms. This is what she said: 

There is a biological male changing in our female locker rooms. Even though this is a touchy subject, I would like to raise my concerns and opinion on being asked to change in a locker room with a boy without my parents being notified. Girls’ and women’s locker rooms have been designed exclusively for people who have female bodies. And for good reasons. Those reasons include biological differences between women and men, and women’s rights, privacy, and protection from potential male violence against women. Everyone, regardless of their gender [gender]* identity, deserves to feel safe and respected in private spaces such as locker rooms. Many girls feel uncomfortable in locker rooms under any circumstances, but especially when they have to share the spaces with someone who’s biologically different from them. The discomfort experienced by female students should not be overlooked or undermined. As females, we are taught to respect our bodies and to speak up, and that it is okay to speak up. This is me speaking up for myself and all the other girls who will be finding alternative changing arrangements. It is not okay to put a female and a male child in a room together and expect us to feel comfortable undressing in front of each other. No matter how accepting I or any other person can be of transgender individuals, there is still a major difference in our natural bodies, and I believe in my heart that telling girls to dress out with a boy, and then making them feel like they’re excluding somebody or discriminating, by speaking up and saying they’re uncomfortable. … By doing that, you are teaching children silence. This issue cannot be written off as purely policy, and there is so much more happening within the minds of students, parents, and all parties affected. From what has been explained to me, policy allows the biologically male student into the biological women’s room, and does not allow for teachers to speak on the issue or notify parents. It also encourages a mindset of staying quiet if a delicate subject is making you uncomfortable. Not speaking up for your own emotions and body to spare the feelings of another individual is not right.  

* She stumbled a bit over “gender identity,” I assume because the entire concept of “gender identity” is foreign to so many people—it’s just not something most people talk about because at the end of the day, everyone knows the truth about biological sex.

I don’t like all the language she used in her speech, but I am not about to quarrel with this amazing young woman, who took a firm stand on behalf of herself and other girls.

From what I can tell, this occurred during an August 27 meeting of the district’s Board of Trustees. A recording of the entire meeting is available here.

Spanish Springs is a high school in the Washoe County School District in Nevada. It includes Reno and a bit of Lake Tahoe. The school itself is in the city of Sparks, which has a population of just over 100,000. 

At the heart of the controversy is the district’s Administrative Regulation 5161, which “establishes protocols and informs staff regarding transgender and gender non-conforming students in the Washoe County School District.” The policy explicitly permits students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their “gender identities.” It also requires teachers and staff to use preferred names and pronouns, and prohibits them from informing parents if a student wants to be referred to by a preferred name and/or pronouns.

According to a local news story, “[p]arents and students are pushing back against transgender students being allowed to change in girls’ locker rooms in the Washoe County School District,” which is great (though I really wish news outlets would just refer to boys as boys when they mean boys). Here are a few things some concerned community members have said: 

“He also gets a front-row seat to view naked females.” 

“A minor cannot have a sip of alcohol, that’s good. But in Washoe County schools right now a minor male can change in the locker room in front of minor females.” 

“Every parent should have been notified that the male is invading the girls’ locker room. Irrespective of any law that permits [it].”

A proponent of Administrative Regulation 5161 said, ‘“Children are facing gender dysphoria or experiencing gender dysphoria, which is a mental health condition, at an enormously growing rate.” Are many young people confused about sex and gender? Probably. I would argue that to the extent that such young people are confused, it is precisely because of policies such as Administrative Regulation 5161, which allow children to think they have a “gender identity” that is somehow not in alignment with their actual sex. Whether the individual boy in question was sincerely confused about his sex or was simply taking advantage of Administrative Regulation 5161 to ogle girls does not appear to be clear.

But members of the public and the girls who are directly impacted by such policies know the truth and they’re increasingly speaking it clearly.

So, to the anonymous student who spoke her mind at her school board meeting: If you’re reading this, today’s FFS Friday is for you. Keep speaking up. By doing so, you give other girls the courage to do the same. And there are countless women out here who will cheer you on.