Kerby Anderson

The public debate about transgender students using restrooms and showers became more intense in a small town in Oregon. I have actually preached in a church in this town and can imagine the reaction of the parents. A district judge ruled that a girl who identifies as a boy can use the boys’ facilities and vice versa. The judge did offer an alternative: parents can take their children out of the schools. Well, thank you. These parents pay taxes to support the school, but if they don’t like the judge’s ruling, they can take their kids somewhere else. Some of the statements in the ruling are extraordinary. The judge argued, “Once the parents have chosen to send their children to school . . . their liberty interest in their children’s education is severely diminished.” That sure sounds like he believes the state really owns the children, not the parents. He also rejected the idea that these students in the public school had any privacy rights. In the past, judges have often used the 14^th Amendment to justify finding a privacy right within the Constitution. In this case, the judge in Oregon came to the opposite conclusion. He said that students have no “fundamental privacy right to not share school restrooms, lockers, and showers with transgender students.” This case is the opposite of the type usually cited. Parents have usually been concerned about the possibility of a boy who identifies as a female wanting to use the girls’ showers and restrooms. In this case, it is a girl identifying as a male who wants to shower with the boys. After all, what could possibly go wrong with a naked girl taking a shower with a bunch of naked teenage boys? I think the judge’s alternative is prophetic. Yes, parents can take their kids out of the public school, and I expect more and more of them to do so because of such outrageous judicial rulings.