#sutherlin

$32,500/2 br/1250 sq ft

Rockin' to the '80s music by cover band Rock Shop. Fun night in Sutherlin, Oregon!

@psychicpoet0188

SOAPBOX SATURDAY CONTINUES WITH BREAKING NEWS:

The Sutherlin School District’s decision to allow a male transgender student to use the boys’ bathrooms is being challenged in Douglas County Circuit Court. The complaint was filed in May by a student identified only as “T.B.” and his guardian Summer Eastwood. The Sutherlin School District, Superintendent Terry Prestianni and Sutherlin High School Principal Justin Huntley are named as defendants. The suit alleges the school district infringed T.B.’s privacy rights by allowing a transgender student identified in the lawsuit as Tyler to use the boys’ bathrooms. Tyler was identified as a girl at birth, but now identifies himself as a boy. According to T.B.’s attorney Ray Hacke, T.B. was embarrassed and suffered “tremendous anxiety” after Tyler entered a restroom while T.B. was urinating. But Nancy Haque, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group Basic Rights Oregon, said the case is an example of “bullying by lawsuit,” and it’s Tyler’s mental health she’s worried about. “We are really concerned for Tyler. We are really concerned for all the Tylers in Oregon,” she said. Transgender students already face high levels of bullying and harassment from their peers, Haque said. And it hurts. Nationwide, more than 40 percent of transgender people attempt suicide in their lifetimes, and Haque said that’s because of a lack of societal acceptance. “Lawsuits like this are mean-spirited and add to an already often hostile school environment,” she said. T.B.’s lawsuit doesn’t seek money, other than attorney’s fees. Instead, it asks the judge to force the school district to change its rules on transgender students’ bathroom use, and bar Tyler from the boys’ bathroom. Sutherlin School District Superintendent Terry Prestianni declined to comment on the issue, citing the pending litigation. However, in a memo sent to parents in the Sutherlin district, Prestianni wrote that the school district was following legal advice in making the decision to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms matching their gender identities. “This complex issue is currently the subject of much legal and political debate,” Prestianni wrote. “The District is not the authority to decide that issue, but it must come to an informed decision based on the current state of the law and current legal guidance...”