'He Is a Male': Iowa High School Girls Stage Walk-Out Over Transgender Student Using Girls' Restroom

Girls at an Iowa high school are asking for privacy in their bathrooms after a male who says he's a female began using the female facility. 

Twenty girls at Council Bluffs High School staged a walkout last week chanting "We want privacy" and "He is a male."  

The walkout was triggered by a female student who believes her privacy is being invaded by a student who recently began to identify as a girl. The transgender student is a biological male, according to television station WOWT.

Another 40 students did the same in favor of transgender students using whichever restroom they want.

Under Iowa state law, the school is required to allow transgender students to use the restroom of the gender with which they identify. 

"According to the US Department of Education, which Iowa has adopted that same language and is now a part of our state law, our students who are transitioning into a new gender have the right to use the restroom that they identify. So it is our obligation to allow that to occur," Dr. Vickie Murillo, superintendent of the Council Bluffs Community School District, told the television station. 

"We felt very uncomfortable with a male, who's not doing anything to be transgender, going into the female restrooms," student Elana Owens said. 

Brandi Scherlund, another student, said: "I believe if you have the male parts you go to the males' bathroom and if you have the female parts you go to a ladies room and that's just the way I was raised."

WOWT reported the school was prepared for the walkout and no students were punished for participating in the protests.