ELIDA, OH (WLIO) - A group of local students spoke up to voice their opinions in protest today.
Elida High Schoolers engaged in a protest to send a message to their school board. The students protested by walking out of school at a predetermined time and meeting outside. The walkout was meant to bring attention to the situation of gender issues with the bathrooms and student privacy at the school.
"There's been multiple accounts of boys coming in the bathroom, or transgender girls, and bothering the girls in there and we're just not for it. Biological boys need to stay in their own bathroom. There was a lot of people saying they were going to do it, but they made an announcement probably like 5 to 10 minutes ago and said that we could go to the courtyard or we could go to one of the gyms if we wanted to walk out and not to walk outside. They said that if we didn't come back in and get a pass then it would be a Tuesday-Thursday or like a write-up," stated Charisma Akroyd, a freshman at Elida High School.
The students say there have been multiple people speaking up about the issue with no resolution from the school board.
Elida Superintendent Joel Mengerink responded Monday afternoon to today's protest saying: "We are here to see to it our students are educated in a safe environment. Encouraging students to participate in a walkout causes a lot of safety concerns on our part not knowing who's outside with them, especially when we just experienced a social media threat last week. It also takes away instructional time from our students and that's what we are here for."
