A former Powell High School student says she's now at an alternative school in large part due to the discomfort she felt in the school’s restrooms.

The former student, who spoke to the Tribune on the condition of anonymity, said that kast year, a fellow student she understood to be a male entered the girls’ restroom while she was leaving.

While she was not intimidated by that particular student, “tt was really shocking,” she said, “and I didn't know how to deal with it.”

The former student told the Tribune she avoided the bathrooms after that, only using the facilities during certain times of the day; she wouldn’t go at lunch because students don’t have access to the hallway bathrooms during that period, she said.

During her spring semester, one of her final classes in the day only allowed bathroom use before or after class and she said this eventually affected her academic performance in the class. She was doing homework one night, when her mom asked her why she had not completed the assignment yet.

“It just all came out in a blurb,” the student said, adding that many kids have not told their parents out of fear they will be pulled from school.

Eventually the former student and her sibling decided to leave PHS just ahead of the 2024-2025 academic year. While other factors led to her choice to leave, she said her primary reason was discomfort in the restrooms.

During the first week of school, the student and her mother met with the high school administration to voice their concerns, including about bathroom use.

“I was still very scared about telling people so I didn’t share a ton with them because I was scared that it would get out,” the student said, but she said she did recount being in the bathroom with the transgender student.

The issue of bathroom usage came up in October, at a school board candidate forum hosted by the PCSD1 Parents Group. In a subsequent interview with the Tribune, Superintendent Jay Curtis said that “we have not had a single student come forward to the administration to say they are uncomfortable in the bathroom and that transgender students or transgender female are entering the female bathrooms.”

That prompted the former student to email the superintendent. She said she told high school administators she saw the transgender student in the female restroom and was told “they can’t do anything.”

“I understood that and I moved on, but I was very shocked to find the complete opposite written in the newspaper,” the former student wrote.  “The situation was denied and so was the accountability.”

She provided a copy of that Oct. 25 email to the Tribune, along with a late August email exchange referencing the earlier meeting with PHS administrators; in the August thread, her mother was clear that bathroom use was a concern.

In alternative school, the student’s GPA has dropped, and while she enjoys the freedom of her alternative school she does miss the connection that comes from in-person teachers and socialization.

There are ways she would return to in-person learning, she said, but likely not to Powell.