The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is claiming victory after a federal judge ruled that the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation breached a transgender student’s rights when administrators wouldn’t let the boy use the men’s restroom.
Judge William Lawrence in the U.S. District Court of Southern Indiana issued a ruling Friday saying the district violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded programs.
Pat Shoulders, attorney for the EVSC, says the judge made the wrong decision.
Judge Lawrence cited Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District out of the Seventh Court of Appeals as precedent, but Shoulders says the facts of the EVSC's case were different.
"In [Whitaker], the students and his parents had gone to court, had his name changed legally, had two or three psychiatrists' and psychologists' opinions, had a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and the school corporation still refused to act," Shoulders said.
"That was not, by a long shot, the situation in the Vanderburgh County School Corporation," Shoulders said. "All we had was a demand."
He says the EVSC learned in the discovery process that the student, referred to as J.A.W. in court documents, was diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
The student also identified as male since he was 11 and was undergoing hormone therapy.
The ACLU sued the district early last year on behalf of the student, who was told he’d be punished if he used the men’s restroom.
"Many Indiana school corporations already allow students to us the restroom consistent with their gender identity," Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, said in a press release. He added that school districts that don’t should take note of the decision by making their schools “accommodating for all students."
The EVSC previously complied with a court injunction requiring the district to allow the student to use the men's restroom.
"J.A.W....had a successful semester in his final senior year, graduated from North High School, walked across the stage and was presented his diploma," Shoulders said. "And the case should've ended there."
It’s now up to the parties in the case to decide whether a trial by jury is necessary to determine damages.
Shoulders thinks the school corporation will want a trial.
The corporation doesn't have a formal policy on bathroom use for transgender students. Shoulders says it will continue to decide "on a case by case basis" using the wishes of the parents and the student's medical history.