Missouri school weighs options as court upholds $4M award to transgender student

[Jessica_Rose]

Missouri school weighs options as court upholds $4M award to transgender student

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/missouri-school-weighs-options-as-court-upholds-4m-award-to-transgender-student/ar-BB1nHrMl?ocid=windirect&cvid=c68d499b95204e1a95d7408b74a094a1&ei=37

Story by Joe Mueller (5 June 2024)

(The Center Square) – The Blue Springs School District is reviewing its legal options after the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals ruled a transgender man was discriminated against as a student and owed $4 million in damages.

R.M.A.'s birth certificate was amended in 2014 to change his sex designation from female to male, according to the ruling. While in eighth grade, R.M.A. and his mother asked the school district for access to the boys' locker room and restrooms, but the district refused. While at the Freshman Center the following year, the school district denied access even though R.M.A. had been issued an amended birth certificate.

"School District employees suggested that R.M.A. had been excluded from the boys' restrooms and locker rooms because of school district's belief that he had female genitalia," Gabbert wrote in the ruling. "(The) school district did not actually determine the nature of R.M.A.'s genitalia, however, and does not speculate, inspect, or otherwise inquire as to the genitalia of other male students. On the other hand, a member of school district's board and the principal at the time of R.M.A.'s high school attendance, testified that school district classified students for bathroom and locker room access based on the sex designation in the birth certificates which students' families provided to school district."