South Carolina trans student sues school district and state over bathroom rule

[Jessica_Rose]

South Carolina trans student sues school district and state over bathroom rule

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/south-carolina-trans-student-sues-school-district-and-state-over-bathroom-rule/ar-AA1u1N69?ocid=windirect&cvid=5ef84ae95d9147fc8faee235aa04a3d4&ei=25

Story by Tyler Kingkade (13 Nov 2024)

In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, John Doe, a pseudonym for a 13-year-old student in the Berkeley County School District, said that administrators told him in August he could only use the girls restroom or a single-occupancy toilet in the nurse's office due to a new state rule.

A provision in the state budget passed in June stipulated that public schools would lose 25% of their state funding if they permit students to use single-sex restrooms and locker rooms that do not align with their biological sex.

Doe, the plaintiff in the South Carolina suit, was assigned female at birth, but has presented as a boy since he was a young child and has been open about his gender identity since seventh grade...

"The truth is other students weren't bothered by me using the bathroom," Doe said in his statement. "Neither was my school principal. The problem is state law."

An assistant principal at his school conceded in a meeting that no other students had complained about Doe using the boys restroom, the suit states.

After the district chastised Doe for using the boys restroom, other students began to harass him over his gender identity, according to the suit.