Judge Upholds Transgender Bathroom Directive in Appeal by Ohio School District
The district had argued the directive could threaten students’ privacy.
Judge Marbley said he found no evidence the transgender student in question threatened other students' privacy.
A federal judge denied an Ohio school district’s challenge to the federal directive on transgender bathroom policies in schools.
Judge Algenon Marbley expressed support for the student in question when he announced his decision Sept. 26.
The Highland Local School District was attempting to deny a transgender student access to the girl’s bathroom, arguing in court that the student posed privacy issues and that the district would provide a separate bathroom.
But Judge Marbley says he found no evidence that the student threatened her classmate’s privacy and concluded that using a separate bathroom would take a “toll on her mental health,” according to NYMag.com.
The decision comes after a Texas judge granted an injunction to the federal directive that schools receiving federal funding must allow students to use the bathroom and locker room facilities that correspond with their gender identity.
Judge Marbley says that injunction does not apply to Ohio because it is not one of the 13 states that filed the lawsuit. He also ordered the district to treat the student like a girl in every way, including using her preferred female name. In his decision Marbley dismissed many of the district’s arguments.
“School districts that have encountered these very issues have been able to integrate transgender students fully into the academic and social community without disruption, and certainly without the doomsday scenarios Highland predicts, such as sexual predators entering an elementary-school restroom,” Marbley wrote.
If the district continues to ignore the directive it could lose more than $1 million annually in federal funding.
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