Transgender Student Sues Over Florida School’s Bathroom Policy

PONTE VEDRA, FL — A small north Florida town is the latest battleground in the fight for transgender students to be able to use the bathrooms of their choosing. A federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday seeks a court order that would allow a 16-year-old transgender student to use the boys’ bathroom at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra.

Lambada Legal filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on behalf of Drew Adams, who will be a junior in the fall. It names the School Board of St. Johns County, the district’s superintendent and the principal of Nease High School as defendants.

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“Although Drew is a hard-working, high-achieving student, the school has discriminated against him by refusing him access to the boys’ restrooms,” the suit alleges. The action has “a negative and harmful impact on Drew, branding him as unfit to share communal restrooms that all other boys use simply because he is transgender.”

The suit states that Drew began his freshman year at Nease using the boys’ bathroom. That changed in September 2015 when he was pulled out of class by guidance counselors, who “informed him that someone had anonymously reported that he was using the boys’ restroom,” the suit says. “Drew was instructed to use a gender-neutral restroom from that point forward.”

That solution, however, isn’t acceptable, the suit contends.

“Drew brings this suit because he has a simple request: to be treated like other boys who can use the restroom so that he too can focus on school, rather than the humiliation of being denied access to the facilities all others use for one of life’s most basic functions.”

Drew, the suit points out, has aspirations of one day becoming an adolescent psychiatrist. He hopes to attend medical school and is already volunteering at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.

The lawsuit contends the school’s request for Drew to use gender-neutral bathroom facilities is a violation of his 14th Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution. It asks the federal court to overturn the school’s decision and to award “nominal damages against Defendant School Board in the amount of $1.00 for violation of Drew’s rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.”

The lawsuit in St. Johns County comes on the heels of a federal appeals court decision in Wisconsin that sided with a transgender boy who also sought to be able to use the boys’ restrooms. The school district in that case barred the transgender student from the facilities to protect the privacy of other students, The Washington Post reported.

Before leaving office, President Barack Obama issued guidelines in regard to transgender bathroom use at schools. Those guidelines held that discrimination against transgender students violated Title IX. Shortly after his inauguration, President Donald Trump rescinded those guidelines, opting to leave it up to states to decide.

How soon Drew’s case might be heard remains unclear. Lambada Legal announced the suit on Wednesday. Lambada Legal was founded in 1973 with a mission “to achieve full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work,” its website explains. As a nonprofit group, it does not charge clients for representation or advocacy.

“We disagree with the plaintiff’s interpretation of the law,” St. Johns County Schools Superintendent Tim Forson said in a statement sent to Patch. “Beyond that it would be inappropriate for us to try this case in the media. We had no knowledge of the complaint filed today before a press conference was held. We will work through the legal process with our school board and its general counsel.”

A full copy of Drew Adams’ complaint can be read online.

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