Palatine Transgender Student To Appeal Locker Room Access Ruling

PALATINE, IL — A Palatine High School transgender student is appealing last month's decision by a Cook County judge that allowed Township School District 211 to require her to use a private changing stall when using the girls' locker room. Nova Maday, represented by the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties union, sued the district late last year, seeking preliminary injunction to reverse the school system's policy and give her full locker room access.

But Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Allen denied the injunction in his Jan. 25 decision. Now Maday, who is a senior at the school, will try to overturn that ruling, claiming its ripple effect could harm other under-represented individuals and communities in the district and Illinois, according to the ACLU.

“[T]he Court’s ruling hurts many other students who, under the current ruling, could face discrimination in their schools across this State because of who they are — because of their religion, race, sex, or because they have a disability" LGBTQ & HIV Project director John Knight, the ACLU's lead counsel in the case, said in a statement announcing the appeal Thursday. "Students with disabilities could, for example, be segregated in a part of the cafeteria where other students could avoid associating with or seeing them. Our civil rights laws must not be weakened and undermined in this way.”

RELATED: Transgender Girl Denied Unrestricted Locker Room Access By Court

District officials were pleased with judge's decision, and Supt. Dan Cates told the Daily Herald after the ruling that he thought the judge recognized the school system's need to balance Maday's rights and protect other students' privacy.

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