ACLU and America First Legal fight over transgender restrooms in Ohio school
Madeline Mitchell
Sun, January 15, 2023
A sign marks the entrance to a gender-neutral restroom
A fight over restroom access for transgender students is raging in suburban Dayton, Ohio, between school officials and a conservative group with ties to former President Donald Trump.
The group, America First Legal, sued Bethel Local Schools in federal court in November, challenging the school district's decision to allow trans students to use restrooms that don't align with their gender assigned at birth. America First Legal, founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, has filed lawsuits across the country, opposing government efforts to address racial disparity and LGBTQ rights.
The complaint against Bethel schools, filed in U.S. District Court in Dayton, argues heavily on the grounds of religion and states that requiring males and females to use separate restrooms is important "for a variety of reasons including safety, privacy, modesty, religion, and historical views of sex."
One perspective that's been missing from the dispute, according to Ohio's American Civil Liberties Union? Trans students.
On Monday the ACLU asked a judge to let it join the fight, on the side of the school district, by representing a 14-year-old student who would be impacted if the school's restroom policy is changed. The student, a trans girl, is not a defendant in the case.
"Any transgender student who might be affected by this would have had no voice in the case," ACLU Deputy Legal Director David Carey told The Enquirer on Wednesday.
The court battle in Ohio mirrors those that have embroiled school districts nationwide as parents and school officials debate hot-button cultural and political issues, including trans rights. Often, as in this case, those battles draw national attention.
The ACLU is one of the nation's best-known civil rights organizations. America First Legal's founder has described the nonprofit is the "long-awaited answer to the ACLU."
The court has yet to make a decision on whether to allow the ACLU to join the case, though it filed a motion for the parties' expedited responses on Tuesday.
Bethel Local Schools is located in Miami County, just north of Dayton. One building houses all of the district's students in grades K-12, though the district is working to open another building soon as it's seen growth in the last several years.
Religious students also impacted: Christian, Muslim students say they 'hold their urine' to avoid communal restrooms
The complaint was filed in late November by 18 anonymous individuals, including six minors, against the Bethel Local Schools board of education, each individual board member and district Superintendent Matthew Chrispin. It states the board of education changed its policy to allow trans students to use bathrooms that don't align with their gender assigned at birth "in secret to avoid community opposition," and requests injunctive relief reversing the new policy.
The board, in turn, claims this decision and enforcement has always been under the administration's jurisdiction and that no such secret meeting occurred.
"Never during my tenure to date as a board member is board policy changed to address any issue related to transgender students' rights," Danny Elam, who has been on the board since 2018, wrote in court documents. Other board members wrote the same.
Stormy Milewski, a chemistry teacher at the high school, asked the board to consider allowing communal restroom access for trans students at a board meeting in September of 2021, documents say. Milewski acknowledged that Bethel is "a very conservative area" when making the request. There was no decision made at that meeting.
But at a meeting last January, four months after Milewski's request, the school board announced that the school's restroom policy had been changed to allow trans individuals access to the restroom consistent with their gender identity. The change occurred without public discussion or voting, according to the complaint.
Read the complaint here or at the end of this story.
The secret rule change violates the Ohio Open Meetings Act, violates the constitutional rights of parents in the district and violates the civil rights of religious families, particularly Muslim and Christian families, according to the complaint.
Since last year, students opposed to the new policy for religious reasons "hold their urine and avoid using the restroom at school if at all possible," according to the complaint. Those students experience anxiety and emotional distress if they do need to use the restroom, "as they fear that they will be exposed to the opposite sex."
Forcing Muslim families "to use intimate facilities with members of the opposite biological sex is like forcing them to eat pork," the complaint reads. "The families do not understand why the school respects their beliefs less than the beliefs of the LGBTQ+ community."
The complainants added that there were already gender-neutral, single-stall restrooms at the school for trans students to use.
14-year-old trans student says communal restroom access led to improved grades, feelings of belonging
Carey and the rest of the ACLU team are hoping to join the case and represent a 14-year-old trans girl who goes to Bethel High School.
The results of the lawsuit "will directly impact her − in a deeply personal, tangible, and potentially harmful manner," the motion states.
Read the ACLU's motion to intervene at the end of this story, or by clicking here.
By requiring trans students to use single-occupancy restrooms, the motion states, the school district could subject those students to harassment and bullying from their peers.
The 14-year-old the ACLU represents faced harassment at her previous school and the bullying culminated in "a serious physical assault," according to court documents. And using the single-stall bathroom at Bethel Middle School "outed" her as trans, which opened "her up to humiliation and social stigma."
"She was subjected to shouted transphobic remarks, slurs, and physical harassment − frequent shoving, shoulder-checking, and worse − in the school hallways and classrooms," court documents say. "The isolation of using only a single-occupancy restroom made the bullying worse, and students taunted her for using the 'sissy bathroom.'"
But since being allowed to use the same restroom as other girls, documents say, she "has thrived at Bethel High School," getting better grades and feeling altogether a better sense of belonging. Removing this privilege "would undermine her mental and physical health as well as her ability to engage in school."
Bethel Lawsuit by CincinnatiEnquirer on Scribd
69800140007
- Embed
- Not set
- Cincinnati
- Not set
- 01/11/23 12:56:14 PM
- Not embargoed
embed:
Return to Asset Tab
Aclu Motion by CincinnatiEnquirer on Scribd
SEO Warning
Layout Priority
Aclu Motion by CincinnatiEnquirer on Scribd
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ohio school sued over trans restroom access, ACLU asks to intervene
No comments:
Post a Comment