Transgender Teen Sues Wisconsin School District Over Restroom Use, Alleged Discrimination
The Transgender Law Center and the civil rights law firm Relman, Dane and Colfax PLLC filed the federal lawsuit in Milwaukee against the Kenosha school district. The filing states Ashton Whitaker, a 16-year-old student at Tremper High School, was designated a girl on his birth certificate but began identifying as a boy in middle school.
The suit claims the district denied him access to boys’ restroom facilities and directed staff to monitor his restroom usage, forcing him and other transgender students to wear green wristbands to help staff recognize them. As a result, Whitaker drastically reduced his liquid intake, aggravating a medical condition that causes him to faint, and suffered stress migraines, according to the lawsuit.
Teachers also continue to call Whitaker by his female birth name, he had to room with girls on an orchestra trip to Europe and the principal initially denied him the ability to run for junior prom king. School officials relented only after his classmates protested, the lawsuit stated.
The district’s actions violate Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as the Constitution’s equal protection guarantees, the lawsuit argues.
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