Transgender Student Wins $800,000 In Boys' Bathroom Settlement

KENOSHA, WI — A school district in Wisconsin has settled a discrimination lawsuit with a male transgender former high school student for $800,000 after he was denied use of the school's boys bathrooms during high school.

The Kenosha Unified School District voted Tuesday to settle with Ashton Whitaker, a transgender student who was born female and identifies as male. Whitaker graduated from Kenosha Tremper High School in June and now attends UW-Madison. The agreement now allows Whitaker to use mens' bathrooms throughout the district.

"I am deeply relieved that this long, traumatic part of my life is finally over and I can focus on my future and simply being a college student,” Whitaker said in a Kenosha News report. “Winning this case was so empowering and made me feel like I can actually do something to help other trans youths live authentically.”

A suit filed by the Transgender Law Center against the district in July 2016, claimed the district violated Whitaker's rights in banning him from boys' bathrooms. In September 2016, a federal court ruled that the school must allow him access to boys' bathrooms. The school district appealed this ruling to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, however, lost the appeal. In August 2017, the district appealed the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the appeal.

This week's settlement means that the district has withdrawn its petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

According to court documents filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Whitaker and his mother first met with school officials when he was a sophomore to allow him to use the boys' bathrooms. At the time, school officials said he could only use the girls' bathrooms or a gender-neutral restroom in the school's main office.

The next year, Whitaker exclusively used the boys’ bathrooms at the school without incident. Court documents say in Feb. 2016, a teacher saw him washing his hands at a sink in the boys’ bathroom and reported it to the school’s administration.

Court documents say school officials were thinking of distributing bright green wristbands to Whitaker and other transgender students so that their bathroom use could be monitored more easily. The School District has denied that it considered implementing the wristband plan, according to court records.

When the school said Ash needed “legal or medical documentation” to justify the use of the boys' bathroom, Whitaker's family pediatrician submitted two letters identifying him as a transgender boy and recommending that he be allowed to use the boys' bathrooms at school, according to court documents.

According to court documents, these letters were deemed insufficient to change his gender designation. The school said that Whitaker would have to complete a surgical transition — a procedure that is prohibited for someone under 18 years of age. Whitaker continued to use the boys’ bathroom for the remainder of his junior year. School’s security guards were instructed to monitor’s Whitaker’s bathroom use to ensure that he used the proper facilities.

Image Via Transgender Law Center