Transgender student wins $300k lawsuit after he was stopped from using boys’ changing room
A transgender student has won a $300,000 discrimination lawsuit after he was stopped from using the boys' changing room. Minnesota's largest school district will pay out the sum after the years-long lawsuit was settled this week.
The student, Nick H, was a freshman and a member of the swim team at Coon Rapids High School in the Anoka-Hennepin school district during the 2015-2016 academic year. He used the boys' changing room for gym classes and swim practices until the school board decided that he was to use a separate changing room on his own, Pioneer Press reported.
Nick H told reporters on Tuesday: “All of [a] sudden it was like I was going to be in trouble if I used the boys' locker room. I did rebel and I did use the regular boys' locker room and then I was sent to the principal’s office the next day."
He was taken to hospital three times during 2016 and 2017 because of “mental health concerns”, court documents say, as the school board decided what action to take, and he ultimately changed schools and left the district before filing the lawsuit in 2019.
“Prior to the school board’s discriminatory actions, Nick had been doing well academically and socially at school. Then he started getting bullied and getting threats, causing him severe emotional distress,” ACLU attorney David McKinney said according to Pioneer Press.
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The school district moved to settle the suit after two court rulings, one in which a district judge denied their request to dismiss the lawsuit in 2019. The second and final blow came when the Minnesota Court of Appeals backed that decision, ruling that the district had discriminated against Nick H by forcing him to use a separate changing room.
According to the lawsuit, the single-occupancy changing room was built during the summer of his freshman year and no other facility like it was created anywhere else in the district. No other students were required to use the changing room with extra privacy, the lawsuit said.
"I'll be honest. This was hard. This was a hard experience … I really put myself out there, but I know that just by being here, by standing up and being visible, I can make a difference. We all can," Nick H said according to the Star Tribune.
According to the settlement agreement, the school district will pay Nick's lawyers $110,000 and $190,000 to Nick, who will receive $1,000 a month for 18 years.
The agreement also requires the school district to adopt new policies that allow transgender and gender non-conforming students to use the school facilities that match their gender identity. They must also train staff, students, and board members on the policy every year for the next three years.
The school district put out a statement which said: “The district is committed to providing a safe and respectful learning environment for all students and families including transgender and gender-nonconforming students."
Mr McKinney said: “If [students] are treated differently, if they are discriminated against because they are transgender, it will not be tolerated, and school districts will be held accountable."
The now 20-year-old Nick H said that he hoped that the lawsuit would “make things better for the next generation of students," according to Pioneer Press.
St Paul nonprofit Gender Justice backed Nick in the lawsuit. The organisation's executive director Megan Peterson told the Star Tribune: "Discrimination against transgender students is not only hurtful and wrong, it is also expensive."
The agreement also requires that there's a process through which students can complain if their rights are violated.
"Say something, speak up ... Help is out there." Nick H said according to the Star Tribune.
Advocates say that conservative groups are organising a coordinated assault on the rights of transgender Americans with bills on the state level. NBC News reported last month that bills in at least 20 states are targeting the rights of the transgender community.
