The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has ruled in favor of the St. Johns County School Board in a case involving a transgender student wanting to use restrooms designated for the sex with which the student identifies. The ruling was 7-4.
The student identifies as male, though the court wrote that, based on the chromosomal structure and anatomy at birth, the student’s biological sex is female.
The student has used the boys’ restroom at Allen D. Nease High School. When two peers saw the student using that restroom, they complained to school officials. The school mandated the student use either the girls’ restroom or the single-stall, sex-neutral restroom.
The court also wrote that the student began to identify and live as a boy while in the eighth grade and that the School Board does not accept updates to students’ enrollment documents to conform with their gender identities.
The student filed suit against the School Board in 2017, alleging that the district’s policy violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, as well as Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida sided with the student, and its ruling was affirmed on appeal. However, that was reversed at the 11th Circuit.
The court disagreed with the plaintiff’s two claims, writing that the district’s policy violated neither the Equal Protection Clause nor Title X.
