On Monday, a transgender former student filed a lawsuit against the Missouri school district, claiming that she was coerced into using the single-stall bathroom at the high school or the boys’ restroom.
The Platte County R-3 School District was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri on behalf of the transgender former student, known in the lawsuit as R.F.
According to the lawsuit, the former student was placed in jail twice for accessing the restroom intended for girls. When she used the boys’ restroom, she said a male student harassed her and made rape threats against her.
The lawsuit claims that by forcing her to use either the school’s single-stall gender-neutral restroom or the restroom that corresponded with her sex assigned at birth, the school violated her rights.
Requiring transgender children to use the restroom or locker room that corresponds with the sex they were assigned at birth is harmful to Missouri’s youth and constitutes discrimination, according to a statement from Gillian Wilcox, deputy director of litigation at the ACLU of Missouri. “The government, in this case a school, is prohibited from discriminating in opposition to the people it is supposed to defend on the basis of either their sex or disability, both by statute and through the constitution.”
In a statement, Superintendent Jay Harris stated that the district is “in the early stages of evaluating the legal claims” and that further details will be released shortly.
“Creating a secure and nurturing environment for every student is and has been the District’s priority,” Harris stated.