A transgender teen is suing the Anoka-Hennepin School District for barring him from the boys locker room at Coon Rapids High School.
The teen, identified in the lawsuit only as N.H., used the locker room while participating on the boys swim team as a freshman in 2015-16.
But near the end of the season, he was pulled out of class and told he’d have to start changing clothes in a facility no other student used, according to the complaint filed Monday in Anoka County District Court.
Days later, N.H. was hospitalized for mental health concerns. He was hospitalized again as the school board and community debated how to accommodate transgender students, according to the complaint.
The teen’s complaint says his teammates and swim coach supported him. School staff used his preferred name and pronouns, and the coach worked with him to decide what kind of swimsuit he’d wear.
But then the school board stepped in to stop him from using the boys locker room. Although the board soon reversed itself, the initial act of removing N.H. from class to tell him caused “emotional distress,” according to the complaint.
“Transgender students themselves are the best judge of where they will be safe,” said Christy Hall, an attorney with Gender Justice, which is working on the case alongside lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union.
“And when the school board comes in and says you can’t use this restroom or this locker room like every other student, it singles them out,” Hall said. “It makes them have to answer questions from their peers, not all of whom might be aware they’re trans.”
The teen’s attorneys said they aren’t aware of any complaints about his use of the boys locker room and don’t know what caused the school board to get involved.
“I didn’t choose this battle. The school board chose us,” the boy’s mother said Monday. “They have robbed him of a normal high school experience.”
Although he was barred from the locker room, no one questioned N.H.’s use of boys restrooms.
That summer, the high school remodeled the boys locker room and created a new “enhanced privacy” restroom and changing facility with its own entrance, toilet and shower.
District officials instructed N.H. to use the new facilities for gym class. When he instead joined his friends in the boys locker room, he was told he could be disciplined.
The teen reluctantly began to use the separate facilities but was hospitalized yet again, according to the complaint. He then transferred to a different school district to “escape (the) discriminatory treatment.”
DISTRICT’S CASE-BY-CASE PRACTICE
Unlike the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts, which explicitly authorize students to use facilities that align with their gender identities, Anoka-Hennepin’s practice has been to make those decisions on a case-by-case basis.
“The goal is to ensure that all students feel safe and comfortable. Plans for accommodation for restroom and locker room use are made in consultation with school building administrators, the Title IX Coordinator and Superintendent,” school board chair Tom Heidemann wrote in a March 2017 letter to the teen’s mother.
Anoka-Hennepin echoed that position in a written statement Monday. The district said its case-by-case handling of restroom and locker room accommodations is consistent with guidance from the state and national school boards associations.
“Anoka-Hennepin is confident our actions conform with state and federal law,” the district said.
UNDERSTANDING THE LAW, POLICIES
N.H.’s complaint accuses the school district of violating the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the state Constitution by treating him differently from students whose gender identity matches their sex at birth.
Amid numerous lawsuits and conflicting guidance from the Obama and Trump administrations, neither Congress nor the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear how schools should handle facilities access issues concerning transgender and gender nonconforming students.
However, the Minnesota Department of Education has sided with trans students.
A 2017 department toolkit encourages Minnesota schools to allow transgender students to decide which the facilities they will use. The guide says that if another student complains, it’s that student — not the transgender student — who should get access to a separate, private facility.
PAST SCRUTINY OF ANOKA-HENNEPIN
Anoka-Hennepin has faced lawsuits and heavy scrutiny over its treatment of LGBT students before.
In 2012, the Department of Justice placed the district under a consent decree following the suicides of several students thought to have been related to bullying at school.
The district that year changed a policy that required staff to remain neutral on the subject of sexual orientation.
The district still was under federal monitoring when N.H. was told he couldn’t use the boys locker room.