South Carolina trans student sues school district and state over bathroom rule

An eighth grade transgender boy, who was allegedly threatened with expulsion for using the boys restroom, is suing his South Carolina school district and the state over a budget rule that restricts accommodations for transgender students. 

In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, John Doe, a pseudonym for a 13-year-old student in the Berkeley County School District, said that administrators told him in August he could only use the girls restroom or a single-occupancy toilet in the nurse’s office due to a new state rule. The school suspended him for a day when administrators later caught him using the boys restroom, and the principal warned that the punishment could escalate to expulsion if he did it again, according to the suit.

“I am bringing this lawsuit because rules like this are damaging to kids’ mental, physical and emotional health,” Doe said in a statement provided by his attorney. 

A provision in the state budget passed in June stipulated that public schools would lose 25% of their state funding if they permit students to use single-sex restrooms and locker rooms that do not align with their biological sex. The South Carolina budget rule conflicts with a federal regulation issued by the Biden administration under Title IX, the gender equity law, that requires schools to allow students to use the restrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender identities.

“At the end of the day, they have to follow the law,” said Alexandra Brodsky, an attorney with the nonprofit advocacy group Public Justice, which is representing Doe. “And the law says that trans students get to equally enjoy their education as their cisgender peers.” 

The lawsuit — which names the Berkeley County School District, the state of South Carolina and state superintendent Ellen Weaver as defendants — seeks to become a class action case and to declare the South Carolina policy for transgender students a violation of the Constitution’s equal protection clause. The Alliance for Full Acceptance, an LGBTQ advocacy group in South Carolina, is also a plaintiff.

The school district said it has not seen the suit, so it declined to comment. The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office and Department of Education said they do not comment on pending litigation.

The Biden administration’s new Title IX rule was enacted in April, but courts have granted injunctions to block the U.S. Department of Education from enforcing it in the 26 Republican-led states, including South Carolina, that sued to stop the federal rule.

In explaining the Title IX regulation, the Biden administration cited a 2020 Supreme Court decision that discrimination against LGBTQ employees in the workplace is a violation of a federal gender equality law. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to roll back protections for transgender students when he takes office again next year.

The Supreme Court has not yet considered a case centered on the rights of transgender students under Title IX, which applies to most K-12 schools and colleges. The high court declined to hear a widely watched case in 2021, Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, allowing a 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in favor of a transgender student to use the restroom corresponding with their gender identity to stand.

South Carolina lawmakers who pushed the budget rule expected the state would be sued over it, and hoped that once it was, the Supreme Court would take up the issue. The state also instructed schools not to use the word “gender” in school policies and facility signage to comply with the budget rule.

Doe, the plaintiff in the South Carolina suit, was assigned female at birth, but has presented as a boy since he was a young child and has been open about his gender identity since seventh grade, according to the civil complaint. 

“The truth is other students weren’t bothered by me using the bathroom,” Doe said in his statement. “Neither was my school principal. The problem is state law.”

An assistant principal at his school conceded in a meeting that no other students had complained about Doe using the boys restroom, the suit states.

After the district chastised Doe for using the boys restroom, other students began to harass him over his gender identity, according to the suit. His parents decided to pull him from school and enroll him in an online education program run by the school district to avoid the conflicts. The suit described the online school as inferior to Doe’s previous school.

“What happens with this case really could be the beginning of a very, very long and intense policy and political battle that we will see take form over the next two to three years,” said Jonathan Collins, co-director of Columbia University’s Politics and Education program, adding that the case “could be the first step in what becomes a major change in education policy and legal precedent.”

South Carolina is also one of 26 states that have banned gender-affirming medical care for minors. The American Civil Liberties Union is suing to overturn the ban, in a case that is still pending.