Schools in one Wisconsin district have appealed to the US Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling that said the district had violated the rights of a transgender boy when it prohibited him from using the boys’ bathroom at Tremper High School in the Kenosha Unified School District, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.
“We are looking for clarification from the Supreme Court so everyone knows what their responsibilities and protections are, both under Title IX and the equal protection clause,” the paper quoted Milwaukee attorney Ronald Stadler, who filed the petition on behalf of the district, as saying.
Ashton Whitaker, who is now 18 and no longer a student at the high school, filed suit in district court in Milwaukee last summer against the district and its superintendent, Sue Savaglio-Jarvis, claiming they had discriminated against him on the basis of his gender identity. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, and now the case is being appealed to the Supreme Court.
The case concerns guidance issued in 2015 by the Obama administration, which stated that transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom that matched their gender identity, even if that differed from their biological sex.
On the basis of that guidance, the Supreme Court decided earlier this year to hear a transgender case from Virginia, but that case was dropped when the US Education Department rescinded the guidance.
The Kenosha case, however, offers the Supreme Court another opportunity to hear the question, considering that it goes beyond simple bathroom use and includes locker room, shower, and overnight sleeping facilities that students use.
“The number of students in America’s public schools who label themselves as transgender is growing, and advocacy groups are pushing to create rights for these students,” the petition for review reads. “School districts, students, and parents across the country need guidance on this issue.”