Wisconsin judge sides with 11-year-old trans girl over her right to use school toilets

A district judge in Wisconsin has sided with an 11-year-old trans girl over her use of the girls’ toilets and temporarily blocked school officials from preventing her access.

The child, who is only identified as Jane Doe #1, was assigned male at birth but “has identified as female since the age of three”, Judge Lynn Adelman’s ruling, which has been published online, states.

It notes that the girl, who is going into the sixth grade, had used the girls’ toilets “without incident” since beginning at the Mukwonago area district school, in a conservative suburb outside Milwaukee, in the third grade. She had also been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

However, last month, the superintendent of the district, defendant Joe Koch, informed the girl’s mother that she would be required to use either the boys’ or a gender-neutral toilet at the school”.

Adelman’s ruling said Jane Doe #1 had suffered “emotional distress and mental-health effects, including thoughts of self-harm, nightmares, embarrassment, social isolation and stigma, and lowered self-esteem” as a result of the defendants [Koch and the school district] refusing to let her use the girls’ toilets.

The judge said the “plaintiff will suffer significant irreparable harm” without a temporary restraining order.

“The only reason the defendants have provided for the policy is that some district parents and community members have expressed unspecified ‘concerns’ regarding the plaintiff’s use of the girls’ [toilets].”

Granting the temporary restraining order, Adelman said the plaintiffs would be likely to win if a trial was to take place.

As reported by LGBTQ Nation, the girl’s mother said she was “heart-broken” by the discrimination her daughter was facing. She took the legal action after school staff began monitoring her daughter’s use of the toilet while she took summer classes.

“I’m furious that this is happening, and continuing to happen, to any kids who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. No student should have to endure consistent invasions of their privacy and have their well-being threatened,” she said.

“The school board are targeting an eleven-year-old child, and that is disgusting. They continue to defend this transphobic bathroom policy without considering the ongoing harm it inflicts on their students,” she added.

The court ruling provided “a small sigh of relief” and she hoped it would “prompt the school district to reflect and reconsider its behaviour”.

The family’s lawyer, Alexa Milton, hoped “this decision and the prioritisation of her well-being will help prevent any further discrimination against our client and other children in her community and beyond, and we look forward to defending this victory as the litigation continues”.