The American Civil Liberties Union is taking the debate over the Marion School District’s bathroom ban to the feds.
On April 26, the Marion School Board voted 4-1 in favor of a policy requiring students and staff to use the restroom that matches their biological sex, regardless of gender identity.
Now, the ACLU of Florida has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office stating that Marion’s rules violate anti-discrimination laws, specifically Title IX. Days after the School Board vote, a transgender student was suspended from school for using a restroom consistent with his gender identity, according to the ACLU. The complaint is filed on behalf of that student.
A Title IX violation would jeopardize federal funding for the School District.
“The school district was warned that preventing transgender students from living their lives consistent with their gender identities was harmful to students and illegal. Within days of passing their harmful anti-transgender policy, a student who has been living his life consistent with his gender identity for years is now facing disciplinary action for having done nothing other than use a school bathroom – something students do every day,” says ACLU of Florida staff attorney Daniel Tilley, who is representing the student, in a media release.
According to the ACLU, the student, who asked that his name not be released, had used the men’s room at school for years without trouble up until the School Board changed the District’s policies. The complaint asks the Department of Education to require the District to revise their policies, update their staff training and erase the suspension from the transgender student’s record.
On May 9, the ACLU of Florida alongside Equality Florida, Florida Legal Services, Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights and Southern Poverty Law Center sent a letter to the Marion School Board stating that the new rules are discriminatory and harmful to students.
The groups are hosting a town hall meeting in Ocala on May 15 to discuss the issue. It lasts from 5 – 7 p.m. RSVP here to receive location details.
