Fourteenth Amendment

“Equal Protection”

(Discrimination)
A state may not refuse anyone within its jurisdiction equal protection of laws.
A Wisconsin school district has agreed to pay $800,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a transgender
student who said he was forbidden from using boys bathrooms at his high school and felt
degraded by administrators.

The decision by the school board for the Kenosha Unified School District means that the matter
will not be taken up by the United States Supreme Court.

The lawsuit was filed in 2016 by Ashton Whitaker, who was a rising senior at the time at George
Nelson Tremper High School in Kenosha, a city on Lake Michigan.

Court documents show that Mr. Whitaker, 18, who graduated last year and is now a freshman at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison, began to openly identify as a boy when he was a freshman
at the high school. After teachers and administrators there told him he could not use the boys
restrooms, he sued the school district.

“The idea of using the girls restroom was humiliating and there was no way I could do it,” he
said in a court document filed in August 2016. “If I were to use the gender-neutral restrooms, I
would also stand out from everyone else with a big label on me that said ‘transgender.’”

He described feeling “scrutinized and degraded” when administrators repeatedly tried to keep
him out of the boys restrooms, or when they used female pronouns after he had asked them not
to. He added that he suffered from anxiety, depression, migraines and other health problems
related to dehydration because he had tried to avoid restroom trips by drinking less water.

A Federal District Court judge granted an injunction that allowed Mr. Whitaker to use boys
bathrooms during his senior year. The school district appealed that decision to the Seventh
Circuit Court of Appeals. The district’s lawyers argued in part that “a student cannot unilaterally
declare their gender then demand that they be treated like ‘all others’ in that sex classification.”

But the appeals court judges upheld the injunction in May 2017.

The school district then filed a petition to appeal that ruling to the United States Supreme Court.
But on Tuesday, the school board voted 5 to 2 to pay an $800,000 settlement to Mr. Whitaker
instead and to withdraw its petition, according to The Kenosha News.

Mr. Whitaker, in a statement emailed by the Transgender Law Center, which represented him,
said he was “deeply relieved” that the court case was over and he could focus on being a college
student. “Winning this case was so empowering and made me feel like I can actually do
something to help other trans youth live authentically,” he said.

Ronald S. Stadler, the board’s lawyer, said that the district “never engaged in any acts of overt
discrimination against transgender individuals,” although he acknowledged that Mr. Whitaker
had been told not to use the boys bathroom. He said the decision to settle was made partly
because the district wanted to avoid the cost of continuing litigation.

“I think eventually the Supreme Court is going to have to take this issue and issue a ruling,” he
said, “because we have lower courts all across the country that have looked at it in various ways,
and it’s not always consistent.”
Lynly S. Egyes, the director for litigation at the Transgender Law Center, a California-based
advocacy group, said that while many court decisions about transgender issues had relied on
guidance from the executive branch (like the guidelines under President Barack Obama that were
rescinded under President Trump), the Seventh Circuit’s decision to uphold the injunction relied
instead on the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title IX, the federal law that
prohibits gender discrimination in schools that get public funds.

“This is one of the most sweeping decisions for transgender people at the federal level that we
have seen,” Ms. Egyes said.

Joseph J. Wardenski, a civil rights lawyer with the Washington-based firm Relman, Dane &
Colfax who also represented Mr. Whitaker, said that the Seventh Circuit’s decision “will also
benefit many transgender people across the country.” He noted that the opinion had already been
cited by courts outside of the Seventh Circuit, which covers Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

A Paraphrase of Jacey Fortin’s “Transgender Student’s Discrimination Suit Is

Settled for $800,000”

 Ashton Whitaker, a transgender student, sued his high school, for he was restricted to use

the boys bathrooms. When he openly identified himself as a boy when he was a freshman at high

school, the teachers and faculty told him he was unable to use the boys bathrooms, in which he

sued the school district. While he did not want to use the girls’ or the gender-neutral bathrooms,

The faculty prevented him from entering the boys’ bathrooms, by standing in front of the

doorways of the bathrooms. When a FDC Judge granted an injunction which allowed Whitaker

to use the boys bathroom when he was a senior, the district appealed that to the Seventh Circuit

Court of Appeals.

Whitaker’s arguments claimed that using the girls’ bathroom would be humiliating to

him, and if he used the gender-neutral bathroom, it would put a big label on him that would say

“transgender.” When the faculty forbid him from the boys’ bathrooms, he said he felt

“scrutinized and degraded,” not just because of the bathrooms, but also the reason that they used

female pronouns when Whitaker politely asked them not to. The school district claimed that “a

student cannot unilaterally declare their gender then demand that they be treated like ‘all others’

in that sex classification.” While the school board attempted to appeal this to the Supreme Court,

they themselves voted 5 to 2 they would pay eight-hundred thousand dollars in order for this case

to drop.

This article is a reflection of the Fourteenth Amendment/Equal rights because it involves

a transgender student fighting for equal rights and protection as a person. This article involves a

dispute between a transgender student and a school district/board and the main question is, will

transgender people will get more rights as humans?

Works Cited
Fortin, Jacey. “Transgender Student’s Discrimination Suit Is Settled for $800,000.” New

York Times. New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/us/transgender-wisconsin-

school-lawsuit.html. Accessed 19 Mar. 2018.

“Discrimination.” Para Hills Bowling Club,

www.parahillsbowlingclub.com.au/discrimination/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2018.