Elkhorn Area School District facing lawsuit for allegedly violating Title IX rights
ELKHORN, Wis. (CBS 58) -- The Elkhorn Area School District's facing a federal lawsuit for allegedly violating the Title IX rights of a transgender female student who wants to use girls bathrooms. On Monday night, the school board held its first meeting since the lawsuit was filed.
Nobody at the school board meeting spoke of the federal lawsuit, but several parents told us that they'd heard about it themselves and they came here seeking clarification, but left without any.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't comment on the matter other than to say we always, -we always want to meet the needs of all of our students and you know I'm saddened by the fact that in this case we obviously aren't meeting the needs of the student according to the parents view or the students view," said Jason Tadlock, Elkhorn Area Schools Superintendent.
The case involves a 7th grade student. Her assigned sex at birth was male, but in 6th grade, she told her teacher she's transgender and wished to use female pronouns and the name Jane. The school then issued a gender support plan requiring she only use the faculty, or single-stall unisex bathrooms. In 2017, a student in nearby Kenosha Unified School District won a similar legal battle.
"The Elkhorn School District knows the law. In fact it's had written protocols in place since 2016 including transgender students cannot be forced to use separate facilities or denied access to school facilities matching their gender identities," said Joe Wardenski, Student's Attorney.
The federal complaint points to a meeting last summer July 24 in which Superintendent Jason Tadlock detailed the district's gender support policies, explaining Elkhorn was bound to follow the Seventh Circuit Court's "Whitaker" decision in which a Kenosha transgender student won the rights to use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity, but Tadlock admitted EASD was not following that. At that meeting, he also said EASD would never require any student to use a restroom with a transgender student.
"That's been the law, the binding case law for Wisconsin school districts for the last seven years. The school district knows it and they're ignoring it," said Wardenski.
Attorney Joe Wardenski says his client just wants to be treated like her peers, and the school's policy has singled her out and sometimes made her late to class.
"And we intend for this lawsuit to ensure that Jane and every other student in the Elkhorn schools has their rights respected," said Wardenski.
The attorneys representing the student tell us that they will be seeking a temporary injunction that they hope will force the district to allow her to use female bathrooms while the case makes its way through court.