Teen sues school for proposing trans students wear green wristbands

UPDATED July 22, 2016 10:50 a.m. PT with school district's statement.

Yet another transgender student is suing for the right to use the restroom of their choice at school, but this time, according to a lawsuit filed this week, a Wisconsin school is going so far as to propose transgender students wear green wristbands to better restrict bathroom use.

Ash Whitaker, a 16-year-old transgender boy in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is suing school officials at Kenosha Unified School District for allegedly planning to make him and other transgender students wear the bright green identification wristband.

"Branding transgender students in this way would single them out for additional scrutiny, stigma, and potentially harassment or violence, and violate their privacy by revealing their transgender status to others," the lawsuit, filed in federal court, states.

Recently, anti-trans legislation restricting bathroom use has been shaking up states such as North Carolina and Mississippi. And transgender students across the country have been fighting for years to use the bathrooms of their choice at school.

Whitaker's lawsuit claims that in May a guidance counselor at Tremper High School showed him a green wristband the school intended to make him and other transgender students wear the following school year. The wristband would be used to alert teachers to stop Whitaker from entering the boy's restroom since his birth certificate has his sex listed as female, according to his complaint. Instead, Whitaker must use the girls' restroom, causing him extreme distress.

The Kenosha Unified School District denied having a "practice or policy requiring any student to wear a wristband for monitoring any purpose or for any reason whatsoever" in a statement sent to Mashable Friday, adding that the district is reviewing the complaint.

"The District is confident that when the litigation process establishes accurate facts and applies them to the proper legal standards its policies and practices will be found to be in total compliance with all laws," Kenosha Unified's attorney, Ron Stadler, said in the statement.

The lawsuit goes on to claim that school officials refer to Whitaker with female pronouns, use his female birth name, fail "to inform substitute teachers and other staff members" of his preferred name and pronouns, force him to room with female students on school trips and tried to exclude him from running for prom king, despite being nominated. Only after a deluge of protests did school administrators let him run for prom king.

"He was also deeply distressed by the prospect of using the office restroom...far out of the way from most of his classes—and is only used by office staff and visitors," according to the lawsuit.

Whitaker's lawyers claim in the lawsuit that school officials are in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The lawsuit states that school officials must treat Whitaker and all transgender students as their preferred gender identities and stop any discrimination against transgender students.

The school district updated its policies earlier this month to ban forms of discrimination based on gender identity, according to its July school board meeting notes posted online, but noted that if a student wanted to use a restroom of their choice, that would be decided by a school counselor or principal on a case-by-case basis. The wristbands are not mentioned.