High court: School can block transgender teen from using boys’ room

Associated Press

RICHMOND, VA.

A Virginia school board can block a transgender male from using the boys’ restroom when school starts next month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

In a 5-3 decision, the high court put on hold a lower court ruling that ordered the Gloucester County School Board to let Gavin Grimm use the bathroom that matches his gender identity. The school board is expected to ask the justices to further intervene in the case later this month.

The decision means Grimm will be barred from using the boys’ bathroom for at least the first half of his senior year, said Josh Block, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who’s representing Grimm.

The school board says it plans to formally ask the Supreme Court to review the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Grimm’s case by the end of August, and then it will be months before the justices decide whether to do so.

Block said he’s disappointed the teen will have to begin another school year being “stigmatized and isolated from the rest of his peers just because he is transgender.” But he said he remains hopeful that Grimm ultimately will prevail in the case.

Grimm, who was born female but identifies as male, was allowed to use the boys’ restroom at his high school for several weeks in 2014.