A transgender student reportedly won her discrimination lawsuit against the Orono school district and has been awarded $75,000 by a Maine court, according to The Associated Press.
Administrators in the school district reportedly made the transgender girl, Nicole Maines, use a staff, not student, bathroom. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court reportedly ruled that the school district violated the Maine Human Rights Act by making the 17-year-old student use a separate bathroom.
It was reportedly the first time a state high court in the U.S. concluded that a transgender person should use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify. While Maines won her lawsuit against the school district in January, a lower court reportedly awarded the student the financial settlement last week.
The settlement will reportedly go to the Maines family, the Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, and Berman Simmons, a Portland law firm that represented Maines, stated GLAD spokeswoman Carisa Cunningham.
Nicole, who is now 17, reportedly used the girls' bathroom in her elementary school until the grandfather of a fifth-grade boy allegedly complained to administrators. Nicole is reportedly a biological male who identified as a girl starting from the age of 2.
The Maines family and the Maine Human Rights Commission reportedly sued the school district back in 2009. The Penobscot County Superior order, which represents the conclusion of the court case involving the young student, reportedly prohibits the district from "refusing access by transgender students to school restrooms that are consistent with their gender identity."
