Colorado School Bans Trangender First Grader From Using Girls' Bathroom
Male by birth, Coy Mathis was 18 months old when she started to express to her parents that she was a girl. What Kathryn and Jeremy Mathis first thought was just a phase escalated to anxiety and depression as Coy grew older and wanted to be "fixed," the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Firm, which is representing the Mathis family in the case.
After a psychologist confirmed that Coy was transgendered, her parents decided to let Coy live life as a girl. The Fountain-Fort Carson School District was initially accepting, and allowed Coy to be enrolled as a girl student at the Eagleside Elementary School in Fountain, Colorado, according to the TLDEF.
But in December 2012, Coy was told she would have to stop using the girls' bathroom and start going to the boys' bathroom or nurse's bathroom instead. Her parents — fearing their daughter would be singled out and bullied — began homeschooling Coy.
The Mathis family officially filed a complaint this past Tuesday on Coy's behalf. The TLDEF points out out that the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act already prohibits this kind of treatment against transgender students in public schools.
Moreover, the law also expressly covers bathroom rights, and says transgendered students should be allowed to use the facilities that they personally identify with, according to the TLDEF.
“We have five children and we love them all very much,” Kathyrn Mathis said in a press statement. “We want Coy to return to school to be with her teachers, her friends, and her siblings, but we are afraid to send her back until we know that the school is going to treat her fairly. She is still just six years old, and we do not want one of our daughter’s earliest experiences to be our community telling her she’s not good enough.”
The school district's attorney, W. Kelly Dude, responded with a statement (via CNN):
The district firmly believes it has acted reasonably and fairly with respect to this issue. However, the district believes the appropriate and proper forum for discussing the issues identified in the charge is through the Division of Civil Rights process. The district is preparing a response to the charge which it will submit to the division. Therefore, the district will not comment further on this matter out of respect for the process which the parents have initiated."