The parents of an 8-year-old transgender girl are suing her primary school for “emotional distress” after teachers and administrators refused to recognise her gender identity, Yahoo reports.
The school in Orange County, California denied Nicole Brar the right use the girls’ bathroom or wear the girls’ uniform. The school also refused to use her name or refer to her using the appropriate pronouns
The family’s lawyer—Mark Rosenbaum—said there “isn’t anything more heartless in the world than telling a child ‘do not follow your heart’.
“When any adult says to a child, ‘You may not live according to your gender identity,’ that is serious emotional distress,” he said.
The lawsuit notes that Nicole is a “courageous child “who told her family what she has long known to be true: that although she was assigned to the male gender at birth, her true gender identity is that of a girl.
“Her loving parents and sister supported her in this affirmation of her core identity and sense of self; her older sister’s first question was: What pronoun do you want us to use?”
The lawsuit claims that the school in Yorba Linda—Heritage Oak Private Education—publicly promotes policies of “nondiscrimination, diversity and teaching ‘the whole child’ but refused to accept Nicole’s gender identity despite repeated requests by her parents.
The school said in a statement that “due to the sensitivity of the issue” it was taking the time to enlist expert guidance on the issue.
“We told the family we had decided to retain an outside consultant to assist us, and we were communicating with the family on a consistent basis to discuss potential experts and specific accommodations (in addition to the other accommodations we had already offered, such as use of the single-unit staff bathroom, specific options as to girl’s uniform clothing and girl’s hairstyle, as well as ceasing to use gender groupings in physical education activities),” the statement reads.
“Unfortunately, these accommodations were rejected and the parents withdrew their child.”
However, the Brar’s lawyer has called these claims “completely inaccurate”.
Another attorney representing the family—Kathryn Eidmann—said it was one of the first cases of a transgender student suing a private school.
“This case sends the message that in California we don’t tolerate this type of discrimination,” she said.
