Panel: Trans Bathroom Violated School Policy

The Maine Human Rights Commission ruled that a transgender sixth-grader was discriminated against because she was barred from using the girls' bathroom in school.

School officials claimed that they acted properly by training their staff, educating their students, and allowing the student to use a separate bathroom and locker room, according to the Bangor Daily News. Still, the unnamed student no longer goes to the Orono Middle School, where she reportedly experienced bullying from classmates, which led to anxiety and depression during the 2008-2009 year.

"In choosing to disallow [her] to use the girls' bathroom facilities, the school was implicitly isolating and alienating her from other students," her parents wrote to the commission. "We determined that we needed to modify our actions to do the best we could to ensure [our child's] safety."