The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska filed an injunction in District Court Wednesday in its lawsuit against the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District’s bathroom policy for transgender students. The ACLU’s motion seeks to allow one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, a student who identifies as a boy, to use the boys bathroom.
Under the current policy passed by the Mat-Su School Board in October of 2022, students must use the bathroom of the gender they were assigned at birth, even if they no longer identify that way.
Meghan Barker is the Communications Director for the ACLU of Alaska. She said the district’s bathroom policy puts the student under physical and mental distress.
“We’re seeking the relief so that they don’t have to continue to endure the public outing, the having to make other accommodations to either not have to use the bathroom or use a gender neutral bathroom,” Barker said. “A lot of those things have stayed the same, and the harm is still being incurred by the student.”
The ACLU sued the district in January on behalf of the student and his parents. According to the lawsuit, the student cut his hair short and began using a boy’s name in the summer of 2023. The student used the girls’ bathroom as required by the district’s bathroom policy, but was questioned by adult staff.
Supporters of the district’s bathroom policy told the school board that it was needed to protect cisgender female students. Barker argues the opposite.
“We do not see this policy protecting female students. In fact, it’s more harmful to the students who are being forced to use a bathroom that doesn’t align with their gender identity,” Barker said.
A spokesperson for the district said Wednesday they have not yet received the motion and did not offer a comment. The Mat-Su was the first and is still the only school district in the state to prevent transgender students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity. The district was also the first in Alaska to ban transgender athletes from competing on teams that match their gender identity and requires parental permission before students can change the name or pronouns they use at school.
The district faces three other lawsuits over its removal of challenged books, the free speech rights of students, and restraint and seclusion practice.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated how many lawsuits the ACLU has filed against the Mat-Su school district. The ACLU has filed two lawsuits over bathroom policies and book removal, and the Northern Justice Project has also filed two lawsuits against the district over restraint and seclusion practices and the free speech of students.
Tim Rockey is the producer of Alaska News Nightly and covers education for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at trockey@alaskapublic.org or 907-550-8487. Read more about Tim here.
