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Judge orders access for transgender student

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge rejected a school district’s challenge to a rule on transgender bathrooms on Monday, ordering a biologically male student who identifies as female be treated “like the girl she is.”

Judge Algenon Marbley said the Highland Local Schools in Morrow County had failed to provide a persuasive argument that giving the student access to the girls’ restroom would jeopardize other students’ privacy or safety. He further ordered that Highland use a female name and pronouns in referring to the 11-year-old.

“(S)chool districts that have encountered these very issues have been able to integrate transgender students fully into the academic and social community without disruption, and certainly without the doomsday scenarios Highland predicts, such as sexual predators entering an elementary-school restroom,” he wrote.

There’s “certainly no evidence” the student, referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, is likely to violate other students’ privacy or put their safety at risk when using the girls’ restroom, he wrote.

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