{"id":1485074,"date":"2024-08-21T19:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T23:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1485074"},"modified":"2024-08-21T19:25:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T23:25:00","slug":"judge-virginia-school-district-must-allow-transgender-student-on-girls-tennis-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/judge-virginia-school-district-must-allow-transgender-student-on-girls-tennis-team\/1485074\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge: Virginia School District Must Allow Transgender Student On Girls’ Tennis Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge: Virginia School District Must Allow Transgender Student On Girls’ Tennis Team<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A federal judge has ruled that a Virginia school district may not prevent a transgender student from playing on a girls\u2019 middle school tennis team while the student\u2019s lawsuit against the school board continues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Judge M. Hannah Lauck of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia handed down the ruling<\/a> against Hanover County Public Schools on Aug. 16.<\/p>\n

In issuing the preliminary injunction, the judge said she found the 11-year-old student\u2014identified in court documents only as \u201cJanie Doe\u201d\u2014would likely succeed in the claim that the Hanover County School Board violated both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution when it barred the student from playing on the sports team during the 2024\u20132025 school year.<\/p>\n

\u201cJanie has established that the Board excluded her, on the basis of sex, from participating in an education program when it denied her application to try out for (and if selected, to participate on) her school\u2019s girls\u2019 tennis team,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> Judge\u00a0Lauck wrote.<\/p>\n

The judge concluded that the district may not bar the student from trying out and playing on the girls\u2019 tennis team this year while the lawsuit filed against the Hanover County school board proceeds.<\/p>\n

The ruling stems from a lawsuit<\/a> filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia in July on behalf of the student\u2014who was born a male but identifies as female\u2014and his parents.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, the student, who \u201chas a gender dysphoria diagnosis\u201d and has identified as a girl since he was 7 years old, tried out for and earned a place on the girls\u2019 tennis team as a sixth grader in August 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, shortly afterward, Hanover County\u2019s school board sought medical documentation \u201cevidencing Janie\u2019s \u2018consistent expression as a female.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

About a month later, the school board \u201cvoted unanimously against permitting [Janie] to participate on the middle school girls\u2019 tennis team,\u201d<\/strong> the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

School Board Defends Its Decision<\/h2>\n

The lawsuit alleges that the school board discriminated against the transgender student in violation of the 14th Amendment\u2019s Equal Protection Clause and Title IX, a longstanding federal education policy designed to protect females from discrimination based on sex.<\/p>\n

The school board has said its decision not to allow the student to play on the girls\u2019 team was based on ensuring fairness in competition.<\/p>\n

It further argued in court documents<\/a> that the decision was in line with the 2022 Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) model policies<\/a>, which state that schools may have sports teams based on biological sex.<\/p>\n

The judge wrote that the board\u2019s actions \u201ccontravene the strong public interest in educational institutions being free of discrimination of all kinds, including on the basis of gender identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Janie Doe faces a litany of harms ranging from medical regression, social isolation and stigma, financial and logistical burdens, and the dignitary harms of either \u2018outing\u2019 her as transgender or communicating that transgender students are not welcomed or encouraged to participate in school athletics at all, Janie Doe has made more than a clear showing that the discrimination has harmed her,\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

ACLU of Virginia Senior Transgender Rights Attorney Wyatt Rolla welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement<\/a> that the student \u201cjust wants to try out with her friends for the team she already made last year\u201d and that \u201cthere is no evidence to support the fear that trans athletes have a categorical advantage over cisgender ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rolla accused the school board of \u201csingling out\u201d and bullying the transgender student.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling should make every school board\u2014not just Hanover\u2014think twice before using VDOE\u2019s model policies to justify discrimination against its students,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> Rolla said.<\/p>\n

The Epoch Times contacted a Hanover County Public Schools spokesperson for comment but didn\u2019t receive a reply by publication time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 08\/21\/2024 – 15:25<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/judge-virginia-school-district-must-allow-transgender-student-girls-tennis-team<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge: Virginia School District Must Allow Transgender Student On Girls’ Tennis Team Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times, A federal judge has ruled…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1485075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1485074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1485075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}