Case 3:17-cv-00739-TJC-JBT Document 192 Filed 07/26/18 Page 3 of 70 PageID 10681
poses no threat to the privacy or safety of any of his fellow students. Rather, Drew Adams is just like every other student at Nease High School, a teenager coming of age in a complicated, uncertain and changing world. When it comes to his use of the bathroom, the law requires that he be treated like any other boy.
The Court recognizes that some will disagree with this decision, for religious and other reasons. I respect their point of view. However, as a judge, my job is to determine what the law requires and apply it faithfully to the facts. I have done that to the best of my ability.
I. Procedural History
Through his next friend and mother, plaintiff Drew Adams, a minor,[1] filed suit in June 2017 (when he was a rising junior at Nease) under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that the School District violated his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 2, and Title IX, 20 U.S.C. § 1681, by refusing to let him use the boys’ bathroom at school. See Doc. 1 (and as amended, Doc. 60). Soon thereafter, he filed a motion for preliminary injunction seeking to enjoin the School Board (the School District’s governing body) from continuing its policy during the pendency of the case. Although the Court denied his motion, it set an expedited schedule so the matter could quickly
- ↑ Ordinarily, minors’ names are redacted from court files, but Adams elected to waive those privacy protections. See Doc. 1 at 1, n.1; Doc. 60 at 1, n.1.
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