MONCKS CORNER — A transgender Berkeley County teen must be allowed to use restrooms in public schools that align with the student’s gender identity, according to a federal court order issued a day before classes began.
The Aug. 12 order temporarily prohibits South Carolina school officials from enforcing a state rule against the student that requires people to use public school restrooms that are consistent with their gender as assigned at birth.
The student, known in court documents as John Doe, sued local and state school officials in November, after being punished for using the boys’ bathroom in a Berkeley County school. The student’s parents removed him from school after they said their son, whose bathroom visits came to be monitored by school officials, risked additional punishment for using the boys’ bathroom under a state rule.
This rule, which was enacted in July 2024 as an ongoing budget proviso and not through legislation, is a part of the S.C. budget that directs state officials on how to use money allocated by the state Legislature. Under the rule, the Legislature could withhold 25 percent of a school district’s state funding if the district did not enforce a ban denying transgender students the right to use a bathroom or locker room consistent with their gender identity.
Lawyers for the Berkeley County teen and his co-plaintiff, Alliance for Full Acceptance, celebrated the court’s temporary decision and continued to argue in a statement that the South Carolina’s school bathroom rules are improper and should be nullified entirely.
“South Carolina’s school bathroom ban is illegal, plain and simple,” said Alexandra Brodsky, a lawyer who represented the teen through the advocacy group Open Justice. “We are so thrilled that our client will be able to start high school this week without state-mandated discrimination.”
Added Brodsky’s co-counsel, Joseph Wardenski of the civil rights law firm Wardenski P.C., “As transgender students’ legal rights are under attack across the country, it is heartening that a federal appeals court has confirmed that John has the right to go to school as the boy that he is.”
For its part, the Berkley County School District released a statement Aug. 13 that acknowledged the ruling.
“The district is aware that the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a preliminary injunction, temporarily blocking enforcement of the state budget proviso as to the plaintiff only during the pendency of his appeal,” said Katie Tanner, the school district’s chief strategy and engagement officer. “We are awaiting the full decision from the court and will continue to evaluate and comply with our legal obligations while the case continues.”
The recent ruling granting the teen temporary bathroom access is not expected to result in other changes in South Carolina schools, at least in the short term. The teen’s lawsuit against school officials is still waiting to be considered by the full appeals court, and the case may eventually be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2021 however, the Supreme Court declined to hear a similar case from Virginia in which the appeals court ruled against a school district that had prevented a transgender student from using the restroom that aligned with his identity, finding it had violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and also the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Nevertheless, state education officials believe the law is on their side. The S.C. Department of Education issued a statement from spokesman Jason Raven that said: “This injunction from the 4th Circuit applies only to one individual. All other South Carolina schools remain bound by current law, we expect the U.S. Supreme Court to settle this question once and for all next year. The Department is currently working with the Attorney General’s office to weigh available legal options and determine next steps.”
State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver also weighed in to defend South Carolina’s bathroom policy that remains in effect for every other South Carolina student.
“Every student should be treated with kindness and respect,” Weaver said in the statement provided by her office. “South Carolina’s commonsense policy is grounded in objective, biological reality and protects the privacy and safety of all students, especially our vulnerable young women. I will never stop fighting to defend their rights and dignity.”
In the last few years, transgender issues have motivated several South Carolina politicians to pursue rules and legislation regarding the use of public bathrooms. In November, after the election of the first openly transgender member of Congress, Sarah McBride of Delaware, Lowcountry Rep. Nancy Mace proposed rules barring transgender women from using women’s bathrooms in all federal facilities, including the U.S. Capitol.
This month, Mace has made a bathroom bill a focus of her newly announced campaign to become South Carolina’s next Republican governor. At least twice at campaign events she has mentioned a bathroom bill and then immediately described her efforts to ensure child rapists receive the death penalty for their crimes, seemingly linking the two issues.
“I will not fund a single college or university that decides that men can be women, men can be pregnant, men can be in our girls’ locker rooms and dormitories and showers. No,” said Mace at an Aug. 6 campaign event in Myrtle Beach. “I’ll sign a bathroom bill. I’ll make sure child rapists get the death penalty.”
Another Republican candidate for governor in 2027, Congressman Ralph Norman of Rock Hill, previously urged school officials in his district to create sex-based ruled regarding bathroom use.
“Schools have an obligation to protect all students, including the physical safety and emotional well-being of young women,” Norman said in 2024. “Sex-segregated spaces are not arbitrary and are intended to protect the privacy and safety of children.”
Wes Climer, a state senator from Rock Hill who is now running to succeed Norman in Congress, wrote the proviso within the state budget that enables the state to withhold funds for failing to enforce the state’s bathroom rule. He said he was motivated to do so in part because a transgender teen girl at a Rock Hill high school was using the girls’ bathroom.
S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson promised on Aug. 13 that he would keep up efforts to keep school bathroom rules in place.
“While we are disappointed with the Court of Appeals’ decision, this is not the end,” said Wilson, who has also announced a bid for the governor’s office. “The bathroom proviso is still in effect for almost the entire State of South Carolina as a result of our vigorous defense of the law, and we will continue to vigorously defend it on appeal.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
