USCA11 Case: 18-13592 Document: 304-1 Date Filed: 12/30/2022 Page: 104 of 150
C. Adams’s Experience at Nease High School
The summer before he entered Nease High School, Adams was already “present[ing] as a boy.” Doc. 192 at 25. He wore his chest binder, kept his hair cut short, dressed in boys’ clothing, and went by male pronouns. He used men’s restrooms in public. But because Adams had enrolled in the School District in fourth grade, his enrollment documents reflected he was “female.” Id. at 24. The School District’s bathroom policy therefore assigned him to the girls’ restrooms and gave him the option to use the gender-neutral restrooms.
Adams’s mother contacted Nease High School before the school year began to tell the school that Adams would be entering the freshman class as a boy. To help affirm his gender identity, and as required under the Best Practices Guidelines when a student or parent makes a request, Adams’s classmates and teachers used male pronouns to refer to him. And when Adams began his freshman year at Nease, he used the boys’ restrooms. There is no evidence to suggest that any fellow occupant of the boys’ restroom was bothered by, or even noticed, Adams’s presence there.
But about six weeks after Adams started ninth grade, two anonymous female students complained to school authorities that they saw Adams entering the boys’ restroom. After the female students complained, Adams was called over the school’s intercom system to report to the school office. When he arrived in the school
