USCA11 Case: 18-13592 Document: 304-1 Date Filed: 12/30/2022 Page: 70 of 150
The School Board’s unwritten bathroom policy is that, for grades four and up, “biological boys” must use the boys’ bathrooms and “biological girls” must use the girls’ bathrooms, with the terms boys and girls defined as the sex assigned at birth. See D.E. 162 at 10–11. For transgender students, the policy purportedly requires them to use the bathrooms that correspond to their sex assigned at birth—in conflict with their gender identity—or gender-neutral/single-stall bathrooms. But, as the district court found, that is not really how the policy works.
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As the School Board’s own witnesses explained at trial, a student’s enrollment paperwork—which are “accept[ed] … at face value”—controls for the purpose of the bathroom policy. In other words, for the School Board the enrollment documents dictate gender with respect to the bathroom policy. See D.E. 161 at 229, 234–35; D.E. 162 at 12–13, 50–51.
Drew registered in the St. Johns County school system as an incoming fourth-grader prior to his transition. See D.E. 192 at 24. When he did so, he submitted enrollment documentation reflecting his sex assigned at birth, including a birth certificate that listed his gender as “female.” See D.E. 161 at 31–32. The School Board therefore classified him as a girl based on his original enrollment documents. See D.E. 161 at 253. Years later, the School Board continued to classify him as a girl for the purposes of its bathroom policy even after he (i) had transitioned socially at school (including using male pronouns), (ii) had a double mastectomy, and (iii) had
