Jury awards $4 million to transgender Blue Springs graduate in discrimination lawsuit
The Blue Springs School District has been ordered to pay $4 million in damages after denying a transgender student access to the male-designated bathrooms and locker rooms, starting in middle school, according to court documents.
The student’s mother, Rachelle Appleberry, requested access for him to use the boys locker rooms and bathrooms while enrolled in Blue Springs schools, but was repeatedly denied. She represented him as plaintiff in a six-year-long discrimination lawsuit against the school district.
A jury in Jackson County decided in favor of the student, awarding him $4 million in damages and $175,000 for legal fees, on Monday, court records said.
“The district disagrees with the verdict and will be seeking appropriate relief from the trial court and court of appeals if necessary,” said Katie Woolf, a spokeswoman for the Blue Springs School District, in a statement following the verdict.
The student transitioned from female to male in 2009, while in fourth grade. A year later, he legally changed his birth name to a conventionally male name.
Appleberry requested that Delta Woods Middle School allow her son to use the boys’ locker room and restroom while he was in eighth grade. The school denied her request.
Instead, the student used a single-person, unisex bathroom during football and track seasons.
In 2014, The student legally switched the gender on his birth certificate from female to male. That school year, his mother again requested he have access to the boys bathrooms and locker rooms. The Blue Springs Freshman Center, where her son was a student at the time, refused, despite the student legally being male.
He did not participate in after school sports that year, embarrassed from having to use a separate bathroom, according to court documents.
When he moved on to Blue Spring South High School in 2015, the student was still barred from using the boys bathrooms and locker rooms, court filings say. The district argued he was unable to use the same facilities as other boys because he was transgender and allegedly had female genitalia, according to court documents..
In 2015, Appleberry filed a lawsuit alleging her son was receiving separate and unequal treatment based on his sex, according to the court petition.
“As a direct result of the unlawful conduct of Defendants, Plaintiff has suffered damages which include mental anguish, emotional distress, pain and suffering, degradation, humiliation, anxiety... all of a continuing and permanent nature,” the petition said.
They requested a trial by jury and compensation for these damages. But their case was dismissed in 2016, as the district’s lawyers argued gender identity is not a protected status under the Missouri Human Rights Act.
Appleberry successfully appealed the case to the Missouri Supreme Court in 2019, but the case was moved back to the Circuit Court, where a trial by jury was held in early December.
On Dec. 7 the jury reached a verdict, deciding in favor of the student, now a graduate of the district.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 2:29 PM.
