Thomas v. City Schools of Decatur

Summary

On Nov. 16, 2017, Pascha Thomas’s five-year-old daughter “N.T.” told her that she had recently been sexually assaulted in the girls’ restroom at Oakhurst Elementary School in Decatur, Georgia. While N.T. was in the restroom, her teacher dismissed another child—a boy who has been identified to the school as “gender fluid”—to use the restroom per Decatur City Schools’ transgender restroom policy. Tragically, the boy sexually assaulted N.T. while in the girls’ restroom.

Pascha reported the assault to school authorities, but the school refused to correct the situation or take steps to prevent future incidents: The school refused to change its policy. The school refused to remove the boy from N.T.’s classroom. The school refused to assure Pascha that the girls’ restroom would be reserved in the future for girls’ use only. Pascha had to remove her daughter from the school for N.T.’s emotional and physical safety.

ADF submitted a complaint on behalf of Pascha with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and on Sept. 14, 2018, the OCR informed Pascha it was launching an investigation into her complaint.