A former student at Grissom High School in Huntsville filed a federal discrimination lawsuit on Wednesday against members of the school’s staff and the city school board.
The complainant, Zelda Menefee, is transgender, with the given name “James.” As reported by WHNT, Menefee “began making a social transition from male to female in summer 2014, meaning she changed her first name, changed identity documents to indicate a female gender, began wearing female clothing and using female restrooms.”
The complaint states, “Zelda is transgender, and courageously made the choice to ‘come out’ and live as her true self when she enrolled at Grissom High School in January 2015.”
Eventually, the lawsuit claims that “harassment and discrimination” led to Menefee dropping out of school. Part of the complaint says that Menefee wanted to be able to use the girls’ locker room and bathroom. It also says part of the alleged mistreatment was using Menefee’s given name, as well as male pronouns.
“Zelda simply wanted to live as a normal teenage girl and have a normal high school experience, but the Defendants took that experience away from her,” the complaint reads.
Menefee, now 19, claims the harassment was committed by students and staff and school administrators who turned a blind eye when the treatment was contemporaneously brought to their attention.
“Every child deserves the right to feel safe at school,” attorney Abbey Clarkson said in a statement. “Zelda Menefee was deprived of that right. She woke up every single school day for over a year knowing she would likely be bullied, harassed, ridiculed, and discriminated against at school that day.”
According to the complaint, teachers taunted Menefee by telling him he was not a girl and using “James” instead of “Zelda.” In one instance, Menefee claims a principal made him change out of a knee-length skirt into a pair of athletic pants and a T-shirt.
Menefee was originally placed in the boys’ physical education class but, eventually, was allowed to enroll in girls’ physical education. However, Menefee wanted to get dressed and undressed alongside girls in the female locker room, which the teacher would not allow. Menefee also was not allowed to use female restrooms at the school and was later given permission to use the nurse’s restroom instead.
The lawsuit alleges that Menefee was physically assaulted in the halls at school and had food openly thrown at him during lunch, with staff and administrators allowing the behavior to occur.
“Students made sexually discriminatory comments to her in the halls between classes, called her pejorative names, referred to her by her dead name, bullied her about how she dressed, and threatened her because of her gender identity and/or perceived gender non-conformity,” part of the complaint reads.
It also lists “Suppression of Zelda’s Freedom of Expression by Not Allowing Her to Dress in Feminine Clothing,” “Being Denied Her Freedom of Expression to Be Listed By Her Preferred Name in the School Yearbook” and “Continued Failure to Call Zelda By Her Name or Use Correct Pronouns” as reasons for the legal action.
“We commend Zelda for her courage in standing up to the bullies, and are committed to helping her hold them accountable,” Clarkson remarked. “Unfortunately, Zelda already had to quit school because it wasn’t a safe place for her, but we hope this lawsuit will effectuate real change so that future students like Zelda can feel safe at school.”
The lawsuit is seeking “compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees, costs and any other relief available under Federal law” via a jury trial.
“We are aware of the lawsuit,” Huntsville City Schools spokesman Keith Ward told WHNT. “Because this is active litigation, we are working closely with our legal team, and, at this time, we have no further comment.”
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
