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Wisconsin School District Settles $800,000 Discrimination Lawsuit Brought by Transgender Former Student 

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A Wisconsin school district has settled a lawsuit brought by a transgender high school graduate who claimed discrimination because the district monitored trips to the boys' restroom.

In a recent meeting, the Kenosha Unified School Board voted 5-2 to approve the $800,000 settlement.  

Ash Whitaker, a June graduate of the district's Tremper High School, was born a female but identifies as a male.  The lawsuit alleged the high school's staff made the student wear green wristbands for easier monitoring.

A 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last May upheld U.S. District Court Judge Pamela Pepper's injunction allowing Whitaker to use male-only restrooms at the high school. Last August, the school district had filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the ruling by the Court of Appeals.  With the settlement, the school board has withdrawn its request to the high court.

In a statement, Whitaker expressed relief that the case was finally over.

"I am deeply relieved that this long, traumatic part of my life is finally over and I can focus on my future and simply being a college student," said Whitaker, who is currently a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison planning to major in biomedical engineering. 

According to the district's attorney Ron Stadler, Whitaker will receive $150,000, while the rest of the settlement will go toward attorneys' fees.

Stadler said the cost of fighting such a lawsuit played a factor, especially if the case had continued in court over the next few years. 

"To this point, (Whitaker's) claimed fees were $1.7 million, so we estimated if we went up to the Supreme Court, and/or back down to trial court to try the case and go through anything, that their fees would be somewhere between $4 million and $5 million," Stadler told the Kenosha News following the board's vote. "So, it becomes a real economic decision in terms of balancing risks and the downside of being given an adverse decision."

"I think we have an excellent argument, but if you look at it in terms that you've got these escalating costs, you've got a good argument, but not an absolute argument," he told the newspaper. "The attorneys' fees drive it."

Stadler said the school district strongly denied Whitaker's allegations and that the former student never submitted any evidence during the legal process to substantiate the claims  The district, the attorney said, maintained that Whitaker was being treated consistently using a procedure that was legal. 

The district's insurance company will pay the $800,000 minus the $25,000 deductible which will be paid with taxpayer dollars.

According to the Stadler, the consent judgment does not, however, apply to other individuals beyond Whitaker.

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