GLOUCESTER, Va. – Transgender teen Gavin Grimm’s case against the Gloucester County School Board has again been sent to a lower court, this time to decide if the case is moot.
NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 02: Gavin Grimm attends as National Geographic hosts the world premiere screening of “Gender Revolution: A Journey With Katie Couric” on February 2, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for National Geographic)
Grimm has been fighting a battle for bathroom use with the Gloucester County School Board since 2014.
News 3 first brought you Grimm’s story in November of 2014, when Grimm was a sophomore at Gloucester High School.
Grimm, who was born as female, but identifies as male, sued the Gloucester County School Board in 2015 when his school stopped allowing him to use the boy’s restroom.
The Gloucester County School Board enforced a policy that requires transgender students to use a separate restroom from their peers.
Since then, his case has been stuck in the court system, moving back and forth between local and federal courts.
Oral arguments for Grimm’s case were scheduled to be heard in the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in September.
However, Grimm graduated in June, which led the Gloucester County School Board to file several briefings to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that the case is moot.
According to court documents, the school board argues that their bathroom policy does not apply to alumni and that unless Grimm has any “particular intention to return to school after graduation,” the change in status “deprives Grimm of a continued interest in the litigation.”
Grimm has also filed a briefing to the court challenging the school board. He says his “future attendance at alumni and school-community events” establishes his interest. He further says the school board’s “noncommittal statement” regarding the enforceability of its policy “falls far short of a representation that the Board will voluntarily cease discriminating against [him].”
The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has decided to send the case back to the district court to be decided whether the case has become moot due to Grimm’s graduation.
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