Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed suit against President Barack Obama’s policy that says all school districts must allow students to use the bathroom of the gender they most identify with. The lawsuit is in response to a small North Texas school district vowing to fight the president’s transgender policy.
The HarroldISD, near the Texas-Oklahoma border, has about 100 students and none are transgender. But Superintendent David Thweatt says that doesn’t make his district’s new policy that weighs each students bathrooms needs on a case-by-case basis a moot argument against the President’s order.
“It’s not moot because it was thrust upon us by the federal government. He told us we had to open our restrooms to the opposite sex or we would risk losing our federal funding. So we didn’t start the fight but we will certainly carry through with it," Thweatt explained.
Thweatt says if the Obama administration carries through with its threat, his district would lose just over $117,000 in federal funds each year.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says since this Wednesday’s court filing, 10 other states have asked to join the lawsuit.
“This crosses socio-economic lines, Republican-Democrats lines, this is about parents and grandparents who are upset and they want to see the safety and well-being of their student is taken care of," Paxton said during a press conference in Austin.
Paxton says his office is willing to plea the case as far as presenting oral arguments before justices on the U.S. Supreme Court.
