Student Sues High School Over Suspension for “There are Only Two Genders” Remark

US — Exeter, New Hampshire. A freshman high school student says he was punished with an athletic suspension after remarking during a private conversation that there are “only two genders.” He has filed a lawsuit against the school district for violating his constitutional rights.

The student athlete, identified in court papers only as M.P., made the statement on the school bus during a conversation with fellow Exeter High School students, said Ian Huyett, his attorney.

A child in M.P.’s Spanish class had earlier announced a ‘non-binary’ identity and wish to be referred to with ‘they’ pronouns. M.P. and his friends discussed the complexity of using third-person plural pronouns for a single person due to the structure of the Spanish language.

A.G., a girl who overheard the conversation, said, “There are more than two genders.” M.P. replied, “No there isn’t: there’s only two genders.”

The girl initiated a text exchange with M.P. after he left the school bus, demanding, “Give me one valid reason why there’s only two genders.“ M.P. affirmed via text that there exist only males and females. This led to a heated conversation, during which M.P. called the girl a “bozo” and told her “stfu” (an acronym for “shut the f*** up”).

The girl, who does not identify as transgender, gave copies of M.P.’s texts to Assistant Principal Marcy Dovholuk.

The Assistant Principal and Bill Ball, the Athletic Director and varsity football coach, pulled M.P. out of his early morning science class. Ms Dovholuk handed M.P. a one-game football suspension for violating Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Jbab Students, a School Administrative Unit 16 (SAU 16) district policy.

The policy, adapted in 2016, prohibits the “intentional or persistent refusal to respect a student’s gender identity (for example, intentionally referring to the student by a name or pronoun that does not correspond to the student’s gender identity),” and mandates that students be permitted to use restrooms with the sex they identify as. In “most cases,” students may change in locker rooms with members of the other sex if it corresponds with their declared “gender identity,” though each case is individually assessed.

M.P. and his mother filed a lawsuit at Rockingham Superior Court on November 4. The lawsuit names the SAU 16 district and Assistant Principal Dovholuk as plaintiffs.

His complaint says the district’s policy and the “policing” of text messages he wrote while off school grounds violate his right to free speech as guaranteed under the First Amendment of the US Constitution as well as Article 22 of the New Hampshire Bill of Rights. The complaint also alleges that the policy infringes on his Catholic beliefs, which are protected under Articles 5 and 6 of the state’s Bill of Rights.

“The student does not deny that he violated the Gender Nonconforming Students policy,” the lawsuit states. “He in fact denied, and will continue to deny, that any person can belong to a gender other than that of ‘male’ or female.’

“The student will never refer to any individual person using plural pronouns such as ‘they,’ using contrived pronouns such as ‘ze,’ or with any similar terminology that reflects values which (the student) does not share.”

The lawsuit seeks nominal damages for “constitutional injury,” and to block the enforcement of Exeter High School’s policy.

According to a press release from Cornerstone, the non-profit that is representing M.P., “the key question before the court will be if Exeter’s Gender Nonconforming Students policy, nearly identical to the policy adopted by school districts across the state, can be used to suppress the free speech rights of students who hold dissenting views.”

“M.P. did not harass or demean any student, but simply expressed his views on a contentious cultural issue,” his attorney said.