FILE - In this June 12, 2013 file photo, transgender student Nicole Maines, center, with her father Wayne Maines, left, and brother Jonas, speaks to reporters outside the Penobscot Judicial Center in Bangor, Maine. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, that Nicole Maines should have been allowed to use the bathroom of her choice in 2009 after school officials required her to use a staff bathroom instead of the girls' restroom. The high court concluded that the Orono school district's actions violated the Maine Human Rights Act, a state law that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File) (The Associated Press)
PORTLAND, Maine – Maine's highest court says a transgender student should have been allowed to use the bathroom of her choice.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Thursday in a case in which lawyers for a fifth-grader argued that her rights were violated when she was required to use a staff bathroom instead of the girls' restroom.
Nicole Maines' family and the Maine Human Rights Commission sued in 2009. Maines, now 16, is a biological male who identified as a girl beginning at age 2.
School administrators across the country are grappling with the issue.
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