CCSD settles discrimination case with transgender police officer

The Clark County School District has reached a tentative settlement with a transgender school police officer in a discrimination and harassment case.

Former officer Bradley Roberts sued the district after officials barred him from using either the men’s or women’s restrooms at district facilities.

Neither side would comment Tuesday on details of the settlement, which still must be approved by School Board trustees.

Roberts filed the lawsuit in 2014. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey ruled in October that the district had discriminated against him under state and federal laws.

But the lawsuit’s harassment claims remained in dispute and were included as part of the settlement hearing, which was held on Friday.

Las Vegas attorney Kathleen England, one of the attorneys representing Roberts, said trustees are expected to take up the settlement at a board meeting in the next few weeks.

“We’ve agreed on a settlement structure,” she said, adding that they want to give the “time and space” to get it done before she speaks further.

Roberts began working for the district as a campus monitor in 1992 and joined the police department two years later. He began a transition process to a man in 2011 and started conforming to the grooming standards for male officers and using the men’s restroom, court records said.

Co-workers complained, and district police officials responded by limiting Roberts to unisex, single-occupant facilities, court records said. Police leaders and a district lawyer told him he couldn’t use the men’s room, because he was biologically female, and he couldn’t use the women’s room, because he looked like a man.

Police leaders agreed to refer to Roberts by his new name and use male pronouns with him. But department leaders, along with the district’s general counsel, told Roberts he would not be permitted to use men’s facilities until he showed them proof that he had a surgery to change his anatomy.

Roberts filed a complaint with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission in 2012, and the district reversed its bathroom ban, court records said.

He filed a second complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying that emails about him sent to the entire department had opened him up to workplace harassment and retaliation for filing the complaint. He said coworkers were making jokes about his genitalia and sex life.

The attorneys contracted to represent the district declined to comment. A district spokeswoman said Tuesday night that there are rules against harassment but no specific policies about which facilities people who are transgender can use, whether they are students or staff.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.