A federal judge sided with the Bow (N.H.) School District this week when it denied a preliminary injunction filed by a group of parents who wanted to override a school policy banning them from wearing anti-transgender wristbands on school property.
The wristbands in question were pink and adorned with "XX" markings to signify female chromosomes. In September, a group of parents and community members gathered at Bow High School and wore the wristbands during a soccer game.
"What the parents were asking for was just temporarily to stop the school from preventing them from going to games and wearing the wristbands," said Daniel Pi, a University of New Hampshire law expert, as reported by ABC affiliate WMUR in Manchester.
According to WMUR's Isabel Litterst, school officials said the protest targeted a transgender athlete on the Plymouth Regional High School girls' soccer team.
Following the game, the Bow School District issued two parents no-trespassing orders. A federal judge ruled the parents could still attend games, but without the armbands. Those parents later sued.
According to court documents cited by Litterst, the parents denied staging a protest, instead referring to the armbands as a "passive statement of support for women's athletics."
However, UNH's Pi said that could also be viewed as harassment of a student, since the parents didn't wear the wristbands to every game. "They just wore it to the game where there was a transgender player, which implies that it was targeted," Pi said. "They were targeting that person," he said.
Following the federal judge's ruling Monday, Bow School Board chair Martin Osterloh praised the judge for siding with the district.
"When our difference in policy leads to harassment of an individual child in a limited public forum such as a sports event, that crosses a line, and I am glad Judge McAuliff agreed," Osterloh said.
