Coy Mathis holds hands with family lawyer Micheal Silverman as he speaks after a ruling allowing her to use the girl’s toilet (Picture: AP)

A six-year-old transgender girl is returning to school after winning the right to use the female toilet at her school.

The parents of Coy Mathis brought a discrimination case with the help of a transgender rights group after she was told she had to use the teachers’ toilets or the ones in the nurse’s office.

They feared she would be stigmatised and bullied and removed her from the Eagleside Elementary school in suburban Colorado Springs.

Now the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies ruled the school district administration ignored Coy’s gender identity and created an environment ‘rife with harassment’.




It said her family and the school must find an ‘amicable resolution’ in accordance with the discrimination finding.

Coy’s mother, Kathryn Mathis, said the family was ‘thrilled that Coy can return to school and put this behind her’.

She added: ‘All we ever wanted was for Coy’s school to treat her the same as other little girls.

‘Her future will be better if we get to this place where this is nothing to be ashamed of.’

Coy Mathis, left, her sister Auri and mother Kathryn Mathis (Picture: AP)

The Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, which assisted the family’s case, hailed the decision.

‘This ruling sends a loud and clear message that transgender students may not be targeted for discrimination and that they must be treated equally in school,’ said executive director Michael Silverman.

Coy was born a triplet with two sisters and identified as a girl before she began attending elementary school.

She showed little interest in toy cars and boy clothes or pictures of sports, monsters and dinosaurs on them.

The youngster refused to leave the house if she had to wear boy clothes but her parents say once they accepted her identity she came out of her shell.

The Mathises said they feared the district’s decision would stigmatise Coy, who was reduced to tears when her teacher briefly put her in the boys’ line-up.

When she came home, according to legal records, she cried to her parents: ‘Not even my teachers know I’m a girl!’

School districts in many states, including Colorado, have enacted policies that allow transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify.

Maine’s highest court heard arguments earlier this month about whether school officials violated the rights of a transgender girl there.

Nicole Maines, 15, was told to use a staff toilet after there was a complaint about her using the girls’ bathroom.