The Boise School District will pay $34,000 to a former student who twice encountered a transgender classmate in the girls’ bathroom last year.
The district agreed to a settlement with Jane Doe — a pseudonym — after she filed a lawsuit arguing that the district violated Senate Bill 1100. The law requires public school students to use bathrooms aligned with their birth sex, and it created a “private cause of action,” which gives students the right to sue a district that doesn’t comply with the law.
Last year, the Boise district allowed transgender students to use their preferred bathrooms while SB 1100 was mired in court. After Doe twice encountered a transgender student in the girls’ bathroom at Boise High School, she filed a lawsuit seeking $5,000 for each incident. She also sought additional monetary damages along with attorney fees.
The Idaho Family Policy Center (IFPC), a Christian, conservative lobbying group with a legal team that represented Doe, announced Tuesday that the district agreed to pay her $10,000 for the two bathroom encounters along with $24,000 in attorney fees.
The settlement closes the first lawsuit brought under SB 1100. IFPC co-authored the bill. Republican state lawmakers enacted it in 2023.
“The IFPC Legal Center is honored to secure a settlement for Jane Doe in this groundbreaking case,” IFPC Legal Center Director Caleb Pirc said in a news release. “Other Idaho public schools should take note that compliance with the law isn’t optional.”
John Doe — a pseudonym for Jane Doe’s father — said in the news release that his daughter endured a “breach of her privacy.”
“Not once but twice she encountered a male student in the female bathroom,” John Doe said in the release. “When she reported the incidents to school staff, she was told that it was their policy to allow males who identify as female to use the bathroom of their choice.”
Attorneys for the Boise School District had asked an Ada County judge to dismiss Jane Doe’s lawsuit, arguing that SB 1100 was paused at the time of the bathroom encounters. In a separate case that wrapped up this year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had issued a stay on SB 1100, pausing enforcement of the law between Oct. 26, 2023, and March 20, 2025. Doe encountered a transgender classmate in the girls’ bathroom in January and February of 2025.
But Ada County District Judge Lynn Norton denied the district’s motion to dismiss the case. In July, Norton ordered that while the federal stay barred “enforcement” of SB 1100, it didn’t preclude Doe’s private cause of action. Norton allowed the case to proceed. It was scheduled for trial next year before the two parties agreed to a settlement.
Dan Hollar, public affairs administrator for the Boise district, said Tuesday that the settlement “resolves disputed claims,” but the district “continues to maintain that it acted appropriately.”
“Neither the District nor any of its employees admits, acknowledges, or concedes any fault, wrongdoing, liability, or other misconduct,” Hollar said by email.
The specific terms of the settlement “are confidential and will not be disclosed or publicized,” Hollar added. “Out of respect for the privacy of the minor children involved, the District will have no further comment on this matter.”
