A non-binary teen who has used they/them pronouns since elementary school has won a $300,000 judgment against their Oregon school district for bullying and misgendering them.
Fox 12 Oregon is reporting that Lior Onaly-Kelsey — who is now 15 years old — proved that the Albany County School District failed to protect them from bullying.
Onaly-Kelsey began attending the Oak Grove Elementary School in 2015, when they were only in the second grade.
Just one year later, they began identifying as non-binary — and that’s when the trouble began.
“A student had threatened to pull my pants down and show the world who I truly was,” they said.
“People called me the F-slur, they told me I was the devil spawn.”
Lior’s mother, Elaine, said that she was initially hopeful when she contacted school administrators but began to feel dejected when the administration refused to do anything about it.
“I thought the school would do something about it and then when that didn’t happen and continue to happen over and over again and continue to go on, that’s when it got really scary because their mental health was deteriorating,” Elaine said.
On Monday (September 25) a federal grand jury found that Greater Albany Public Schools and former Oak Elementary School principal Jerrie Matuszak violated the U.S. Constitution, Title IX and Oregon law when they failed to help Lior through their struggles.
As a result, Lior was awarded $317,353.
“I am so glad that there was justice,” said Lior about the verdict, per a statement issued by their legal representatives.
“This lawsuit was me regaining my power, that I did not have for a long time. I know I have that back now.”
Follow our social media accounts here on facebook.com/ExpressUSNews
