Three transgender students in the Pine-Richland school district in Western Pennsylvania filed suit [complaint] Thursday against the school district for their decision to implement gender specific restrooms. After months of deliberation, the school district decided last month to return to the practice of maintaining gender specific restrooms. Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, attorney with Lambda Legal [advocacy website], stated [case backgrounder] that since the vote Pine-Richland had been warned that litigation was imminent.

Privacy rights and individual rights have come into conflict lately over the issue of transgender access to restrooms. In August a judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas temporarily blocked [JURIST report] federal guidelines that allowed transgender students to use the bathroom according to the gender with which they identify. Also in August the US Supreme Court granted [JURIST report] an application to recall and stay lower court orders allowing a transgender student who identities as a male to use the men’s restroom in school. In May officials in 11 states filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas challenging the Obama administration’s [JURIST report] recent guidance letter on transgender students.