By Alyssa Lazar, Staff Writer
The Pine-Richland School District faces turmoil upon repeal of a transgender bathroom policy it practiced at the close of the 2015-2016 school year. Three high school students, represented by Kline & Specter, P.C., in Philadelphia and the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, inspired a lawsuit alleging that the district has discriminated against them and violated Title IX.[1]
The district had been discussing which bathroom policy to adopt permanently for months. In an open debate at a school board meeting on April 18, 2016, students and parents spoke up about the issue.[2] In attendance was Lambda Legal attorney Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, who sought to defend transgender students and their parents.[3]
Superintendent Brian Miller claimed that no students reported any significant issues with the bathroom policy. Instead, parents spoke about their concerns over the policy in place.
“I applaud the students who spoke here tonight and respect their opinions,” parent Amy Nichols said. “But until you are a parent, you can’t possibly understand what we are going through with this issue.”[4]
Prior to the school board meeting in April, Lambda Legal sent a letter to the district requesting that it maintain its policy at the time, which allowed a transgender student to use the bathroom of the student’s gender identity.[5][6]
In the midst of a national discussion about transgender bathroom policies, the district considered multiple approaches of how to resolve the heated issue.[7] One considered approach was to require transgender students to use their sex-specific bathrooms.[8] This failed on a 4-4 vote.[9] Another was to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of the sexes they identified with or expressed.[10] This also failed on a 4-4 vote.[11] In July, the district came to the conclusion, in a 5-4 vote, that transgender students will utilize the bathrooms they identified with, unisex bathrooms, or bathrooms in nurses’ offices, effective at the start of the 2016-2017 school year.[12]
In a released statement, Peter Lyons, a school board member, has spoken about the district’s decision as follows:
I cannot speak for the board of directors as a whole, but only for myself, in my role as an individual director.
It is unfortunate that five members of our board chose to change a practice of the district that had been in place without controversy for some years. This change was not representative of the respect and support the Pine-Richland community extends to all of our students, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
Unfortunately, the decision of those board members has now also embroiled the district in litigation that is likely to succeed, places our federal funding at risk, and will become a costly and unnecessary distraction from our mission to focus on student learning.[13]
On Sept. 12, the school district became the first in Pennsylvania to retract the policy it had been practicing to accommodate a transgender student’s desire to use the restroom of the gender they identify with.[14] District Solicitor Patrick Clair warned that if the district chose not to abide by the mandate issued by President Barack Obama that permitted transgender students’ bathroom usage of their expressed gender identities, the district could lose federal funding.[15]
District officials reported that the district receives approximately $1.42 million annually in federal funding.[16] Losing this amount would require an increase in property taxes by about 2.77 percent to accommodate for the loss.[17]
The district was also warned that it would be vulnerable to lawsuits by individual students personally affected by the repeal of the policy. On Oct. 6, it was announced that three seniors filed a lawsuit, Evancho v. Pine-Richland School District, in federal district court against the school district, the superintendent, and their high school principal. They claimed this was a violation of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded educational program, such as a school district.
Attorneys for Lambda Legal, an organization based out of New York City, represents three students in the district, and claims that it has discriminated against them.[18] On Oct. 20, Lambda Legal filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the “discriminatory policy.”[19]
Sources
[1] http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/10/18/singers-sister-enters-trans-bathroom-arena.htm
[2] http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/10327098-74/students-pine-richland
[3] http://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20160418_urging-pine-richland-school-district-maintain-safe-and-affirming-bathroom-policy
[4] See supra note 2.
[5] http://www.lambdalegal.org/blog/20161020_pine-richland-block-new-restroom-policy
[6] http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2016/09/16/Pine-Richland-eyed-as-target-of-federal-lawsuit-for-transgender-bathroom-protocol/stories/201609160049
[7] http://www.post-gazette.com/local/north/2016/09/13/Pine-Richland-school-board-switches-bathroom-policy-for-transgender-students-pittsburgh/stories/201609130146
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Id.
[12] http://www.wpxi.com/news/transgender-students-sue-pine-richland-school-district-for-restrooms/454152968
[13] Id.
[14] http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/11129189-74/students-practice-resolution
[15] Id.
[16] http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/10476210-74/transgender-students-district
[17] Id.
[18] http://www.post-gazette.com/news/education/2016/09/16/Pine-Richland-eyed-as-target-of-federal-lawsuit-for-transgender-bathroom-protocol/stories/201609160049
[19] See supra note 5.
