A national law firm that advocates for the LGBT community said a federal suit will be filed against Pine-Richland School District for putting into place this week a "sex-specific" protocol that requires transgender students to use bathrooms that match their biological gender or, as an alternative, to use a unisex bathroom.

"We'll see them in court," said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, an attorney with Lambda Legal, based in New York City.

He said the school district distinguished itself Monday by becoming the only district in Pennsylvania to have adopted such a "discriminatory" resolution — one that was passed on a 5-4 vote.

"They created a problem where none existed before,"  Mr. Gonzalez-Pagan said.

The new resolution overturns a longtime practice that allowed transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender with which the student identifies.

District spokeswoman Rachel Hathhorn said the district on Tuesday contacted families of transgender students to inform them of the change. She declined to disclose how many transgender students are in the district. Mr. Gonzalez-Pagan said Lambda represents three students and their families in the district but noted there are several others in addition to the firm's clients.

Ms. Hathhorn said the district had no comment, other than to reference statements on the district's meeting agenda for Monday.

It was noted on that agenda:

"For several months, the board and staff services committee has been reviewing the topics of privacy, transgender youth, and potential implications for the district. This is a topic of deliberation across the country. While the committee is not yet prepared to recommend a comprehensive policy, the board may consider action on this resolution."

The resolution referenced in the agenda read:

"This resolution agreed to by a majority of the board of directors of the Pine-Richland School District indicates our support to return to the long-standing practice of providing sex-specific facility usage. All students will have the choice of using either the facilities that correspond to their biological sex or unisex facilities. This practice will remain in place until such time that a policy may be developed and approved."

That resolution passed 5-4.

In July, neither of two distinct approaches regarding bathrooms for transgender students garnered enough support to be passed by the board.

One motion — which would have established a “sex-specific” protocol that required students to use a bathroom that matches their biological gender — failed. Another motion — which would have allowed students to use a bathroom that matched their expressed and personal gender identity — also failed.

The practice that had been in place last year and continued at the start of this year allowed transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify, the private bathroom in the nurse's office, or a single-room unisex bathroom, according to a district spokesman who explained the practice at the time of the failed votes in July. Why the resolution that was voted on Monday notes that a sex-specific protocol would represent a "return to the longstanding practice" is unclear.

Voting in favor of the resolution on Monday were board members Greg DiTullio, Therese Dawson, Holly Johnston, Steven Stegman and Virginia Goebel. Voting against were Jeffrey Banyas, Dennis Sundo, Marc Casciani and Peter Lyons.

The new resolution is contradictory to the guidelines in place at the U.S. Office of Civil Rights. Ms. Hathhorn said in July the district's protocol allowing self-identification was in line with those federal guidelines. She had no comment this week on the district's departure from those guidelines by virtue of Monday's vote.

Mr. Gonzalez-Pagan had plenty to say.

"You have a set of students who have been going about their lives for years with no incidents and no problems and … now an issue of imaginary problems has been raised," he said.

He said Lambda's three clients are in their junior year of high school and each of the three "has transitioned and affirmed their true selves. Some have been using their gender identity for a matter of years."

He said the new protocol at Pine-Richland "singles out" transgender students, some of whom may not even have been known as transgender previously. "Now, every time they have to go the bathroom, they either have to go to the nurses' office or a single-stall [unisex] bathroom or go to the bathroom [of a gender with which they no longer identify]. … Really, what the district has said is 'We erase and ignore you. We tell you you are not who you say your are.' "

He acknowledged the new protocol could conceivably require students who dress and express themselves as girls to use the boys bathroom.

"This creates a climate of bullying and harassment," Mr. Gonzalez-Pagan contended.

He said he is not aware of any other school district in Pennsylvania that has adopted such a protocol.

"There was no problem before. They had an inclusive policy. Now there's discrimination. Some students are afraid to go to school now," he said.

In March, Lambda Legal sent an advocacy letter to the district on behalf of various Pine-Richland transgender students urging district officials and the school board to resist pressure from some segments of the community that were looking for a change in the existing practice.

"This new policy violates federal law and should be reversed immediately,” Mr. Gonzalez-Pagan was quoted as saying in a news release issued by Lambda.

The district specifically noted in its written agenda Monday that the resolution was a resolution and not a policy.

Karen Kane: kkane@post-gazette.com or at 724-772-9180.

First Published: September 16, 2016, 4:00 a.m.