Evancho v. Pine-Richland School District

Juliet Evancho, Elissa Ridenour, and A.S. (plaintiffs) were transgender high-school students in the Pine-Richland School District (the district) (defendant), a public school district in Pennsylvania. Evancho, Ridenour, and A.S. had always used the school restrooms that conformed with their gender identities. However, in 2016, some parents and school-board members raised concerns that students might pretend to be transgender so they could use a restroom inconsistent with their assigned sex at birth and invade the bodily privacy of others in that restroom. Others expressed concerns that the partially clothed body of a student of one assigned sex could be seen in the restroom by a student of the opposite assigned sex. The high school had never received any reports of harmful incidents or misconduct involving transgender students in the restrooms. Moreover, any such misconduct was prohibited by and could be punished under the district’s code of conduct or Pennsylvania law. Additionally, the school’s restrooms had locking doors for each toilet and partitions for each urinal. After several public meetings, the district enacted School Board Resolution 2, which required every student to use either unisex bathrooms or the bathroom of the student’s “biological sex.” The district claimed that Resolution 2 was justified because it protected privacy interests in the restrooms. If Evancho, Ridenour, and A.S. continued to use the restrooms that conformed with their gender identities after Resolution 2 passed, they could face suspension from school. Evancho, Ridenour, and A.S. sued the district, asserting that applying Resolution 2 to alter their restroom usage violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Evancho, Ridenour, and A.S. sought injunctive relief preventing the enforcement of Resolution 2 against them. In considering whether to grant injunctive relief, the district court analyzed the reasonable likelihood of success on the equal-protection and Title IX claims.