The bathroom wars have hit a Chicago-area school district where parents and students are suing the district, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Township High School District 211, faced with a loss of federal funds, opened its girls' restrooms and locker rooms to members of the opposite sex.

Kate Anderson of Alliance Defending Freedom says a lawsuit was filed on behalf of parents and students who felt betrayed by the action.

"They did secretly allow transgender students into restrooms of the opposite sex," she says of the school. "We believe it was as early as 2013, without telling parents or students. Students found out when they walked into the restroom and found a boy in the girls' restroom."

The Obama administration is demanding that public schools allow transgender students' "rights" under the Title IX anti-discrimination law, The Washington Post reported.

The lawsuit came from 51 families in Palatine, Illinois, where the U.S. Department of Education threatened the school district last year.

After first refusing to comply, school officials were faced with losing $6 million in federal funds if they didn't allow a transgender student access to the girls locker room, the Post story explained.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois with legal help from ADF and the Thomas More Society.

OneNewsNow mentioned the lawsuit in a May 10 story that noted the federal government is equating transgender "rights" with the Civil Rights era, and comparing anyone who refuses to comply to Jim Crow.

Anderson says the federal government and the school violated the Administrative Procedures Act when it put in place this policy change.

"The Administrative Procedures Act requires that any change in a regulation or statute needs to go through a certain notice and comment requirement," the attorney explains. "No notice and comment period was had in this and no official change was made."



