A local board of education in North Carolina voted Monday to allow high school students to carry pepper spray at school, with one board member arguing that female students may need mace to defend themselves if the state’s “bathroom bill” is overturned in court.

“Depending on how the courts rule on the bathroom issues, it may be a pretty valuable tool to have on the female students if they go to the bathroom, not knowing who may come in,” Rowan-Salisbury education board member Chuck Hughes said at a meeting on the issue, according to the Salisbury Post.

The controversial new law keeps transgender students from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. But with dueling lawsuits between the Justice Department and the state of North Carolina, the future of the law’s bathroom provision is uncertain.

High school students in the Rowan-Salisbury school district would be allowed to carry pepper spray at school starting in the 2016-2017 school year, according to the Salisbury Post.