A group of parents in Illinois are suing their local school district in federal court over its transgender bathroom policy.

According to The Heritage Foundation's Daily Signal website, the families are challenging a policy at Township High School District 211 that allows a transgender student to use girls' bathrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-specific facilities. The policy was mandated by the U.S. Department of Education to accommodate the transgender student, who was born male but identifies as a female.

"It's an organic group of parents and students who came together and said, 'We have to do something about this—we can't just roll over and allow the federal government to force our school to commingle the sexes in locker rooms,'" said Jeremy Tedesco, a lawyer representing the families.

The suit, which challenges the Education Department's authority to redefine the term sex in Title IX of U.S. law to include gender identity and to enforce it against schools, is the first of its kind, Tedesco told The Daily Signal.

The group, Students and Parents for Privacy, says it tried to work with the school district, but eventually came to the realization that a lawsuit was its only recourse. They are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Thomas More Society.

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