A central Ohio school district facing a loss of federal funding if it fails to allow a transgender student to use the bathroom of her choice has sued the federal government.

The Highland Local School District claims in its lawsuit that the U.S. Department of Education had given the district until June 28 to comply or risk losing more than $1 million in annual federal funding.

The Christian conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is representing the school district in the action.

ADF lawyers argue that the Obama administration is attempting to rewrite federal law by expanding the definition of sex under Title IX to include transgender people.

According to The Columbus Dispatch, the guardian of the transgender student filed a civil rights complaint against the district in 2013.

The district argues in its lawsuit that the transgender student has “access to alternate private facilities.” Highland said that it had separated the student to “protect the dignity and privacy rights of all students.”

ADF senior lawyer Jim Campbell criticized the Obama administration in a statement. “The Department of Education is attempting to strong-arm Highland into complying with a lawless demand to open its single-sex overnight accommodations, locker rooms, showers and restrooms to students of the opposite sex.”

The issue of transgender bathroom use grabbed national headlines in March after North Carolina became the first state in the nation to prohibit transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice in government buildings, including schools.