Former student sues Pitt

A transgender man who was expelled from Pitt’s Johnstown branch campus in 2012 is now suing the University and some of its officials.

Seamus Johnston, who was enrolled at the Johnstown campus from 2009 to 2011, accuses Pitt of three counts of discrimination under separate laws, as well as a fourth count of breach of contract.

Along with Pitt, the complaint names Chancellor Mark Nordenberg, two other administrators, four individuals identified as members of the Pitt-Johnstown campus and 10 unidentified individuals as defendants.

According to the complaint, Johnston was questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in connection with bomb threats against buildings on Pitt’s Oakland campus in the spring of 2012.

“The University gave Mr. Johnston’s name to the FBI in a retaliatory furtherance of their discriminatory conduct,” the complaint states. 

Johnston was never charged as a result of the FBI investigation. Adam Stuart Busby, of Dublin, was charged in August 2012 in connection with the threats.

Johnston believes the evidence for the claim lies in University records, but will not be released until during the discovery process in the case. He declined to give further details.

He is demanding compensation for the scholarship and potential earnings he lost as a result of his expulsion, as well as for emotional suffering and punitive damages.

Pitt Vice Chancellor for Communications Ken Service said that as of Monday evening, Pitt had not received a copy of the complaint.

“We intend to vigorously defend any claims related to this case,” he said in an email.

The complaint describes Johnston’s last semester at Pitt-Johnstown, during which he butted heads with campus police and administrators over his use of male-gendered facilities.

Johnston said that he listed his sex as female (his biological sex) when he applied to Pitt-Johnstown in order to avoid any confusion that would interfere with his admission. He received a full scholarship, and lived as a man for the whole time he attended classes there.

This decision to live as a man included the use of the men’s locker room while he took a weight-training course in the spring semester of 2011.

In the fall of 2011, he produced a notarized document in order to have his name officially changed in the school’s records. He was taking a weight-training course that semester, again using the men’s locker room.

In September, an administrator asked him to meet with her. At the meeting, she told Johnston he could no longer use the men’s facilities.

“Because using the female locker rooms was not a realistic option for him, Mr. Johnston agreed to the temporary use of a unisex locker room at the Sports Center normally reserved for referees,” the complaint says.

According to the complaint, Johnston is not aware of any other student who was required to use this locker room.

Johnston complained in emails to several senior administrators about his exclusion from the men’s locker room. An administrator responded by telling him that he could only use the locker room if he received a court order or had his sex legally changed on his birth certificate.

Johnston sent a response to the administrator that he planned to use the men’s locker room, and said his letter should be considered a formal complaint of harassment.

He continued to use the locker room until mid-November, when an article about his dispute with the administration was published in The Advocate, Pitt-Johnstown’s student newspaper.

After the publication of the article, campus police issued Johnston two citations for disorderly conduct as Johnston tried to use the locker room on separate occasions.

Although both citations were later withdrawn, Johnston was summoned to a Student Code of Conduct hearing that took place in early December. He was declared “persona non grata” in all male-gendered facilities on the campus.

Johnston continued to use the male locker room, received more citations and was eventually summoned for another disciplinary hearing. In January 2012, he was expelled.

He was also charged with indecent exposure, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct in a Pennsylvania court and pleaded guilty to reduced charges of disorderly conduct and trespass earlier this year.

Johnston lost his scholarship when he could not attend Pitt-Johnstown in the spring of 2012.

His complaint alleges that Pitt wrongly recorded his sex as female in its records and failed to update them. According to the complaint, Pitt should have updated its records when he presented evidence that he should have been listed as male in his student records. He alleges that this makes Pitt responsible for his expulsion.

He also says that he told administrators that no member of the University had pointed to a specific policy that said he could not use the men’s locker room. The complaint also alleges that a senior administrator incited police to interfere with Johnston’s use of the facilities, which Johnston needed in order to complete his class. Finally, he claims that Pitt violated its own policy of nondiscrimination by not allowing him to use facilities designated for the sex with which he identifies.

Johnston said that he is still looking for legal representation, but wrote and filed the suit on his own behalf because he wanted to initiate the case as soon as possible.

Em Maier contributed to this report.