• Fifteen-year-old Michael Critchfield is a student at Liberty High School in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
  • On November 27, the transgender student used the boys' bathroom before going on a road trip with the school band.
  • Critchfield said when he walked out of the stall, assistant principal Lee Livengood asked him why he was using the boys' bathroom and told him to "prove" he was a boy by using a urinal.
  • Livengood has been suspended with pay as the school investigates the incident, according to Harrison County Schools Superintendent Mark Manchin.

An assistant principal at a West Virginia high school has been suspended after being accused of harassing a transgender student in the boys' bathroom, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Michael Critchfield, a 15-year-old sophomore at Liberty High School in Clarksburg, West Virginia, encountered assistant principal Lee Livengood in a boys bathroom at the school on November 27.

According to Critchfield, the incident happened after school as the band was taking a bus trip to watch a performance at West Virginia University.

When Critchfield stepped out of a stall after using the bathroom, Livengood was standing by the entrance and told the teen he wasn't supposed to be using the bathroom because he isn't a boy, the ACLU said in a statement seen by INSIDER.

Livengood then challenged Critchfield to use a "urinal to prove that he was a boy," the ACLU said.

Students outside the bathroom heard Livengood shouting and notified a chaperone of their upcoming band trip.

"A chaperone found out he had me barricaded in the bathroom. By the time she came, I was breaking down and had quivering lips," Critchfield told the Charleston Gazette-Mail. "She kept asking me what was wrong and I just kept pushing it off, because she wouldn't be able to understand with me crying or it just wouldn't come out right."

Livengood told the chaperone what was going on before turning to Critchfield and saying, "I'm not going to lie, you kind of freak me out," the ACLU said in a letter to the school district's superintendent.

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A letter from the ACLU to school administrators called for a meeting to discuss best practices for instances relating to transgender students.

Lee Livengood has been suspended with pay

In response to the letter, Harrison County Schools Superintendent Mark Manchin announced that Livengood, who is one of two assistant principals at the school, had been suspended with pay while an investigation into the incident is conducted.

The district also agreed to sit down with the ACLU.

"While we are heartened to hear the administration admit wrongdoing, a four-day paid suspension of an employee is not sufficient," the ACLU said in a statement. "The Harrison County School district needs to make significant changes to its culture. We look forward to meeting with Mr. Manchin and developing a real plan to ensure that every student is safe."

ACLU-WV Executive Director Joseph Cohen told the Huffington Post that schools state-wide need to make transgender students feel safe, especially in West Virginia, which has the highest percentage of teens who identify as transgender in the country.

"Michael is not alone," Cohen told the Huffington Post. "There are lots of trans kids in West Virginia. We've got to improve the way they're being treated. We've got to make school a place where they can learn, a place where they can feel safe. ... It's a matter of life and death."