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The U.S. Department of Education says Colorado's second largest school district is violating Title IX by allowing transgender students access to sports teams, bathrooms and overnight accommodations that match their gender identity.
It's an allegation Jefferson County Public Schools is calling erroneous.
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs or activities that receive federal funding.
Jeffco schools allow students to use the bathrooms, locker rooms and compete on sports teams that align with their gender identity. The Department of Education has concluded that those policies discriminate against female students by denying them safety, dignity and equal access to school programs.
Parents in the district have mixed reactions to the news.
"What the Department of Education is trying to use is trans children as a sort of flame igniter for a broader political issue that really doesn't exist," said Z Williams, Jeffco parent and trans rights activist who is co-director of Bread and Roses Legal Center.
"This is not just a cultural heated debate. This is real children who are developing who need these guidelines and boundaries so that everybody feels comfortable attending Jeffco schools," said Jeffco parent Lindsay Datko.
Datko says the Department of Education's findings align with concerns she's had for years.
"They call their policy equal opportunity, and really it sidelines anybody who is not transgender," Datko said.
Datko founded Jeffco Kids First, a parent advocacy group that seeks greater transparency and student safety. She says her organization received reports of some activity that concerned parents on overnight Jeffco Outdoor Lab trips.
"Parents really rose up and sent us example after example," Datko said. "Students were coming home and saying that they were slipping in their sleeping bags to avoid changing in front of their female high school leader, who was of the opposite sex."
Datko sent those reports to the Department of Education, and in June of last year, the Civil Rights Office launched an investigation into the district. The DOE released its findings Friday and accused Jeffco schools of discriminating against female students by allowing males to access female-only facilities and compete in girls' sports.
"The feeling we have is relief," Datko said.
The report cited Jeffco's athletic rosters, showing that male students may occupy up to 61 roster positions on girls' sports teams in the district.
"Even one transgender student playing on a sports team that affects hundreds of other players on both the opposing team and Jeffco's teams," Datko said.
"That seems like either Jeffco is a trans magnet school or district, which I don't think is the case, or that those numbers are manufactured," Williams said.
Williams disagrees with the DOE's conclusions.
"No school has been allowing boys into girls' locker room spaces. Schools have been creating an equitable experience for transgender kids to participate in athletic activities," Williams said.
Williams says the concerns about overnight trips are overblown.
"I don't believe children are sharing beds. I feel like it's an invented scenario to drum up a lot of political fervor or fear that isn't real. My children have been able to very safely select where they sleep based on their identities and have been affirmed and also are heavily supervised," Williams said.
Williams accuses the Department of Education of using trans kids to manufacture political outrage.
"These kinds of policies or statements create a lot of danger for all girls across what gender they, or what sex or gender they were assigned at birth, because it increases scrutiny on their bodies, on their genitalia," Williams said.
The DOE's Civil Rights Office is asking Jeffco schools to resolve the Title IX violations by rescinding policies allowing male students in female facilities, accommodations or sports, and issuing a public statement adopting biology-based definitions of "male" and "female."
The statement must clarify that Title IX applies regardless of state law, include instructions on reporting sex discrimination and be posted prominently on all school and sports websites. If the district doesn't comply within ten days, enforcement action may be taken. The DOE does not elaborate on what that enforcement action may be.
"We hope Jeffco will comply. We have our doubts that Jeffco will comply, and often enforcement entails loss of funding, and so Jeffco really cannot afford to lose any more funding," Datko said.
"If the Jefferson County School Board, that is a democratically elected school board, decided to kowtow to the Department of Education that does not represent the interests of our district, I would be incredibly upset," Williams said.
Jeffco Public Schools shared a statement in response to the announcement:
On Friday, March 13, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights announced that Jeffco Public Schools' provision of equitable access for all students runs afoul of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. That conclusion is erroneous, and the Resolution Agreement proposed by OCR would place Jeffco in direct conflict with Colorado law.
Providing equal access to programs and services for all Jeffco students, including those who are transgender, does not violate Title IX. The Department's interpretation has no basis in the Title IX regulations and is not supported by any binding court decision. It conflicts with a recent U.S. District of Colorado decision which considered the same Jeffco policies. Prior federal administrations have taken the direct opposite view -- that Title IX protects transgender students' access to school programs and facilities.
Jeffco's policies and practices align with the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, prior federal guidance on Title IX, and CHSAA policy. In fact, since 2013, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission has interpreted state law to require school districts to accommodate students based on their gender identity.
As we consider next steps in partnership with our community and state and local officials, two things remain certain: (1) Jeffco will continue to maintain its compliance with the law, and (2) we will center decisions on providing exemplary, equitable educational opportunities for all students.
The district does not explicitly state whether it will follow the department's order to take those actions within ten days.