Civil rights office: Male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams

The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday that the Jeffco Public Schools district violated Title IX by permitting male students to access female bathrooms and compete in girls sports.

After a nearly nine-month investigation, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) concluded that the district violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 after “allowing male students to access female bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations, and to compete in female sports.”

In a news release, the office additionally claimed that male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams in the school district.

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said the district denied “fairness and equality to female students by allowing males into their private facilities, overnight accommodations and athletics. The District’s decision to prioritize ‘gender identity’ over ensuring equal access for its female students is unconscionable.”

The conclusion came after the department said it heard “several disturbing” reports, including from parents of an 11-year-old girl who said they discovered their daughter would have had to share a bed with a transgender girl on an overnight school trip without being notified by the school.

Lindsay Datko, who launched the group Jeffco Kids First, said complaints from the group and a lawsuit filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom nonprofit helped spark the investigation.

“Our focus is student safety and our overall feeling is immense relief,” Datko said of the announcement. “We have been chipping away at these policies and elevating these circumstances and related safety issues one-by-one every day for nearly two years.”

“Real students have been put in harms way,” she added. “Males have been assigned to share beds on overnight trips. Older teens have been placed in intimate shower spaces with children of the opposite sex.”

Others said the allegations have led to division.

“At a time when schools should be focused on supporting students, debates about transgender athletes risk creating unnecessary division,” Nadine Bridges, executive director of LGBTQ organization One Colorado, told The Denver Gazette. “Claims raised by the U.S. Department of Education about Jeffco Public Schools risk turning young people into the center of political fights.”

In a statement, the district insisted that providing equal access to programs does not violate Title IX.

The district added that the OCR’s interpretation doesn’t follow Title IX and “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.”

The investigation was initially announced in June on the 53rd anniversary of Title IX.

OCR sent a “resolution agreement” to the district and said it must be resolved within 10 days — or “risk imminent enforcement action.” The Trump administration has targeted “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, calling them an “immense public waste and shameful discrimination.”

The resolution would require the district to change any policies regarding the violations and adopt “biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and female’ and ensuring that the assignment of intimate facilities and overnight accommodations as well as eligibility to compete in sports will be based on biological sex,” the office said in a news release.

The resolution would also require the district to post a notification on all of its websites stating that it is now complying with Title IX.

“The District must act now to end these violations and protect future generations of girls from sex discrimination. The Trump Administration will not relent until female athletes’ safety, opportunities and equal protection under the law are fully restored,” said Richey, the assistant secretary for OCR.

OCR said Title IX applies regardless of state law or regulation.

The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) broadly prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity in places of public accommodation, including schools. Under that law, students are allowed to participate on sports teams and use facilities consistent with their gender identity, rather than their biological sex.

Jeffco’s policy also referred to the Colorado High School Activities Association’s (CHSAA) bylaws, which call for a meeting between schools and transgender athletes to establish their gender designation for athletics.

CHSAA told The Denver Gazette that the current situation is an “increasingly complex legal and regulatory environment.”

“We continue to recognize that conflicting interpretations of existing state law and federal executive orders have placed our member schools in a particularly challenging position,” the association said, adding that it is telling districts to work directly with their legal teams on next steps.

While the Jeffco district did not say what its next steps will be, officials said it will continue to focus on two things: compliance with the law and providing exemplary and “equitable” educational opportunities for all students.