DENVER (AP) —
The U.S. Education Department said Thursday that Denver Public Schools violated Title IX protections against sex-based discrimination in education by creating all-gender bathrooms and allowing students to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity.
The finding followed an unprecedented probe of Denver’s East High School, marking a sharp departure from the department’s investigations under former President Joe Biden.
The investigation began after the school district converted a girl’s restroom into an all-gender restroom while leaving another bathroom on the same floor exclusive to boys in January. The school district has said that was done as a result of a student-led process and the bathroom had 12-foot (3.6-meter) tall partitions for privacy and security.
The school district later added a second all-gender restroom on the same floor which it said was meant to address concerns of unfairness. At the time it said that students would also continue to have access to gender-specific restrooms and single-stall, all-gender bathrooms.
The Education Department said it has offered the school district a chance to agree to voluntarily make changes, including converting multi-stall, all-gender bathrooms back to ones designated by gender, within 10 days or risk unspecified enforcement action. Among other changes, it also wants the district to use biology-based definitions for the words “male" and “female” in all policies and practices related to Title IX and to rescind any policies or guidance allowing students to use bathrooms based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex.
“Denver is free to endorse a self-defeating gender ideology, but it is not free to accept federal taxpayer funds and harm its students in violation of Title IX,” Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary of the department’s Office for Civil Rights, said in a news release.
Denver Public Schools said it recently received the findings of the investigation and is “determining our next steps.”
The department's finding comes amid a push by President Trump’s Republican administration against policies that make allowances for transgender students, particularly athletes. Federal officials in June determined that California’s Department of Education violated civil rights law by allowing transgender girls to compete on girls sports teams.
Officials under Trump also have sued Maine over the participation of transgender athletes in girl’s sports and last month launched an investigation into Oregon’s Department of Education, following a complaint from a conservative group about transgender girls on girls sports teams.
Trump signed an executive order in February to block trans girls from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Supporters said the move restored fairness in athletic competitions, but opponents called it an attack on transgender youth.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
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