Five school districts were found in violation of Title IX civil rights law, the Education Department announced on Friday, because they continue to allow boys into girls’ private spaces like restrooms and locker rooms.
The Education Department launched an investigation into the districts — Alexandria City and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William — in February. Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said on Friday that all five were systematically “trampling on the rights of students in the service of an extreme political ideology.”
“Although this type of behavior was tolerated by the previous Administration, it’s time for Northern Virginia’s experiment with radical gender ideology and unlawful discrimination to come to an end,” Trainor said. “The Trump Administration will not sacrifice the safety, dignity, and innocence of America’s young women and girls at the altar of an anti-scientific illiberalism.”
As The Federalist reported, President Trump’s Department of Education launched the investigation after America First Legal (AFL) filed a formal complaint with the Education Department. The complaint exposed the five districts’ far-left proclivities and commitment to putting young girls in daily situations that range from uncomfortable to dangerous in order to serve their warped social experiment.
Some of the districts assert that a “gender identity” is an “internal sense of their own identity” that can “be the same or different from the sex they were assigned at birth.” That “identity” could change on a day-to-day basis, and one of the school districts allegedly allowed an adult male sex offender who claimed to be a female to expose himself to a 9-year-old girl in the girls’ locker room.
As is standard practice after finding an entity in violation of Title IX, the Education Department issued Resolution Agreements to the districts detailing how they can resolve their blatant discrimination.
The resolutions would require that the districts remove their policies allowing students to access private facilities on the basis of “gender identity,” as opposed to sex. It would also require that each district send notice to every school in their district that all future policies “must be consistent with Title IX by separating students strictly on the basis of sex, and that Title IX ensures women’s equal opportunity in any education program or activity including athletic programs.”
Finally, the resolution would require that the school districts recognize reality and “adopt biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ in all practices and policies relating to Title IX.”
Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) says it is reviewing the resolution, but appears to imply that the district is not in fact violating the law, even though it is putting young girls at risk every single day.
“PWCS remains firmly committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment for all students and staff. Our policies and practices are guided by our core values and by applicable federal and state laws,” PWCS said in a statement. “We continue to uphold our longstanding nondiscrimination policy, which prohibits discrimination in employment and in the provision of educational programs, services, and activities on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other protected characteristics.”
Regardless, the districts have 10 days to voluntarily agree to the resolutions, or “risk imminent enforcement action including referral to the U.S. Department of Justice.”
“We are grateful to the Department of Education and the Trump Administration for continuing to put safety first,” AFL Senior Counsel Ian Prior said. “It is unfortunate that it requires federal action and the threat of the loss of federal funding to get K-12 school districts to accept the biological reality that humans have known for centuries: boys are boys and girls are girls. AFL looks forward to continuing to stand for parents’ rights, student safety, and common sense.”
Breccan F. Thies is a correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.
