The Trump administration terminated resolution agreements aimed to protect transgender students’ civil rights with five school districts across the country and with California-based Taft College on April 6.
Sacramento City Unified School District and La Mesa-Spring Valley School District are two California districts with agreements that the Department of Education, or ED, terminated, alongside Taft College.
Las Positas College has no resolution agreement with the ED concerning the rights of transgender students.
The resolution agreements were brought by direct complaints to the ED Office for Civil Rights, and the ensuing investigations found that the districts and college had violated transgender students’s civil right to equal access under Title IX.
Title IX is the federal civil rights law protecting students from sex-based harassment and discrimination in educational programs receiving federal funds.
A resolution agreement with the ED OCR enforces federal law at an institutional scale. LPC is subject to federal enforcement measures. The college signed a similar OCR resolution agreement in 2018 concerning disability rights.
In the April 6 press release, the ED described the Obama and Biden administrations’s interpretation of Title IX to protect the civil rights for transgender students as “illegal and burdensome.”
In January, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14168, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order defines sex classification “at conception.”
The Pediatric Endocrine Society, a medical organization, questions that interpretation. The PES stated that “the proposed definitions of biological sex within the Executive Order should not and cannot apply to people born with biological conditions known as Differences of Sex Development.” DSD conditions are commonly referred to as intersex.
California Assembly Bill 1266, the “School Success and Opportunity Act,” requires schools to allow transgender students access to facilities and programs that align with their gender expression.
Taft College Interim Superintendent Leslie Minor told the Everett Post that “Taft College is in full compliance with OCR regulations, and no further action is required.”
District spokesperson Al Goldberg said Sacramento City Unified “remains committed to the support of (its) LGBTQ+ students and staff,” in an interview with the Sacramento Bee.
La Mesa-Spring Valley School District Superintendent David Feliciano told the La Mesa Courier, “(Their) read is that the (ED) is reversing their findings simply because the issue centered around gender identity.”
Las Positas provides LGBTQIA+ students with gender-neutral bathrooms, options to use chosen names and pronouns on Canvas, dedicated spaces and related academic studies.
“We work to ensure that every student, including transgender and gender-diverse students, has access to the support and resources needed. Our approach is guided by California law and district policies that emphasize nondiscrimination, respect and student well-being across our campus community,” LPC President Dyrell Foster said.
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TOP PHOTO: (Photo courtesy of Envato Elements)
Daniel High is a staff writer for The Express. Follow them on Instagram @danielhigh05.
