The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is investigating four Kansas school districts for permitting males into female’s private spaces and sports, and for hiding student’s sexual identity confusion from their parents.
The ED launched the investigation of Topeka Public Schools, Shawnee Public Schools, Olathe Public Schools, and Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (the Districts) on Thursday, August 14, after receiving a complaint from the Defense of Freedom Institute on June 24.
According to the complaint, the Districts authorize their employees “to conceal information from parents … regarding requests by their minor children to alter the names and pronouns used by staff to refer to them throughout the school day to align with their ‘gender identity’ rather than their biological sex.”
Additionally, the school districts allow students to participate in sports and access locker rooms based on their “gender identity,” meaning males can enter female-only spaces and participate in girls sports.
According to the Department of Education, such policies potentially violate Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
On the same day that the Defense of Freedom Institute filed its complaint, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent a letter urging the ED to review the schools’ policies which “actively undermine parental right and contravene federal law.”
He wrote,
The most important duty of K-12 schools is to keep the students in their care safe from harm during the school day.
Yet, schools across the country, including in the State of Kansas, are ignoring that fundamental obligation in the interest of promoting a virulent ideology that pushes children into a pipeline of “social transitioning” without notifying parents who might object to this process and its potentially lifelong consequences.
The attorney general explained that in December 2023, he sent letters to six Kansas school districts confronting them over policies requiring or allowing school staff to hide information about student’s “social transitioning” from their parents.
“Social transitioning” includes calling individuals by their “preferred name” and “preferred pronouns” rather than by their biologically correct name and pronouns.
“Four of the school districts … refused to change their policies. These four districts continue to either permit or require hiding information concerning the ‘social transitioning’ of children from their parents,” Kobach wrote.
Thankfully, the ED has quickly acted upon Defense of Freedom Institute’s complaint and Attorney General Kobach’s letter and is now investigating the school districts for their policies.
In a statement after the ED launched its investigation, Attorney General Kobach said,
Title IX was enacted to protect the rights of girls to equal educational opportunity and safety. Kansas had to sue and defeat the Biden Administration in federal court to stop them from dismantling Title IX. I am grateful that we now have a federal government that takes Title IX seriously and will ensure that school districts follow the law.
If the ED determines that Kansas violated Title IX and/or FERPA, it can demand the districts revise their policies to align them with federal law. Should the districts refuse, they risk losing federal funding.
“The Kansas districts’ alleged behavior of allowing gender ideology to run amok in their schools is an affront not only to the law, but to the sound judgment we expect from our educational leaders,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement announcing the investigation.
“School personnel should not confuse and unsettle young girls by forcing them to share sex-separated sports and intimate facilities with boys, nor should school personnel abuse their position of authority by hiding sensitive information pertaining to a child’s health and wellbeing from that child’s parents,” she added.
Secretary McMahon concluded,
From day one, the Trump Administration promised to protect students and parents by restoring Title IX and parental rights laws to the fullest extent of the law. My offices will vigorously investigate these matters to ensure these practices come to an end.
Parents have both the moral and legal right to direct the care, upbringing and education of their children. The Daily Citizen is grateful for the Department of Education’s vigilant and prompt action in protecting students and parental rights.
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