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Trump Administration threatened to impose sanctions on Denver Public Schools for use of "all-gender" restrooms

Last January, the Department of Education launched an investigation against Denver Public Schools over a case in which East High School converted a restroom that was originally designated for girls into a gender-neutral restroom.

The Department of Education building in Washington, DC.

The Department of Education building in Washington, DC.AFP

Published by
Luis Francisco Orozco

The U.S. Department of Education issued a communiquethis Thursday in which it threatened the state of Denver with sanctioning its public schools for their use of "all-gender" bathrooms. In the release, the department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) concluded that "Denver Public Schools (the District) violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) and its implementing regulations."

Elsewhere in the release, OCR explained having determined "that the District’s conversion of sex-separated multi-stall restrooms to ‘all-gender’ facilities and its policies contained in the ‘Denver Public Schools LGBTQ+ Toolkit,’ which allow students to use intimate facilities corresponding to their ‘gender identity’ rather than biological sex, violate Title IX’s prohibition against sex discrimination." The department's onslaught represents the latest action by the administration of President Donald Trump against the different permissibilities of some states regarding gender identity, thus fulfilling one of the Republican leader's promises during his presidential campaign.

The case took place at East High School.

Last January, the Department of Education launched an investigation against Denver Public Schools for a case in which East High School converted a bathroom that was originally designated for girls into a gender-neutral bathroom. The case generated outcry from several politicians and conservative groups who expressed outrage that the state of Denver was allowing that high school to use its girls' restroom on the basis of gender identity.

On that situation, OCR detailed in the release that it had submitted "a proposed Resolution Agreement" to Denver schools "to resolve their Title IX violations," which includes an obligation to "convert and redesignate all multi-stall restrooms for use by both sexes in any District school back to sex-designated multi-stall restroom." Also, OCR commented that it "has offered the District an opportunity to voluntarily agree within 10 days or risk imminent enforcement action."

Act of Discrimination

The Denver investigation, which began just days after Trump took office in January, was the department's first independently initiated civil rights investigation of the year. OCR commented at the time that the construction of the gender-neutral bathroom could represent a clear act of discrimination against female students at East High School, taking into account that such action left intact an all-male restroom, but not one that was all-female.

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