The Department of Education’s enforcement branch told Denver Public Schools that it would be investigating how the district installed all-gender restrooms in several school buildings.
In a letter to the DPS superintendent on Tuesday, the Office of Civil Rights said it would start a Title IX investigation over whether the school district discriminated against female students by turning a women’s restroom into an all-gender bathroom.
“OCR’s directed investigation will examine whether the District discriminates against students on the basis of sex by installing multi-stall all gender restrooms in District school facilities, in violation of Title IX and its implementing regulations,” the letter reads.
The investigation announcement, which does not indicate wrongdoing, marks another sea change from the Biden administration, which tried unsuccessfully to expand the definition of Title IX to include gender identity. A federal court struck down the rule change in the final days of the Biden administration.
Denver Public Schools did not comment in time for publication.
Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary of the Office of Civil Rights, said in a media release that DPS may have violated the law by changing a female bathroom in East High School to an all-gender one.
“The alarming report that the Denver Public Schools District denied female students a restroom comparable with their male counterparts appears to directly violate the civil rights of the District’s female students,” Trainor said.
“Let me be clear: It is a new day in America, and under President Trump, OCR will not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” Trainor added. “I have directed OCR’s Denver regional office to investigate this matter fully.”
The federal antidiscrimination statute Title IX dictates that recipients of federal funds “may provide separate toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex, but such facilities provided for students of one sex shall be comparable to such facilities provided for students of the other sex.”
Local news station 9NEWS reported the bathroom change came after the holiday break and was at the request of students, according to district spokesperson Scott Pribble.
“It was becoming a problem for kids that were trying to go to the bathroom during passing period,” Pribble told the station. “They were running out of time, being late to the next class because the one or two single stall bathrooms that they had to accommodate this just wasn’t enough for the need that was out there.”
The letter to the district cited a parent’s comments at a school board meeting criticizing the change, saying that the school had “sacrificed the comfort of these young females.”
