Trans athletes, Title IX rule changes debated in House hearing
A house subcommittee listened to witnesses on the Biden’s proposed rule change to Title IX to include gender identity under sexual discrimination.
A July ruling by a federal judge in Kansas could block hundreds of schools in Pennsylvania from implementing new rules prohibiting sex-based discrimination taking effect this month.
The preliminary injunction issued near the end of last month blocks Title IX changes that were to begin on Aug. 1 in four states as well as thousands of public schools where Moms For Liberty and two other conservative groups claim children of their members attend.
Moms For Liberty submitted a list of about 118 schools in at least 50 school districts across Pennsylvania, including all seven schools in Central York, York County; all five schools of the Gettysburg Area School district, in Adams County; and five schools in the Pocono Mountain School District, Monroe County.
The Biden Administration issued a set of changes to the 1972 federal anti-discrimination law in April that included expanding the definition of sex-based discrimination to include discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, gender stereotypes and pregnancy.
One result of those expansions would mean that schools would have to allow transgender and gender non-conforming students to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity, the focus of a major culture war across Pennsylvania and the country.
The new rules incensed conservatives and far-right groups across the country, leading to multiple legal challenges and even legislative changes in some states.
Where are the impacted schools in Pa.?
Part of the ruling from U.S. District Court Judge John Broomes, appointed by former President Donald Trump, required Moms For Liberty, Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United to submit a list of where their members have children enrolled.
The injunction allowed for “current and prospective members” of Moms For Liberty to be included in the list.
In addition to Central York, Pocono Mountain and Gettysburg Area school districts, the injunction names almost one-hundred more schools and dozens of schools districts across the state.
Broomes had rejected an earlier request by Moms For Liberty to only submit a list of counties where members’ children attended school, but the judge also denied the U.S. Department of Education’s plea that the list be limited only to members who joined before July 2.
Wisconsin had 371 schools listed by Moms For Liberty in the injunction, the most of any state in the country. Pennsylvania’s 118 schools put the state fifth in the nation behind California (134 schools), Michigan (140 schools) and North Carolina (205 schools).
Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United also included about a dozen Pennsylvania schools also to be impacted by the injunction, but none were in Bucks County.
What does Title IX injunction mean for those schools?
The schools listed in court documents will likely have to follow Title IX rules prior to the Biden-era changes, but the injunction is limited to individual schools and not the entire district.
Some school districts have been working on adapting their policies since the new rules were announced in April, including the Pennridge School District in Bucks County.
In anticipation of the Title IX changes, Pennridge officials retired the district’s former bathroom and locker room policy in May. That policy restricted students and teachers from using a gendered facility that did not align with their sex assigned at birth, with transgender students having to use a “single user” bathroom.
District officials also gave a presentation on an administrative regulation specific to Pennridge High School at the same May meeting. The regulation provides multi-user facilities based on sex at birth and facilities based on gender identity.
Administrative regulations differ from district policies in that they can be applied to specific schools and don’t require approval by the school board.
Three of 11 Pennridge schools were listed in the recent injunction.
Superintendent Angelo Berrios said in a statement to the USA Today Network on Monday that the district continues working on administrative regulations to address bathroom access.
“Pennridge School District is reviewing the developments regarding the implementation of the recently amended Title IX regulations and consulting with its solicitor and the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. The District will follow applicable law,” Berrios stated Monday.
What happens next?
For the time being, only the schools listed by Moms For Liberty and other parties in the injunction are blocked from using the 2024 Title IX rules, but that list isn’t set in stone, according to attorney Bonnie Young, a partner with the legal firm Fox Rothschild.
In an email Tuesday morning, Young said that, while the Kansas injunction will only effect the schools currently listed, “it is worth noting that the plaintiffs can file supplemental lists in the future.”
Although only three school districts in Bucks County have been included so far, self-described members of the Bucks County chapter of Moms For Liberty members have been fixtures at school board meetings in Central Bucks — one of the state’s largest school districts — over the past two years.
“The (education department) stated that the 2024 Regulations are in effect in all other schools and states not covered by injunctions,” Young said. “Separately, the Pennsylvania Attorney General and Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission stated in a recent press release that ‘students in Pennsylvania are protected from discrimination…unless the schools are ‘in their nature distinctly private.’”
Young also noted recent press releases the offices of the state’s Attorney General and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission have said that “students in Pennsylvania are protected from discrimination” unless those schools are “in their nature distinctly private.”
With Title IX rules blocked at hundreds of colleges and thousands of schools across the country, a potential Supreme Court ruling could be on the horizon.
After a flurry of legal battles all over the country, the new Title IX rules are blocked entirely in Florida, Ohio and 24 other states. The list of schools provided by conservative groups in the Kansas injunction includes about 1,844 public schools in the states that haven’t blocked the changes.
The U.S. Department of Education urged the court to step in last month.to refine the scope of related court orders, restricting what’s in dispute to the rules that offer new protections for transgender students.
A complete list of Pennsylvania schools named in the injunction can be found in the table below.
Chris Ullery is the Philadelphia Hub Data Reporter for the USA Today Network. Reach him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter at @ulleryatinell.
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Publish date : 2024-08-08 22:06:00
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