Two organizations filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Illinois State Board of Education and the state’s largest school district over allegations that the academic institutions violated Title IX regulations.
The ISBE and Chicago Public Schools failed to comply with Title IX regulations prohibiting sexual discrimination in the education system on the basis of sex, according to a complaint filed Monday by the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies and the Liberty Justice Center.
The complaint claims Illinois has unlawfully adhered to an interpretation of Title IX that has expanded protections based on biological sex to include “gender identity,” leading to transgender students being allowed to frequent the same private spaces as members of the opposite biological sex.
“ISBE and CPS are carrying out a state law that conflicts with Title IX’s guarantees by forcing students to share intimate spaces like bathrooms with members of the opposite sex as a condition of accessing school programs and activities,” a press release announcing the civil rights complaint states.
The complaint comes after an Illinois mother expressed concern over policies established by the Deerfield School District that she said allowed biological males to be in vulnerable spaces with female students, including her 13-year-old daughter.
Nicole Georgas filed her own civil rights complaint with the Department of Justice over the matter, telling school board members last week that on Feb. 5, her daughter “was using the girls’ bathroom and was stunned that a biological male student was using it as well.”
“My daughter refused to take part in having her privacy being violated. How dare they! She ran out and called for me for help,” Georgas continued. “She was told by the administration that a student can use the bathroom as well as a female locker room because they now identify as female.”
When Georgas’ teenage daughter and other female middle-schoolers later refused to change into uniforms for physical education class because a transgender student was present, “[Assistant Superintendent for Student Services] Joanna Ford, [Assistant Principal] Cathy Van Treese, and multiple teachers all came into the girls’ locker room, making them change into uniform,” Georgas claimed, adding that “this went on for a week.”
Transgender rights advocates claim Georgas is just on a “mission for exclusion.”
“They just want to exclude a child based on the fact that they’re transgender. It really does not have anything to do with changing. This whole thing is a mission for exclusion,” Asher McMaher, executive director of Trans Upfront Illinois, told a local news outlet. “There has been no force of anything. The children have been given multiple options of other places they can get changed, including in a different restroom than the ones that are located inside the locker room. They just want the trans child to be excluded.”
During a legislative session Tuesday, Illinois Democratic state representative Bob Morgan claimed the middle schoolers who said they were uncomfortable sharing private spaces with the transgender student were lying about the situation, according to WFIN. The Deerfield school district denied that it forces students to undress in a set location, saying, “all students in the middle schools have multiple options to change in a private location if they wish.”
Deerfield School District put out a statement reiterating that they follow state guidance when it comes to the interpretation of Title IX and policies set regarding transgender students.
“Deerfield Public Schools District 109 complies with state law. The Illinois Human Rights Act prohibits all public school districts from discriminating on the basis of sex, including gender identity, and mandates that students must be permitted access to the locker room and bathroom that aligns with their gender identity,” the statement reads.
CALIFORNIA HIT WITH TITLE IX COMPLAINT FOR ‘GENDER IDENTITY’ STUDENT SLEEPING QUARTERS
The Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies and the Liberty Justice Center argued that the state should follow federal law and multiple court rulings that have overturned “unlawful redefinitions” of Title IX’s protections based on sex to include gender identity.
The two organizations filed a similar complaint against California earlier this month over transgender policies that allowed students to access private facilities based on gender identity rather than sex.
