Feds investigating Wisconsin school district over transgender locker room incident
The Biden administration is investigating whether a Wisconsin school district failed to address allegations that a transgender student exposed biologically female students to male genitalia.
The incident allegedly occurred in the Sun Prairie Area School District in March. As by Crisis in the Classroom (CITC), four sophomore girls claim they were sexually harassed by the transgender student, who is biologically male, in a girls' locker room.
The transgender student allegedly told the four then-freshman students, "I'm trans, by the way," before fully undressing and showering in front of them. The biologically female students later said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate's actions.
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A filed in June by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) claims Sun Prairie failed to protect the five students in several ways, including by neglecting to implement policies pertaining to transgender students' use of facilities or to contact a Title IX officer after the alleged incident was reported. WILL also claimed at the time that Sun Prairie had failed to fulfill the legal group's open records requests regarding the alleged incident.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights agreed to investigate Sun Prairie's handling of the alleged incident Wednesday. In a shared by WILL, the department said it will determine whether the school district "responded to a report of sexual harassment consistent with the requirements of Title IX."
Attorneys with WILL applauded the development, saying families should "feel confident that their school is complying with" Title IX, something Sun Prairie parents currently cannot.
"By no means is what happened in Wisconsin an isolated incident," WILL Deputy Counsel Dan Lennington said. "When schools fail to act in accordance with the law and either ignore or disregard their own policies, parents have a right to fight back."
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Sun Prairie previously told CITC it would not be commenting on the details of the alleged incident. The school district instead shared a letter written to families with CITC, which stated district leadership "addressed this incident when it was brought to our attention" and that "steps have been taken to ensure that it does not recur."
CITC reached out to both Sun Prairie and the Department of Education for comment on the federal investigation, but did not immediately receive responses.
The Title IX enforcement concerns come as the Biden administration is weighing a rewrite of the regulation. Last summer, the Department of Education proposed, among other things, redefining "sex discrimination" to include "discrimination on the basis of gender identity."
The proposals have yet to be finalized. Earlier this month, House Republicans launched an to determine whether outside groups influenced the Biden administration's decision to place an emphasis on gender identity.
Have something for the team to investigate? Call or text the national tip line at 202-417-7273.
