The Kennewick School District board filed a Title IX complaint, claiming the state’s ‘gender-inclusive’ law violates federal law.
Washington state is in violation of federal law that protects girls’ sports and private spaces, a local school board claimed in a Title IX complaint this week.
The Kennewick School District board of directors filed a Title IX complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights this week, claiming that state policies which allow “biological males to compete in girls’ sports and use female locker rooms directly violate federal law, undermine Title IX, and jeopardize critical federal funding.”
“The state’s reckless policies allow biological males to compete against female athletes, directly violating federal law, and stripping young women of the opportunity to compete on a fair playing field,” the Kennewick board said in a press release. “The consequences are undeniable: last year, a high school male athlete in Washington State stole the 2A girls’ state track title, unfairly altering the championship outcome and this athlete continues competing today.”
Kennewick filed the complaint against Washington State Superintendent Chris Reykdal, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. Since President Donald Trump passed an executive order in February that restricts biological males from participating in girls sports or entering private female spaces, Washington school boards have sought clarity on the conflict between federal guidance and state law, which mandates so-called “gender-inclusive” policies in schools.
“When Trump signed the executive order in February, we felt like that was a good time to really kind of start getting the ball rolling again on trying to get some clarification on the federal guidance and the state guidance, and push back,” Kennewick board president Gabe Galbraith told National Review. “We started working with a coalition of other schools in the state, trying to get everybody to do something within their local jurisdiction to push back. And we decided that a federal complaint was an actionable request.”
Washington State Superintendent Chris Reykdal, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association did not respond to requests for comment on the complaint.
Although it’s not uncommon for school boards to file complaints against a state, and vice versa, it is uncommon to see school districts in the deep-blue state of Washington reject state guidance on social issues. But Kennewick board members are willing to die on this hill, they told National Review.
“I can’t imagine if my daughter, at the state swim meet, finishes her swim and then gets up and goes to the lockers and there’s a guy standing in there, changing right next to her. That’s not okay,” Galbraith, the father of two daughters who competed in sports throughout high school, said. “What do you tell a kindergartner, if a fifth grade boy goes in the girls’ bathroom? That’s just not right and it’s not safe.”
Washington Democrats have all but dared the Trump administration to challenge the state’s inclusive policies. State Superintendent Reykdal said on February 6, one day after Trump signed his executive order protecting girls’ sports, that “our state law prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and we will not back down from that.”
“In another attempt to override the authority of states and local school districts, yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order that requires educational institutions to agree to discriminate against trans female athletes in order to continue receiving federal funds,” Reykdal said in a statement. “Through this order, the President attempts to restrict transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports with their peers and withhold federal funds from school districts that do not comply with these discriminatory actions.”
Reykdal also said in mid-February that because so few transgender athletes compete on girls’ sports teams, school districts should be able to “accommodate the needs of five or ten people.” Such accommodations, however, usually strip away protections from biological girls.
On February 6, for example, Frances Staudt, a 15-year-old female student athlete at Washington’s Tumwater School District, was warming up for her junior varsity basketball game. When she noticed a male player on the opposing team, Staudt asked her school’s principal and athletic director to either remove the male from the game, or cancel the game. Administrators refused. Staudt’s only option was to remove herself from the game.
“While watching the game from the sideline, Ms. Staudt became increasingly distraught by the threat she perceived to her teammates’ safety. She verbalized her concerns about a boy playing in a game that was meant for girls, and she continued requesting that the school officials remove the male or stop the game. They did not,” a federal complaint filed last month claimed. “Instead, TSD is now investigating Ms. Staudt for allegedly ‘misgendering’ the male player, purportedly in violation of TSD policies against bullying and harassment.”
Kennewick parents support the board’s decision. On a “visceral level,” board vice president Micah Valentine told National Review, “this feels wrong to almost everybody.” Board members have three concerns: safety, fairness, and protection, Valentine added. Washington officials seem to have a different priority: inclusivity.
“Chris Reykdal, our state, they have a radical gender ideology and a gender agenda that they are pushing down our throats,” Valentine said. “We are not playing politics. I would argue that we’re doing the opposite, that we’re trying to get politics and sexual ideology out of our schools.”