Remember all the uproar during the Biden administration about their plan to change Title IX regulations in schools and colleges? The Biden Department of Education plotted to imperiously gut the meaning of “sex” in the original law and through administrative (not legislative) change, gender confused males would be considered fully female in discrimination claims.
In fact, anticipating this sleight of hand, school attorneys nationwide advised school staffs to go ahead and assume that federal Title IX discrimination covered incidents like refusing to let boys on female teams or not calling a trans male student by a female pronoun. That mythology is still operative in some school districts.
Mercifully, the Title IX makeover scheme ended when Trump took office and reclaimed the original Title IX meaning. He also issued an executive order banning male-to-female transgenders from being considered equivalent to biological females in federal law.
But are schools willing to follow this and other laws? Well, thanks to the organization Accuracy in Media, four school districts in Ohio have been sued under the original, authentic Title IX federal law. Accuracy in Media produced undercover videos released earlier this fall where actors posing as the relatives of new students at school asked whether these hypothetical male- to -female transgender children could join girls’ sports teams and use female bathrooms and locker rooms.
The video series has so far included six districts: Dayton, Princeton, Reading Community, Springfield, Three Rivers and Norwood. School staff were taped answering some version of yes, we would look the other way about the biological male student joining a girls’ athletic team. Several also indicated that these boys would be allowed into girls’ bathroom and locker rooms.
This would violate Ohio laws passed in 2024. One bans males from female sports’ teams and a second law bans males from female bathrooms and locker rooms.
In the wake of these videos, which have put the schools in an uproar, a group called Protect the Public’s Trust has sued the Norwood, Springfield, Princeton, and Reading Community school systems at the federal level, with complaints going to the Departments of Education, Justice, and HHS.
And they are bringing these suits under the original Title IX law, which bans discrimination against actual females in school programs.
How about that for turning the tables on progressive liberals who try to subvert and reinvent law wherever they can?
Here’s a statement from the first suit: “Forcing girls to view male genitalia and to be viewed by a male is sexually harassing. Even if undressing does not occur, placing girls in vulnerable and private positions where even partial undress occurs with biological males can lead to fear and discomfort for girls, which is also sexually harassing. This is especially problematic if the harassment leads to lost athletic opportunity or fear of participation due to feeling unsafe on the playing field or locker room.”
Of course, the schools pushed back against these undercover videos. Reading Community Schools told media that Accuracy in Media was "recklessly and irresponsibly" mischaracterizing a conversation with a district staff member and also stated that, “Reading Schools follows the laws and supports parental rights.”
Another recent undercover video exposed officials in the Dayton Schools. Superintendent Dr. David Lawrence denies that the school system is willing to break Ohio’s law on males being banned from female sports. He claims the video was “selectively edited.”
We are all supposed to deny what our eyes are seeing, apparently.
We reported earlier this year about the lawless attitude of Dr. Lawrence and the entire Dayton school board, refusing to sign a letter from Trump’s federal DOE asking for a commitment to refrain from discrimination. Meanwhile, Dayton schools have other problems, including a third grade reading proficiency of 40.6%.
Ohio News reported the reaction of Accuracy in Media’s President, Adam Guillette: “It speaks to the arrogance of these people that they think they can so easily break the law and never deal with any consequences. And our investigators, they’re not deep undercover for months on end, slowly earning their trust. They’re usually only in these district buildings briefly. So if you’re that comfortable bragging to someone about breaking the law when you met them four minutes ago, that speaks to how unaccountable they are, how confident they are, how much they feel like they can get away with.”
And these are just the schools we know about, friends.
In reaction to the videos, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sent a warning letter to the principal of Princeton High School.
Have these schools cleaned up their attitudes and actions? Are there others that we don’t yet know about willing to endanger our children and break Ohio and federal law?
This isn’t the first time Accuracy in Media has investigated Ohio schools. In 2023, two undercover videos in the Upper Arlington and Groveport Madison Schools revealed how school officials thought it was fine to deceive parents about critical race theory programs.
We owe a big thank-you to Accuracy in Media for helping us keep Ohio schools accountable and to Protect the Public’s Trust for filing these lawsuits.
