Education Department Probe Finds 5 Virginia School Districts Violated Title IX

Five school districts in Northern Virginia have violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by allowing students to access “intimate, sex-segregated facilities based on the students’ subjective ‘gender identity,’” the Department of Education said in a July 25 statement.

Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities that receive federal funding.

In February, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), a sub-agency of the Department of Education, opened a Title IX investigation into five Northern Virginia school districts—Alexandria City Public Schools, Arlington Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, Loudoun County Public Schools, and Prince William County Public Schools.

The probe was initiated following complaints that the school districts’ policies regarding “transgender-identifying” students violated sex-based protections guaranteed under Title IX.

There have been reports and lawsuits alleging that students avoided using school restrooms because of the schools’ policies, according to the statement. Female students have reportedly seen male students “inappropriately touching other students and watching female students change in a female locker room.”

The OCR investigation discovered that the school districts trampled on students’ rights “in the service of an extreme political ideology,” according to Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

“The Trump Administration will not sacrifice the safety, dignity, and innocence of America’s young women and girls at the altar of an anti-scientific illiberalism,” Trainor said.

“It’s time for Northern Virginia’s experiment with radical gender ideology and unlawful discrimination to come to an end.”

The OCR has given the school districts an opportunity to resolve the Title IX violations within 10 days to avoid enforcement action and referral to the Department of Justice.

Under the agreement, school districts must rescind all policies and regulations that have enabled students’ access to intimate facilities based on their “gender identity” rather than sex. They also have to adopt definitions of “male” and “female” that are based on biology.

The Epoch Times reached out to the five school districts for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.

Title IX protection typically covers most school districts, colleges, and universities in the United States as it applies to educational institutions receiving federal financial assistance. The Department of Education had designated June as “Title IX Month.”

Only private schools not receiving federal funding are not covered. Title IX exemptions are also granted to institutions in certain situations, such as for religious purposes.

Investigations into Title IX violations follow President Donald Trump’s signing of a Jan. 20 executive order rescinding several gender policies.

“Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being. The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system,” the order reads.

“Invalidating the true and biological category of ‘woman’ improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them.”

The OCR is also probing other sex-based policy violations in the U.S. education sector.

On July 25, the OCR opened an investigation into the Oregon Department of Education over allegations that its policies allowed males to take part in female sporting events.

The investigation was opened on the basis of a complaint filed by the nonprofit America First Policy Institute.