Superintendent says DPS’s all-gender bathrooms don’t violate Title IX, vows to protect students from ‘hostile administration’

Denver Populace Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero issued a defiant message Friday in response to what he called the Trump administration s anti-trans agenda but stopped short of saying whether the district will comply with the federal cabinet s request to rid schools of gender-neutral bathrooms The Trump administration through the Department of Learning s Office for Civil Rights continues to push its anti-trans agenda through the weaponization of Title IX a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex Marrero explained in the message To our LGBTQ students families and supporters we see you and we will not stand for these attempts at your erasure he added We will protect all of our students from this hostile administration while we continue to raise the bar on achievement Marrero issued the message a day after the Office for Civil Rights declared that DPS had violated Title IX of the Teaching Amendments of and discriminated against girls by creating a gender-neutral bathroom at East High School and adopting a districtwide guidelines that allows students to use restrooms based on their gender identities The federal agency gave DPS days to agree to a proposed resolution which included the requirement that the district convert any all-gender restrooms back to single-sex facilities or danger an unspecified enforcement action While OCR s letter of findings declares that DPS violated Title IX they cite no binding authority that would make multi-stall all-gender restrooms unlawful Marrero explained in his comment Marrero did not say directly whether DPS will comply with the resolution proposed by the Office for Civil Rights Spokesman Scott Pribble revealed DPS leaders are still weighing our options when inquired if the district will convert all-gender bathrooms back into separate girl and boy facilities The superintendent also took the Office for Civil Rights to task for how the research was conducted claiming that the agency didn t visit the bathroom at East High or interview onlookers The department also declined DPS officers requests for conversation and mediation Marrero stated This is unprecedented behavior from an OCR we no longer recognize he declared The Office of Civil Rights began its analysis earlier this year after East High converted a girls bathroom into a multi-stall gender-neutral restroom In response to the inquiry DPS turned a boys bathroom into a second all-gender restroom this year Related Articles Trump administration says DPS violated Title IX with gender-neutral bathrooms Denver s East High converts boys bathroom to all-gender restroom amid Trump administration study Trump administration to investigate DPS for turning girls restroom into an all-gender bathroom The Office for Civil Rights noted in its comment Thursday that the new bathroom does not remedy its violation of Title IX because males are still allowed to invade sensitive female-only facilities The East High examination began soon after Trump was inaugurated to his second term his administration has repeatedly threatened to pull funding from K- school districts for what the federal regime calls discriminatory policies such as those that relate to gender identity the LGBTQ population and race DPS has also gone head-to-head with the Trump administration over the federal governing body s immigration practices with the district suing the U S Department of Homeland Shield in an effort to prevent arrests from occurring on school property The district dropped that lawsuit in June after a federal judge declined its request for a preliminary injunction to block immigration officers from going on school property Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter