The Great Valley School District was slapped with a federal civil rights complaint over its policies that permit biological males to play in girls’ sports and use girls’ restrooms and locker rooms.
Former Great Valley School Board President Bruce Chambers filed the complaint with the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. Chambers says he warned district officials and the school board they were no longer in compliance with federal law under Title IX. In his complaint, he cited an executive order by President Donald Trump protecting girls’ and women’s sports.
“I sent three emails to the Great Valley School Board, citing these issues and asked when they would change their policy,” Chambers said. “They responded once, and stated that ‘At this time, our legal counsel has advised that our current policies are consistent with established legal precedent. We will continue to monitor any developments related to this issue to ensure that we remain compliant with the law.’”
When the district declined to act, Chambers did.
“Since it is apparent that the School Board is not changing their policies to be compliant, I am, therefore, requesting a full investigation of the Great Valley School District’s Policy 103.3 and its implementation in the School District,” Chambers said.
“The Great Valley School District violates Title IX by enforcing Policy 103.3 that will ‘ensure the safety, comfort, and healthy development of transgender and gender expansive students,’” according to the complaint.
Policy 103.3 reads in part:
“Students will be allowed to use the restroom that corresponds to the gender identity they consistently assert at school. The District will provide a transgender or gender expansive student with access to the locker room that corresponds to the gender identity they consistently assert at school. Transgender and gender expansive students shall be permitted to participate in athletic programs and classes in a manner consistent with their asserted gender identity.
“Transgender and gender expansive students will be allowed to participate in accordance with the gender identity they consistently assert at school.”
According to the complaint, “Policy 103.3 ‘provides these students with the ability to feel safe and comfortable using sex-segregated intimate restroom and locker room facilities as well as participating in physical education, sports and other school activities consistent with their ‘gender identity.’
“However, this policy is in violation of Title IX as it denies students whose ‘gender identity’ is the same as their sex the ability to feel safe and comfortable in the use of the sex-segregated common restrooms, locker rooms, and in their participation in sports, physical education classes, and other school activities.”
“The policy attempts to provide alternatives for students to use private restrooms or locker rooms, but this only provides greater rights to students whose gender identity does not match their biological sex than for those whose identity is the same as their sex,” the complaint said.
District spokeswoman Sharee McGibboney did not respond to a request for comment.
Chambers said the district’s policy amounts to “systemic discrimination.”
Furthermore, the district does not disclose a student’s preferred gender to their parents because it might violate their right to privacy.
“Transgender and gender expansive students have the right to discuss and express their gender identity and expression openly and to decide when, with whom, and how much to share. When contacting the parent/guardian of a transgender or gender expansive student, school personnel should use the student’s legal name and the pronoun corresponding to the student’s gender assigned at birth unless the student has specified otherwise,” the district’s policy states.
DVJournal has previously reported on Great Valley’s policy of hiding students’ behavior regarding sex and gender from their parents.
