DENVER — Trump’s Department of Education ordered Denver Public Schools to revert all-gender restrooms to single-sex facilities or risk “enforcement action” after finding it discriminated against girls by creating all-gender bathrooms at East High School earlier this year.
The investigation, launched by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in January of this year, also took issue with a district-wide policy that allows students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
By converting a girl’s restroom to a gender-neutral facility and allowing students to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, the district is "creating a hostile environment for its students by endangering their safety, privacy, and dignity while denying them access to equal educational activities and opportunities,” said Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights in a statement Thursday.
“Denver is free to endorse a self-defeating gender ideology, but it is not free to accept federal taxpayer funds and harm its students in violation of Title IX,” Trainor added.
The federal government office gave Denver Public Schools 10 days to agree to a proposed resolution – which includes converting all-gender restrooms back to multi-stall, single-sex facilities and adopt “biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’” – or risk “imminent enforcement action.”
Per our partners at The Denver Post, DPS received as much as $96 million in federal grant funding for the 2024-25 school year.
Earlier this week, DPS spokesman Scott Pribble told Denver7 the district had recently converted a boy’s bathroom into an all-gender facility on the same floor where the girl’s bathroom was converted “to help address the notion of any unfairness or lack of parity across facilities” as a result of the federal government’s investigation earlier this year.
But an official with Office of Civil Rights said Thursday that converting the boy’s bathroom into a gender-neutral facility “does not remedy its violation of Title IX because males are still allowed to invade sensitive female-only facilities.”
In a statement Thursday, Pribble told Denver7 the district had just received the findings from the Office for Civil Rights and “is determining our next steps.”
Earlier this year, East High School officials said in a post on the school’s website that the all-gender bathroom that sparked the federal investigation was designed “for privacy, with 12-foot-tall partitions to ensure comfort and security.”
In the wake of the investigation, district officials told Denver7 in January that the bathroom was a result of a "student-led process that reflects our commitment to inclusivity and student voice, leadership, and empowerment, providing a welcoming space for all."
Thursday evening, Kim Salvaggio, CEO of The Center on Colfax issued the following statement to Denver7.
"Let’s be honest — gender neutral bathrooms hurt no one. Removing them from public spaces is dangerous and directly harms our transgender, nonbinary, and genderfluid community. The Center continues to stand for the human rights of youth in our community and advocate for their ability to live and move through the world without fear. I hope the individuals in power who are making these decisions will listen to the community and understand how decisions like this harm those who are already most vulnerable."
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